This episode dives into the wonderful world of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the musicality of his language, and the vision he has of becoming what we already are.
\n\nThis poem illustrates the cover of Abram Van Engen's new book, Word Made Fresh. The book explores connections between poetry and faith, and it serves as an invitation to reading poetry of all kinds--with tools and tips for how to get started and explore broadly.
\n\nSpecial thanks to John Hendrix for the cover illustration of Word Made Fresh, which is an illustration of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire."
\n\nHere is the poem by Hopkins:
\n\nAs Kingfishers Catch Fire
\n\nAs kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
\nAs tumbled over rim in roundy wells
\nStones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
\nBow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
\nEach mortal thing does one thing and the same:
\nDeals out that being indoors each one dwells;
\nSelves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
\nCrying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices;
\nKeeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
\nActs in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
\nChríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
\nLovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
\nTo the Father through the features of men's faces.
See the poem at the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on Hopkins, see here.
\n\nThe last chapter of Word Made Fresh dwells at length on this poem by Hopkins as an expression of what poetry does and can do in the world.
Links:
In this episode, Lauren Camp joins us to read and discuss "Inner Planets," a poem that she wrote during her time as the astronomer in residence at Grand Canyon National Park. She describes her poetic process and the value of solitude in a place full of wonderment.
\n\nTo learn more about the Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence program, click here.
\n\nTo learn more about Lauren Camp, visit her website.
\n\nLauren's newest collection, In Old Sky, is a collection of the poems that were inspired by the Grand Canyon.
","summary":"","date_published":"2024-03-19T08:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/2ec061e5-c4da-4365-afd1-8d509068fa31.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":24730982,"duration_in_seconds":1709}]},{"id":"e34d9b5f-adbe-4eeb-aa6c-38fb205a1215","title":"Episode 69: Live with Marilyn Nelson!","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/69","content_text":"Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem \"How I Discovered Poetry.\"\n\nOn January 31, we met at Calvin University for its January Series and spoke with Marilyn Nelson about poetry and her work for a live audience.\n\nFor more on Marilyn Nelson, visit her website or The Poetry Foundation.\n\nThis poem is the title poem of an extraordinary book called How I Discovered Poetry\n\nIt was originally published in The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems\n\nThank you to LSU Press for permission to read and discussion this poem on our podcast.","content_html":"Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem "How I Discovered Poetry."
\n\nOn January 31, we met at Calvin University for its January Series and spoke with Marilyn Nelson about poetry and her work for a live audience.
\n\nFor more on Marilyn Nelson, visit her website or The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nThis poem is the title poem of an extraordinary book called How I Discovered Poetry
\n\nIt was originally published in The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems
\n\nThank you to LSU Press for permission to read and discussion this poem on our podcast.
","summary":"Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem \"How I Discovered Poetry.\"","date_published":"2024-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/e34d9b5f-adbe-4eeb-aa6c-38fb205a1215.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":67923806,"duration_in_seconds":3317}]},{"id":"85939ae8-1a76-48a3-9220-60a4e0a307d5","title":"Announcement","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/announcement","content_text":"We share some news about a new website at poetryforallpod.com and a live event next week!\n\nhttps://poetryforallpod.com/","content_html":"We share some news about a new website at poetryforallpod.com and a live event next week!
\n\n","summary":"Some news!","date_published":"2024-01-24T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/85939ae8-1a76-48a3-9220-60a4e0a307d5.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":1796981,"duration_in_seconds":135}]},{"id":"9e51bc84-85ce-4ca7-ab47-2e7c09899cb7","title":"Episode 68: W.S. Merwin, To the New Year","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/68","content_text":"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. Picking up on the \"radical hope\" we discussed in Dimitrov's \"Winter Solstice,\" we turn to Merwin's sense of what is untouched but still possible as he greets the new year.\n\nIn this episode, we quote a few pieces from The New Yorker. Here they are, plus a few other resources.\n\n\"The Aesthetic Insight of W.S. Merwin\" by Dan Chiasson\n\n\"The Final Prophecy of W.S. Merwin\" by Dan Chiasson\n\n\"The Palm Trees and Poetry of W.S. Merwin\" by Casey Cep\n\n\"When You Go Away: Remembering W.S. Merwin\" by Kevin Young\n\nSee also The Poetry Foundation.\n\nThe poem originally appeared in Present Company (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Thanks to the Wylie Agency for granting us permission to read this poem on the episode. ","content_html":"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. Picking up on the "radical hope" we discussed in Dimitrov's "Winter Solstice," we turn to Merwin's sense of what is untouched but still possible as he greets the new year.
