On a long walk, I realized that my life is like a poem in another way, too: My life, like a poem, is small and enormous. Let me explain. In a poem, counterintuitively, compression creates expansion.

My guest this week on Poetry from Daily Life is Sylvia M. Vardell, who lives in Dallas, Texas. When asked how she became interested in poetry, Sylvia says, “My parents are German immigrants and ...

They’re the scenery of his life; they’re what he uses to ground and animate poems. Image The work in “Cemeteries and Galaxies” is long-lined, brooding and sometimes wistful.