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I am so lucky to get the chance to do this. Some of the poets I've been talking with are artists I'm honored to be meeting for the first time. But today, I get to read poems with a BFF who I've known for almost thirty years. Please enjoy this poetry chat with my dear friend Joel Showalter.

Poem 1

“In the Nursing Home,” by Joel Showalter, read by David, as published in December magazine, Volume 31, spring/summer, 2020.

Poem 2

“Steam,” by Joel Showalter, read by Joel, as published in Mud Season Review, Volume 3, 2017

Poem 3

“Monet Refuses the Operation,” by poet Lisel Mueller. From the collection, Second Language: Poems, published Louisiana State University Press, 1986 and used with permission of the publisher.

Joel's Bio:

Joel Showalter received his bachelor’s degree in English and writing from Indiana Wesleyan University. His work has been published in The Carolina Quarterly, December, Delmarva Review, Mud Season Review, and The Christian Century. He works as editorial director at a marketing agency in Columbus, Ohio.

David has a delightful conversation with Jehanne Dubrow about her latest books, a poetry collection entitled Civilians and a craft resource called The Wounded Line: A Guide to Writing Poems of Trauma.

Poem One: “My Husband’s Father” From Civilians Louisiana State University Press, 2025, read by David

Poem Two: “Civilians,” a villanelle, one of the title poems of the book, read by Jehanne

Poem Three: “Self Portrait as a Psychopomp,” read here by Jehanne. Written by Lindsay Lusby as it appears in The Wounded Line: A guide to Writing Poems of Trauma (University of Mexico Press, 2025), used by permission of the author and the poet.

Links:

The poem “Civillian.”

Lindsay Lusby's website.

To order Jehanne’s books click here.

Jehanne's Bio:

Jehanne Dubrow is the author of ten books of poems, including most recently, Civilians (Louisiana State University Press, 2025), and three books of creative nonfiction, throughsmoke: an essay in notes (New Rivers Press, 2019), Taste: A Book of Small Bites (Columbia University Press, 2022), and Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity (University of New Mexico Press, 2023). Her previous poetry collections are Wild Kingdom, Simple Machines, American Samizdat, Dots & Dashes, The Arranged Marriage, Red Army Red, Stateside, From the Fever-World, and The Hardship Post. She has co-edited two anthologies, The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume and Still Life with Poem: Contemporary Natures Mortes in Verse. Her craft book, The Wounded Line: A Guide to Writing Poems of Trauma, was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2025. Jehanne’s fourth book of creative nonfiction, Frivolity: A Defense, is forthcoming from Columbia University Press.

Jehanne’s poems have appeared in POETRY, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, American Life in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, The Academy of American Poets, as well as on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and in numerous other venues. Recent essays have appeared in The New England Review, Colorado Review, Lilith, The Writer’s Chronicle, Poets & Writers, and Literary Hub. She is the founding editor of the national literary journal, Cherry Tree.

For more about Jehanne and her work, click here.

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Poet, educator and editor Jerry Wemple is David's featured guest on this episode of In Three Poems.

Poem 1: "A Flower Rests," read by David.

Poem 2: "Colored," read by Jerry.

Poem 3: "The Day Lady Died," by Frank O’Hara, also read by Jerry.

"The Day Lady Died" by Frank O'Hara was published in Lunch Poems (City Lights, 1964). Red by permission, thanks to Frederick T. Courtright

Jerry's Bio:

Jerry Wemple is an award-winning poet and prose writer who has published four poetry collections, most recently We Always Wondered What Became of You from Broadstone Books. His collection Artemas and Ark: the Ridge and Valley Poems chronicles the lives of two generations living in a small town in the central Susquehanna Valley. He is co-editor, with Marjorie Maddox, of the recently published anthology Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, and its predecessor, Common Wealth. Both published by Penn State Press. He also co-edited the anthology Rivers, Ridges, and Valleys: Essays on Rural Pennsylvania., released earlier this year by Catamount Press.

Links:

https://www.jerrywemple.com/

We Always Wondered What Became of You, from Broadstone Books

Artemas & Ark: The Ridge and Valley Poems, Finishing Line Press

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