\n\nIn this episode, we quote a few pieces from The New Yorker. Here they are, plus a few other resources.
\n\n"The Aesthetic Insight of W.S. Merwin" by Dan Chiasson
\n\n"The Final Prophecy of W.S. Merwin" by Dan Chiasson
\n\n"The Palm Trees and Poetry of W.S. Merwin" by Casey Cep
\n\n"When You Go Away: Remembering W.S. Merwin" by Kevin Young
\n\nSee also The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nThe poem originally appeared in Present Company (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Thanks to the Wylie Agency for granting us permission to read this poem on the episode.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2024-01-18T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/9e51bc84-85ce-4ca7-ab47-2e7c09899cb7.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":21168101,"duration_in_seconds":1368}]},{"id":"84ed1ee2-8043-4af9-a127-aff9958a92af","title":"Episode 67: Alex Dimitrov, Winter Solstice","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/67","content_text":"In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year. \n\nTo learn more about Alex Dimitrov, please visit his website.\n\nThanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem from Love and Other Poems.\n\nDuring our conversation, we briefly allude to \"Love,\" Dimitrov's wonderful poem that he continues to write each day. To read the original poem, you can check the American Poetry Review; and to read Dimitrov's additional lines on Twitter, you can follow him at @apoemcalledlove on Twitter.","content_html":"In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year.
\n\nTo learn more about Alex Dimitrov, please visit his website.
\n\nThanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem from Love and Other Poems.
\n\nDuring our conversation, we briefly allude to "Love," Dimitrov's wonderful poem that he continues to write each day. To read the original poem, you can check the American Poetry Review; and to read Dimitrov's additional lines on Twitter, you can follow him at @apoemcalledlove on Twitter.
","summary":"In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year. \r\n","date_published":"2023-12-18T20:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/84ed1ee2-8043-4af9-a127-aff9958a92af.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18598169,"duration_in_seconds":1467}]},{"id":"f3cf6207-001e-480e-a530-3410199cd570","title":"Episode 66: Katy Didden, The Priest Questions the Lava","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/66","content_text":"In our discussion of \"The Priest Questions the Lava,\" Katy describes 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. \n\nTo see Katy's erasure, click on the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day feature.\n\nVisit the Tupelo Press website to purchase a copy of Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland.\n\nThe website includes a lesson plan for those who might want to introduce Katy's poetry into the classroom.","content_html":"In our discussion of "The Priest Questions the Lava," Katy describes 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.
\n\nTo see Katy's erasure, click on the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day feature.
\n\nVisit the Tupelo Press website to purchase a copy of Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland.
\n\nThe website includes a lesson plan for those who might want to introduce Katy's poetry into the classroom.
","summary":"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. ","date_published":"2023-11-21T18:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/f3cf6207-001e-480e-a530-3410199cd570.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":19396089,"duration_in_seconds":1570}]},{"id":"7a2a1e0b-af48-4faf-afca-6988fbf89805","title":"Episode 65: Du Fu, Facing Snow","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/65","content_text":"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. \n\nTo learn more about Du Fu's life, work, and cultural significance, please see Lucas Bender's Du Fu Transforms: Tradition and Ethics amid Societal Collapse (Harvard University Press, 2021). ","content_html":"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.
\n\nTo learn more about Du Fu's life, work, and cultural significance, please see Lucas Bender's Du Fu Transforms: Tradition and Ethics amid Societal Collapse (Harvard University Press, 2021).
