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Joseph Fasano is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, working with Mark Strand, Lucie Brock-Broido, Richard Howard, and others. His "Poetry Prompts," originally designed to help children create, have spread around the world, helping millions of people of all ages find their voices through the craft and magic of poetry. Fasano is the author of two novels: The Swallows of Lunetto (2022) and The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry are The Last Song of the World (2024); The Crossing (2018); Vincent (2015); Inheritance (2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; Fugue for Other Hands (2013), which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize. A winner of the RATTLE Poetry Prize, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series, a digital space offering recitations of listeners' favorite poems by request. His writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, and other publications. It has been widely anthologized and translated into many languages, including Spanish, Swedish, Lithuanian, Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian. He is also a songwriter, and his debut album, The Wind That Knows The Way, is available wherever music is sold or streamed. He can be followed on Instagram at @joseph.fasano.
instagram.comPoetry is the art of overhearing ourselves say things from which it is impossible to retreat. A true line acts like a lightning rod in a storm.
David Whyte • The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America
I understood immediately that certain things—attention, great energy, total concentration, tenderness, risk, beauty—were elements of poetry. And I understood that these elements did not grow as grass grows from a seed, naturally and unstoppably, but rather were somehow gathered and discovered by the poet, and placed inside the poem. —Mary Oliver
Bill Morgan • The Meditator's Dilemma: An Innovative Approach to Overcoming Obstacles and Revitalizing Your Practice
You can’t tell when strange things with meaning... See more
will happen. I’m [still] here writing it down
just the way it was. “You don’t have to
prove anything,” my mother said. “Just be ready
for what God sends.” I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again.
Maria Popova • Yes: William Stafford’s Poetic Calibration of Perspective
The last few poetry books that I read that will stay with me: The Choreic Period by Latif Askia Ba, The Rose by Ariana Reines, The Haunting by Cate Peebles, The Verse For Now by Jacqueline Suskin and I Don’t Want to Be Understood by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.
And here are a few books that I return to again and again: Haiku: The Last Poems of an
... See moreShōyō Rōku says, “On the withered tree, a flower blooms.”
Charlotte J. Beck • Everyday Zen: Love and Work (Plus)
“WRITING POETRY IS an unnatural act,” Elizabeth Bishop once wrote. “It takes skill to make it seem natural.”
Teju Cole • Known and Strange Things
The live bough bends. The dead twig snaps.
Mark Nepo
I then realized that to search for the so-called Zen mystery in every haiku is a mistake and to do so takes away the depth of their personal flavor and ordinary mind context.