Poets on the Plains

Hello, I’m Juan J. Morales, an assistant professor of English at Colorado College and a poet that lives in Pueblo, Colorado, here for Poets on the Plains. Today I am sharing my poem, “Visiting Your Grave,” from my latest collection, Dream of the Bird Tattoo, which was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2025.

My name is Jewel Rodgers and I am your state Poet of Nebraska and I am going to read my poem Bloom for you. I wrote this poem with the intention of keeping it grounded in very concrete items—hibiscus, rose, agave, domino tables, spades, soup kitchens, city halls. I wanted it to move from the intimacy of tending to oneself to tending to an entire community.

Hi, I’m Janice Northerns, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas, for Poets on the Plains. I am honored to share one of my own poems with you today: Pilgrimage with Grandchildren, which was published in 2023 in KANSAS!, (that’s Kansas with an exclamation mark), our state’s gorgeous travel magazine.

Hi, I’m Shelley Armitage here for Poets on the Plains. I’m an emerita professor and writer who grew up in the small ranching and farming community of Vega, Texas west of Amarillo. Today I’d like to share a few ideas and a poem with you. Writing about and living on the plains are dear to my heart.

Hi, I’m Matt Mason, I was the State Poet of Nebraska between 2019 and the end of 2024, and I am here for Poets on the Plains. Today, I’m reading and talking about Nebraska poet Clif Mason’s poem “Texts from the Dead.”

These two short poems share a common theme of silence, they suggest a truth beyond words. Something beyond reason. Both poems are short and precise in their structure and are economical in their word choice, their structure and composition reinforcing their theme of something beyond words.

Hi, I’m Wayne Miller. I’m a poet who lives in Denver, Colorado, and I’m here for Poets on the Plains. Today I’m going to read a poem by the poet Emily Pérez. Pérez grew up in Weslaco, Texas, just a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. She studied at Stanford and the University of Houston before settling in Denver, where she works as a high school teacher and grade-level dean and lives with her husband and their two boys.

Hi, I’m Traci Brimhall, Poet Laureate of Kansas, here for Poets on the Plains. Today, I’m delighted to share a poem by the Poet Laureate before me, Huascar Medina.

Hi. I’m Chera Hammons, a poet from Amarillo, Texas, here for Poets on the Plains. It’s a beautiful morning and the birds are singing. The wind is blowing, too, as it nearly always does across the Llano Estacado. Today, I’ll be sharing a poem about wind written by someone who knows it well: Lubbock, Texas-based poet Curtis Bauer.

Hi, my name is Matt Mason, I’m the State Poet of Nebraska, here for Poets on the Plains. Today, I want to read you Nebraska poet Zedeka Poindexter’s poem “Peach Cobbler.”