","summary":"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. ","date_published":"2023-10-19T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/7a2a1e0b-af48-4faf-afca-6988fbf89805.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":19482350,"duration_in_seconds":1437}]},{"id":"0e2411ed-121f-45cf-a246-e54d3e1a4287","title":"Episode 64: Shakespeare, Sonnet 29","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/64","content_text":"In episode 64, we talk about Shakespeare's sonnet 29, a poem about comparison and competition, leading the poet almost to despise himself before, by chance, he remembers his dear friend and is lifted by the deep joy of that relationship.\n\nWe link our discussion to 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. Links below.\n\nHere is the poem:\n\nSonnet 29\n\nWhen, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,\nI all alone beweep my outcast state,\nAnd trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,\nAnd look upon myself and curse my fate,\nWishing me like to one more rich in hope,\nFeatured like him, like him with friends possessed,\nDesiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,\nWith what I most enjoy contented least;\nYet in these thoughts myself almost despising,\nHaply I think on thee, and then my state,\n(Like to the lark at break of day arising\nFrom sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;\n For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings\n That then I scorn to change my state with kings.\n\nLinks to the Surgeon General's Warning about Social Media\n\nhttps://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177626373/u-s-surgeon-general-vivek-murthy-warns-about-the-dangers-of-social-media-to-kids#:~:text=Social%20media%20can%20present%20a,a%20new%20advisory%20released%20Tuesday.\n\nVarious Links on the Harvard Happiness Study\n\nhttps://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/\n\nhttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/harvard-happiness-study-relationships/672753/\n\nhttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/10/85-year-harvard-study-found-the-secret-to-a-long-happy-and-successful-life.html\n\nhttps://www.reuters.com/markets/wealth/what-worlds-longest-happiness-study-says-about-money-2023-02-06/Links:Sonnet 29Surgeon General on LonelinessSurgeon General on Social MediaHarvard Study of Happiness","content_html":"In episode 64, we talk about Shakespeare's sonnet 29, a poem about comparison and competition, leading the poet almost to despise himself before, by chance, he remembers his dear friend and is lifted by the deep joy of that relationship.
\n\nWe link our discussion to 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. Links below.
\n\nHere is the poem:
\n\nSonnet 29
\n\nWhen, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
\nI all alone beweep my outcast state,
\nAnd trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
\nAnd look upon myself and curse my fate,
\nWishing me like to one more rich in hope,
\nFeatured like him, like him with friends possessed,
\nDesiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
\nWith what I most enjoy contented least;
\nYet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
\nHaply I think on thee, and then my state,
\n(Like to the lark at break of day arising
\nFrom sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
\n For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
\n That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Links to the Surgeon General's Warning about Social Media
\n\n\n\nVarious Links on the Harvard Happiness Study
\n\n\n\nhttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/harvard-happiness-study-relationships/672753/
\n\n\n\nLinks:
","summary":"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. ","date_published":"2023-09-22T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/0e2411ed-121f-45cf-a246-e54d3e1a4287.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15847435,"duration_in_seconds":1191}]},{"id":"ef590d83-e80f-4bc6-8498-c781616fa252","title":"Episode 63: Rumi, Colorless, Nameless, Free","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/63","content_text":"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.\n\nHaleh Liza Gafori's translations of Rumi's poetry appear in Gold (NYRB Press, 2022). \n\nYou can learn more about her work as a vocalist, poet, translator and performer here. \n\nTo learn more about Rumi, visit the Poetry Foundation website.\n\nCover photo from The Walters Art Museum ","content_html":"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.
\n\nHaleh Liza Gafori's translations of Rumi's poetry appear in Gold (NYRB Press, 2022).
\n\nYou can learn more about her work as a vocalist, poet, translator and performer here.
\n\nTo learn more about Rumi, visit the Poetry Foundation website.
\n\nCover photo from The Walters Art Museum
","summary":"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.\r\n\r\n","date_published":"2023-08-29T18:30:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/ef590d83-e80f-4bc6-8498-c781616fa252.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":22825011,"duration_in_seconds":1796}]},{"id":"97e0b752-34cd-4447-99a9-1ee5a2db6a62","title":"Episode 62: Kobayashi Issa, Haiku","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/62","content_text":"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.\n\nWe use the beautiful translations of award-winning poet Robert Haas in The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa. To see these haiku and others online, visit The Poetry Foundation here.\n\nTo see (and purchase) the book, see HarperCollins here.\n\nThank you to HarperCollins for permission to read these translations on our podcast.\n\nFor more on Kobayashi Issa, visit the Poetry Foundation here.","content_html":"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.
\n\nWe use the beautiful translations of award-winning poet Robert Haas in The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa. To see these haiku and others online, visit The Poetry Foundation here.
\n\nTo see (and purchase) the book, see HarperCollins here.
\n\nThank you to HarperCollins for permission to read these translations on our podcast.
