Abram Van Engen

Episode 68: W.S. Merwin, To the New Year

January 18th, 2024  |  Season 6  |  22 mins 48 secs

21st century, free verse, hope, nature poetry, new year’s day, ode, poet laureate, spirituality, surprise, winter, wonder

In the first episode of 2024, we read one of the great poets of the past century, W.S. Merwin, and his address to the new year, considering his attentiveness, his style, and his wondrous mood and mode of contemplation and surprise.

Episode 67: Alex Dimitrov, Winter Solstice

December 18th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  24 mins 27 secs

21st century, city, free verse, hope, intimacy, lgbtqia month, loneliness, night, winter

In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year.

Episode 66: Katy Didden, The Priest Questions the Lava

November 21st, 2023  |  Season 6  |  26 mins 10 secs

21st century, christianity, climate change, erasure, grief and loss, guest on the show, nature poetry, spirituality, visual poetry, word and image

In our discussion of "The Priest Questions the Lava," Katy describes her interest in the sentience of the natural world, her erasure of documentary texts, her interest in visual poetry, and the importance of poems that examine ethical and spiritual questions in an era of climate change.

Episode 65: Du Fu, Facing Snow

October 19th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  23 mins 57 secs

8th century, grief and loss, guest on the show, poetry in translation, rhymed verse, world poetry

In this episode, Lucas Bender guides us through his translation of Du Fu's "Facing Snow," one of the most famous poems in the Chinese language.

Episode 64: Shakespeare, Sonnet 29

September 22nd, 2023  |  Season 6  |  19 mins 51 secs

17th century, friendship, hope, loneliness, love, rhymed verse, sonnet

Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 opens a world of comparison and despair, but also the deep joy of a dear friend that lifts one from disgrace. In our discussion, we consider present-day concerns about social media, the Surgeon General's warning about an epidemic of loneliness in this country, and a long-term Harvard study of happiness.

Episode 63: Rumi, Colorless, Nameless, Free

August 29th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  29 mins 56 secs

13th century, ghazal, guest on the show, islam, joy, poetry in translation, restlessness, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise, wonder, world poetry

In this episode, poet and translator Haleh Liza Gafori joins us to closely read and discuss a poem by Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207-1273 CE), one of the greatest of all Sufi poets. We discuss the poetic constraints of the ghazal form, Rumi's encounters with the divine, and the significance of his friendship with Shams, a man who transformed his life and poetic practice.

Episode 62: Kobayashi Issa, Haiku

August 11th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  17 mins 19 secs

18th century, haiku, joy, poet laureate, poetry in translation, spring, surprise, world poetry

What makes haiku "the perfect poetic form"? This episode reads three wonderful haiku by Kobayashi Issa and explores what makes them so moving and fun.

Episode 61: Ada Limón, "The Raincoat"

May 11th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  18 mins 34 secs

21st century, body in pain, children, free verse, gratitude, hispanic heritage month, love, mother's day, poet laureate, surprise, wonder

With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in "The Raincoat."

Episode 60: Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms

May 2nd, 2023  |  Season 5  |  19 mins 7 secs

20th century, asian american and pacific islander month, free verse, gratitude, joy, repetition or refrain, summer, wonder

In this episode, we explore the poetry of joy in a world of shade and death, looking to sounds and repetitions while examining how "From Blossoms" speaks back to the poem that immediately precedes it in Lee's great book "Rose."

Episode 59: Tichborne's Elegy

April 7th, 2023  |  Season 5  |  21 mins 25 secs

16th century, christianity, elegy, grief and loss, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse

In this episode, we read the elegy of Chidiock Tichborne, written the night before his execution, and contemplate the power of repetitions, the balanced precision of a man facing his end, and the drumbeat of monosyllables that takes his imagination beyond the moment of his death.

Episode 58: Richie Hofmann, Things That Are Rare

February 27th, 2023  |  Season 5  |  23 mins 57 secs

21st century, eros and desire, free verse, guest on the show, intimacy, lgbtqia month, night, sonnet

Episode 57: Edna St. Vincent Millay, She had forgotten how the August night

February 14th, 2023  |  Season 5  |  23 mins 46 secs

20th century, eros and desire, modernism, night, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer, women's history month

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. In this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases how Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry.

Episode 56: Queen Elizabeth, On Monsieur's Departure

January 31st, 2023  |  Season 5  |  18 mins 46 secs

16th century, eros and desire, love, rhymed verse, women's history month

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was one of the longest-reigning monarchs in all of British history, but she was also a gifted poet. In this episode, we discuss "On Monsieur's Departure," a poem that is inspired by Petrarchan conventions and gives insight into the public and private selves of a powerful queen.

Episode 55: Kay Ryan, Crib

December 19th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  17 mins 17 secs

20th century, advent/christmas, free verse, lgbtqia month, poet laureate, rhymed verse, wonder

In this episode, we discuss Kay Ryan's "Crib," a brief poem that begins with an interest in the deep archaeology of language and shifts to a powerful meditation on theft, innocence, and guilt.

Grant Writing Break

December 5th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  2 mins 59 secs

This week, Joanne and Abram take a break to write a grant for the podcast. We very much hope you enjoy Poetry For All. And if you do, please leave us a review, share it with a friend, and let us know! Thank you all for listening.

Episode 54: Carl Phillips, To Autumn

November 21st, 2022  |  Season 5  |  24 mins 47 secs

21st century, autumn, black history month, city, free verse, guest on the show, intimacy, lgbtqia month, nature poetry, night, ode, restlessness, spirituality

In this episode, we talk with David Baker about "To Autumn" by Carl Phillips, exploring the way Phillips masterfully achieves a sense of intimacy and restlessness in a lyric ode that tosses between two parts while incorporating the sonnet tradition.