Ed Block spent 35 years as a professor of English at Marquette University. But during those years he wasn't just writing academic papers and analyzing other people's writing. Block was always working with his own creative inspirations.
Last January, he published his first book of poems, Anno Domini. That collection had a very clear religious emphasis - each poem reflected on a point during the liturgical day. And now Block has released his second collection, called Seasons of Change. It is decidedly secular in tone and subject, but like its predecessor it uses the passage of time as a way to explore the world.
Block will read from his new collection Thursday night at Woodland Pattern Book Center, but first, he stopped by Lake Effect to talk with Bonnie North and read a selection of poems.
He starts by reading Spring Migration, for Ted Kooser:
Block also read My Ladder, Morning in the Country, In the Keys with Maggie, Cinzano White and Red, and Red Spotted Purple.