We had such a lovely discussion about poems by Jeff Walt, Abby E. Murray, Tommye Blount, and C. Dale Young—all past poets of Desert Rat Writing Residency in Palm Desert (run and founded by wonderful Jeff Walt!)

Click on the image above to watch our conversation on YouTube above and make sure you subscribe to Poems You Need series so you never miss an episode! Also, during our Desert Rat episode, we somehow managed to read only half of C. Dale's poem (oops!). Thankfully, C. Dale was incredibly gracious about our mistake, and you can read the complete poem here.

Several of you asked the best ways to support Poems You Need and well, that’s easy—

• Subscribe to our YouTube station here.

• Follow us and reshare on Instagram here.

• Like our videos on YouTube (apparently, that little “thumbs up” sign is important to helping others find our poets).

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Adrian Matejka was also recently featured!

And if you want two more poems to fill you up today, do check out our discussion about Adrian Matejka’s stunning poems from his new collection Be Easy on YouTube!

We hope these little conversations of poetry give you a little boost of joy today. Thanks for listening, watching, and/or just being here.

With gratitude for this community and for the poets who inspire us every day,

Melissa & Kelli

Poems You Need is created and hosted by Melissa Studdard and Kelli Russell Agodon—two poets who believe poems can steady us and occasionally save the day. We read the poems we love, talk craft, share prompts, even laugh a little all while trying to build a little corner of the internet where poetry matters.

If you’d like to spend more time with our own poems beyond the screen, we’d love that:

Click on these links to find Melissa Studdard’s recent works: Siddhartha, She: A Ritual Music Drama in Seven Tableaux (libretto), Selection Committee, and Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings.

Kelli Russell Agodon’s newest poetry collection is out! You can order your copy of Accidental Devotions here.

Thank you for reading, listening, and keeping poetry in your life.

This post is public so feel free to share it for anyone you think could use some poetry in their lives.

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Also, we know your time is gold, so we wanted to offer an idea: slip on your headphones and let Poems You Need keep you company while you walk the dog, fold the sheets, or do any favorite or unfavorite chore.

Yes, we live on YouTube. But this is not a “you must sit and stare at us” situation. You absolutely do not have to watch us—think of it as poetry radio. Unless, of course, you enjoy seeing just how passionately we gesture about line breaks. (Spoiler: very.) 😉

And we’d love it if you subscribed to our YouTube station here, where you can get all of our episodes.

Also, we’ve started trying to add a writing prompt (or two!) inspired by the poems we share. Because sometimes the best way to get back to writing is to listen to poems being read. If you’re a prompt-lover like we are, maybe someone else’s lines will plant a seed for your own. We kind of think of it as creative compost—what we read becomes what you grow.

And here are a few recent conversations about poets you may have missed. We hope you step to listen when you have a minute.

You can watch or listen by clicking on a poet’s name: Heidi Seaborn, Luisa A. Igloria, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Nathalie Handal, Lois P. Jones, KB Brookins, Cornelius Eady, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Stephanie Burt, Martha Silano, and many many more!

We hope this little valentine of poetry to you gives you a little boost of joy in a world that sometimes does not. We’re glad you’re here with us.

With gratitude for this community and for the poets who inspire us every day,

Melissa & Kelli

Poems You Need is created and hosted by Melissa Studdard and Kelli Russell Agodon—two poets who believe poems can steady us and occasionally save the day. We read the poems we love, talk craft, share prompts, even laugh a little all while trying to build a little corner of the internet where poetry matters.

If you’d like to spend more time with our own poems beyond the screen, we’d love that:

Click on these links to find Melissa Studdard’s recent works: Siddhartha, She: A Ritual Music Drama in Seven Tableaux (libretto), Selection Committee, and Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings.

You can preorder a signed/inscribed copy of Kelli Russell Agodon’s upcoming poetry collection, Accidental Devotions here and you can find Dialogues with Rising Tides here.

Thank you for reading, listening, and keeping poetry in your life.

We’re also heartbroken to share that the wonderful Martha Silano, whose work we shared for Episode 18, died on May 5, 2025, after an 18-month battle with ALS. We’re including her episode as well here so you can revisit her words and our love for her and her poems. Marty’s next book Terminal Surreal will come out on September 2—what would have been her 64th birthday from the University of Chicago Press. You can preorder that here.

We’re so grateful to have you in our Poems You Need community. As we reflect on Marty Silano’s life and celebrate the energy of KB Brookins’s poems, we’re reminded how deeply words—and the people who write them—can shape us. If a poet’s work has moved you, we hope you’ll reach out—with a note, an email, or a few kind words online. Let them know. We’re not here forever, but connection is—and sometimes, a single message can stay with someone for a lifetime.

