Perry Nicholas: National Poetry Month 2026

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This National Poetry Month 2026 bonus episode features Perry Nicholas reading his poem “I’ve Forgotten the Moon” from his newest book, Island of Your Heart. Perry S. Nicholas is a professor emeritus of English at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was awarded the 2008 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities and the 2011 President’s Award for Classroom Instruction. He received the SGA’s Outstanding Teacher Award on two occasions. He has been a guest lecturer at Daemen College, Villa Maria College,  Buffalo State College, Niagara County Community College, Medaille College, and at New York College in Athens, Greece. Perry has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. His poems have appeared in Common Ground Review, Literary House Review, Caesura, Word Worth, Silver Birch Press, Snapdragon, Verse-Virtual, Slant, Feile-Festa, Louisiana Literature, Chautauqua Literary Journal, Chest, The Healing Muse,  New York Quarterly, Great Lakes Review, Chronogram, and AHI.  His poems have appeared on  over twenty occasions in the Buffalo News. He has published approximately 200 poems in print and online. They also appear in the anthologies Right Here, Right Now, Resurrection of a Sunflower, Flash in the Dark and A Celebration of Western New York Poets. In February, 2013, Perry judged the Just Buffalo Annual Poetry Contest and the New York Poetry Out Loud competition at SUNY Erie. In 2013, he read in Greenwich Village's Cornelia Cafe in NYC. In 2016, he was featured at the well-known Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In 2017, he directed the Writers Workshop for Just Buffalo. He has edited local anthologies and written many book reviews for fellow poets.  His first full-length book, The River of You, was published in September 2009 by FootHills Publishing. His second book of poetry, What the World Sees, was published by Saddle Road Press in July 2011. His third book, Small Crafts, was published by The Writer’s Den in March, 2012, and Perry's fourth book, Beginnings: Poems to Greece and Back, was released in early December, 2012. Perry has put out five chapbooks, Ancient History, in 2013 , Like Trying to Explain, in 2014, Emergency Visit in 2015, The Poet Upstairs in 2017 and Laundry  in 2018. His poem "The Last Night We Heard Bob Dylan Play" was nominated for the Best of the Net in 2018.  Perry's book, Why I Learned to Spell was  published by The Writer's Den in 2019 and his newest book, as a man in the moon, was published by The Writer's Den in 2020.  His new chapbbook The Unveiling was published by Finishing Line Press in 2024. Perry Nicholas has co-hosted the Lewiston Arts Café in Lewiston, NY, the Screening Room Poetry Series, Empire State College's Poetry Series,  the Center for Inquiry Poetry Series, the Buffalo Corner Series, and international readings at the Italian Cultural Center. Perry has read his poetry in Schenectady, New Paltz, Albany, Plymouth,  Woodstock, Saratoga Springs, NYC, N.Y., Athens, Greece, and most-recently via Zoom for Stockbridge, MA and Queens College Libraries.  Learn more at www.perrynicholas.com/ This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Get in touch with us at: [email protected]