\n\nFor more on Kobayashi Issa, visit the Poetry Foundation here.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2023-08-11T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/97e0b752-34cd-4447-99a9-1ee5a2db6a62.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14140516,"duration_in_seconds":1039}]},{"id":"0a06009e-c516-4166-8964-4d793c85cf4e","title":"Episode 61: Ada Limón, \"The Raincoat\"","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/61","content_text":"With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in \"The Raincoat.\"\n\n\"The Raincoat\" appears in Ada Limón's book The Carrying by Milkweed Editions. Thank you to Milkweed Editions for permission to read the poem on this podcast.\n\nYou can find the \"The Raincoat\" on the Poetry Foundation website.\n\nTo learn more about Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, visit the Library of Congress website.\n\nAda Limón's author website includes information about her six books of poetry as well as interviews, press releases, and her calendar of events. \n\nPhoto credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress","content_html":"With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in "The Raincoat."
\n\n"The Raincoat" appears in Ada Limón's book The Carrying by Milkweed Editions. Thank you to Milkweed Editions for permission to read the poem on this podcast.
\n\nYou can find the "The Raincoat" on the Poetry Foundation website.
\n\nTo learn more about Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, visit the Library of Congress website.
\n\nAda Limón's author website includes information about her six books of poetry as well as interviews, press releases, and her calendar of events.
\n\nPhoto credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress
","summary":"With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in \"The Raincoat.\"","date_published":"2023-05-11T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/0a06009e-c516-4166-8964-4d793c85cf4e.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14702329,"duration_in_seconds":1114}]},{"id":"82015254-6db7-45ba-8a76-0c0134dd0c8d","title":"Episode 60: Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/60","content_text":"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.\n\nFor more on Li-Young Lee, see The Poetry Foundation here.\n\nThanks to BOA Editions for granting us permission to read Li-Young Lee's work on our podcast. \"From Blossoms\" and \"The Weight of Sweetness\" originally appeared in Rose (BOA Editions, 1986). ","content_html":"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.
\n\nFor more on Li-Young Lee, see The Poetry Foundation here.
\n\nThanks to BOA Editions for granting us permission to read Li-Young Lee's work on our podcast. "From Blossoms" and "The Weight of Sweetness" originally appeared in Rose (BOA Editions, 1986).
","summary":"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.\" ","date_published":"2023-05-02T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/82015254-6db7-45ba-8a76-0c0134dd0c8d.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14930673,"duration_in_seconds":1147}]},{"id":"442654c6-7489-4c2f-b4a4-5f5935bd04f2","title":"Episode 59: Tichborne's Elegy","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/59","content_text":"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.\n\nTichborne's Elegy\n\nMy feast of joy is but a dish of pain,\nMy crop of corn is but a field of tares,\nAnd all my good is but vain hope of gain:\nThe day is past, and yet I saw no sun,\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.\n\nThe spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,\nMy fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,\nThe spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,\nI saw the world, and yet I was not seen:\nMy thread is cut, and yet it is not spun,\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.\n\nI sought my death, and found it in my womb,\nI looked for life, and saw it was a shade,\nI trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb,\nAnd now I die, and now I was but made;\nThe glass is full, and now the glass is run,\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.\n\nFor more on Tichborne, see The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chidiock-tichborne\n\nSee also all the related content at The Poetry Foundation","content_html":"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.
\n\nTichborne's Elegy
\n\nMy feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
\nMy crop of corn is but a field of tares,
\nAnd all my good is but vain hope of gain:
\nThe day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.
The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,
\nMy fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,
\nThe spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,
\nI saw the world, and yet I was not seen:
\nMy thread is cut, and yet it is not spun,
\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death, and found it in my womb,
\nI looked for life, and saw it was a shade,
\nI trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb,
\nAnd now I die, and now I was but made;
\nThe glass is full, and now the glass is run,
\nAnd now I live, and now my life is done.