And if you have a moment, we’d be so grateful if you could visit our Poems You Need YouTube page and hit Subscribe—it helps us keep bringing you the poetry and conversations you love.

With gratitude for this community and for the poets who inspire us every day,

Melissa & Kelli

Thank you for watching, subscribing, and well, just being here. Here’s our two featured poets Stephanie Burt & Martha Silano (Episodes 19 & 18):

Poems by Stephanie Burt:

Poems shared: "Prayer for Werewolves" and "At the Parkway Deli” from We Are Mermaids (Graywolf Press) by Stephanie Burt.

Poems by Marty Silano:

Poems shared: "When We Say It's the Little Things" and "If We Were Not So Single Minded" from This One We Call Ours (Lynx House Press) by Martha Silano.

With love, light, and poetry,

Melissa & Kelli

Cofounders of Poems You Need Poetry Series

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Kelli was fortunate to first encounter Rick’s poem “Pleasure,” the opening poem of his new collection Moving the Bones while teaching at the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University's low-res MFA Program where Rick is the director. The moment she heard it, she knew she wanted to share it with our Poems You Need community. Meanwhile, Melissa was drawn to the title poem, “Moving the Bones.” Together, these poems not only showcase Rick's skillful craftsmanship but also his versatility as a poet—each poem is distinct in its own way, yet both are grounded in his engaging voice.

And here’s a little behind-the-scenes moment for you—

We filmed this episode right after teaching poetry to composers at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. Recording from our Airbnb condo, we took advantage of the warm weather by leaving the wall-sized window open, which overlooked a bustling walkway. With several families nearby, we tried to stay focused despite the lively sounds outside. But around the 10:20 mark in the video, you’ll see Kelli mid-sentence, glancing to her left as she couldn’t help but notice a cheerful young boy who, after hearing us recording, struck a funny pose through the window to get our attention—which he did!

We chose to keep this moment in because one of our goals with this series is to keep it real. In a world where so much is filtered and staged, we love embracing these spontaneous moments that bring a bit of outside joy and laughter into our discussion of Rick’s beautiful poems.

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For all of you who love Poems You Need and want to help us continue sharing the voices of poets we admire, we’re excited to announce that we’ve launched a Patreon page! You can join for free to stay up-to-date with our episodes, or become a Patreon member for exclusive perks like free books from our featured poets, behind-the-scenes blooper reels, raffles, Zoom events, and even the opportunity to choose our next poet and/or co-host an episode with us! Your support helps us keep the poetry we love thriving in the world.

And of course, the easiest way not to miss an episode of Poems You Need is on YouTube—and you can subscribe to that here, just hit the “Subscribe” button.

Thank you all for being part of lives and community. And please feel free to share this email with any poets you think need a poem in their life today.

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We appreciate you. With love, light, and poetry,

Melissa & Kelli

We are thrilled to share this newest episode of Poems You Need that we filmed at Holiday House in Palm Springs, California, featuring the poems of Blas Falconer.

You can watch us read Blas’ poems poolside by clicking here!

And after you watch, we'd love for you to SUBSCRIBE to Poems You Need on YouTube by clicking here and pressing the subscribe button.

From our Poems You Need YouTube Station, you can watch all of our videos, which include poems from Major Jackson, Diane Seuss, January Gill O’Neil, Oliver de la Paz, Kai Coggin, Patricia Spears Jones, Jennifer Jean, Diane Pamela Uschuk, and Ruben Quesada.

We hope you enjoy these new episodes of Poems You Need below. Thanks for watching!

peace, love, and poetry,

Melissa & Kelli

P.S. We also wanted to invite you to an evening of poetry and discussion with us where we’ll read collaborative poems and talk about a bit about how we write them. Join us on Zoom Tuesday, May 21 · 4:30 - 5:30pm PDT.

Click here to get your free tickets on EventBrite to reserve your spot for our poetry reading May 21!

Poems You Need: https://www.youtube.com/@PoemsYouNeed
And on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poems.you.need/

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We wanted to share with you that we’ve started a new video poetry series called Poems You Need. Twice a month, we share and discuss two poems by one poet.

Our hope is to continually share poems so you can find the poets and poems that inspire and sustain you. If you could take 10 seconds to click this link to go to our YouTube station to subscribe, we’d love that.

While you’re there, check out our first few episodes, featuring Major Jackson, January Gill O’Neil, Oliver de la Paz, Kai Coggin, Patricia Spears Jones, Jennifer Jean, and Ruben Quesada.

We’ve also included a few favorite quotes from episodes below.

Wishing you peace, love, & poem-filled days,

Melissa Studdard & Kelli Russell Agodon