Tomatoes, with Katrina Vandenberg

Send us Fan MailIt's election day here in the U.S., and I am intent on following through with love as action, hope as action. That's why it seems fitting that today's offering is by one of my favorite poets and favorite humans. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Words Whispered to a Child Under Siege, by Joseph Fasano, is featured here with kind permission of the poet.  I encourage you to check out more of his work at josephfasano.net or on Instagram.

Send us Fan MailAre you, like me, unfamiliar with some of the most hallowed poetry names in the English-speaking world? Fear not, for my trusty co-host Paco and I are here with a poem by William Wordsworth. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (excerpt), is by William Wordsworth and is in the public domain. 

Send us Fan MailIs there a fast food place, or a road trip place, that you think of with love and fondness and maybe a little nostalgia? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Rebecca Bornstein's beautiful poem Love Poem to Taco Bell is read with her kind permission. I encourage you all to look up more of her work. 

Send us Fan MailThese six love songs, in the form of little poems, enchant me with their freedom and flights of fancy. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poems, Six Love Songs, are by Edward Powys Mathers and are in the public domain. 

Send us Fan MailDo you ever look up on a dark night and wonder what's beyond? Beyond the even lines of Starlink satellites marching their way across the sky, beyond the planes arcing from coast to coast, beyond the stars and the moons? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Ada Limón's beautiful poem In Praise of Mystery: a poem for Europa is read with permission. I encourage you all to look up Ada Limón's work, as she is one of my and our country’s most beloved poets. 

Send us Fan MailWhen I read this poem I thought of the military vets I know, and the invisible/visible scars they carry with them through life. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, 1915, is by Robert Graves and is in the public domain. 

Send us Fan MailIt's my birthday today, my first without my mother, and even though it's ridiculous to feel like an orphan at my advanced age, that's how I feel. This poem feels like just the right one for today.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s beautiful poem When Bert Sends Me an Mp4 is read with her kind permission. I encourage you all to look up more of her work at wordwoman.com. 

Send us Fan MailRemember a ritual you did, daily even, in the wake of a loss? A ritual you might not have realized was a way to get you through to the other side? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Katrina Vandenberg’s beautiful poem Tomatoes is read with her kind permission. I encourage you all to look up more of her work. Tomatoes was first published in 2026 on Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets. 

Send us Fan MailI've loved ee cummings my entire life, and never once saw his formal name-Edward Estlin Cummings--spelled out in his byline. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, "love is more thicker than forget," by ee cummings, is in the public domain.  Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

Send us Fan MailDo you ever picture the faces of the people you most love, and feel a kind of ease and comfort wash through you? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, Poem, by Langston Hughes, is in the public domain.  Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected].