Greg Luce: Celebrating Nature, Birds and Jazz in Verse

Born in Dallas, Texas, and living in the Washington, DC area since 1980, Gregory Luce recently retired from the National Geographic Society. He has written poetry his whole life; his books include Drinking Weather, Signs of Small Grace, Memory and Desire, and most recently Tile. Alongside nature, jazz is among his favorite topics and he has begun a series of essays on the connections between poetry and music. Luce is the father of two sons and an obsessive bird watcher.

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Poetry & Planet is produced by Ethan Goffman.  Maurice Kenny’s “Listening for the Elders” and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “The Ninth Duino Elegy,” excerpts, are read by R. Michael Oliver.  Musical excerpts from “Elements of Life” and “Earth Revisited” are written and performed by Reginald Cyntje, with vocals by Christie Dashiell.  Aural interludes are by Douglas Harvey.

The opening poetry chorus is voiced by Jomo K. Johnson, Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, Marianne Szlyk, and R. Michael Oliver. The poem “Listening for the Elders,” by Maurice Kenny, is courtesy of White Pine Press and is available in Carving Hawk: New and Selected Poems 1956-2000.