For more on Tichborne, see The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chidiock-tichborne
\n\nSee also all the related content at The Poetry Foundation
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2023-04-07T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/442654c6-7489-4c2f-b4a4-5f5935bd04f2.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":17253387,"duration_in_seconds":1285}]},{"id":"64c8466f-5156-4dfb-9f87-73d80b253c4b","title":"Episode 58: Richie Hofmann, Things That Are Rare","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/58","content_text":"In this episode, we are delighted to have Richie Hofmann as our guest. Richie Hofmann is the author of two collections: Second Empire and A Hundred Lovers. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Yale Review, and many other literary magazines, and he is the recipient of Ruth Lilly and Wallace Stegner fellowships. \n\nTo learn more about Richie, visit his website.\n\nTo learn more about Richie Hofmann's poetry and process, read Jesse Nathan's interview with Richie Hoffman in McSweeney's.\n\nRichie Hofmann photo credit: Marcus Jackson","content_html":"In this episode, we are delighted to have Richie Hofmann as our guest. Richie Hofmann is the author of two collections: Second Empire and A Hundred Lovers. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Yale Review, and many other literary magazines, and he is the recipient of Ruth Lilly and Wallace Stegner fellowships.
\n\nTo learn more about Richie, visit his website.
\n\nTo learn more about Richie Hofmann's poetry and process, read Jesse Nathan's interview with Richie Hoffman in McSweeney's.
\n\nRichie Hofmann photo credit: Marcus Jackson
","summary":"","date_published":"2023-02-27T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/64c8466f-5156-4dfb-9f87-73d80b253c4b.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":17485159,"duration_in_seconds":1437}]},{"id":"f1897a32-32de-4b24-b625-3c2d78503a8a","title":"Episode 57: Edna St. Vincent Millay, She had forgotten how the August night","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/57","content_text":"She called herself Vincent, she smoked cigarettes, and she wore shimmery golden evening gowns when she read her poetry to sold-out crowds. Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the \"New Woman\" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century...but in years after her death, her literary reputation suffered, and only recently have critics and historians revisited and properly celebrated her work. \n\nIn this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases the ways in which Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry. \n\nTo learn more about Edna St. Vincent Millay and her life and times, take a look Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an informative documentary available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ItdEiBR-o&t=2901s\n\nHere is the poem:\n\nShe had forgotten how the August night\nWas level as a lake beneath the moon,\nIn which she swam a little, losing sight\nOf shore; and how the boy, who was at noon\nSimple enough, not different from the rest,\nWore now a pleasant mystery as he went,\nWhich seemed to her an honest enough test\nWhether she loved him, and she was content.\nSo loud, so loud the million crickets’ choir. . .\nSo sweet the night, so long-drawn-out and late. . .\nAnd if the man were not her spirit’s mate,\nWhy was her body sluggish with desire?\nStark on the open field the moonlight fell,\nBut the oak tree’s shadow was deep and black and\n secret as a well.\n\nWe so admire the podcast Poem Talk. In this episode, Al Filreis, Elisa New, Jane Malcolm, and Sophia DuRose offer a close reading of two more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/155947/biologically-speaking-a-discussion-of-love-is-not-all-and-i-shall-forget-you-presently-by-edna-st-vincent-millay\n\nphoto by Carl Van Vechten","content_html":"She called herself Vincent, she smoked cigarettes, and she wore shimmery golden evening gowns when she read her poetry to sold-out crowds. Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century...but in years after her death, her literary reputation suffered, and only recently have critics and historians revisited and properly celebrated her work.
\n\nIn this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases the ways in which Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry.
\n\nTo learn more about Edna St. Vincent Millay and her life and times, take a look Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an informative documentary available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ItdEiBR-o&t=2901s
\n\nHere is the poem:
\n\nShe had forgotten how the August night
\nWas level as a lake beneath the moon,
\nIn which she swam a little, losing sight
\nOf shore; and how the boy, who was at noon
\nSimple enough, not different from the rest,
\nWore now a pleasant mystery as he went,
\nWhich seemed to her an honest enough test
\nWhether she loved him, and she was content.
\nSo loud, so loud the million crickets’ choir. . .
\nSo sweet the night, so long-drawn-out and late. . .
\nAnd if the man were not her spirit’s mate,
\nWhy was her body sluggish with desire?
\nStark on the open field the moonlight fell,
\nBut the oak tree’s shadow was deep and black and
\n secret as a well.
We so admire the podcast Poem Talk. In this episode, Al Filreis, Elisa New, Jane Malcolm, and Sophia DuRose offer a close reading of two more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/155947/biologically-speaking-a-discussion-of-love-is-not-all-and-i-shall-forget-you-presently-by-edna-st-vincent-millay
\n\nphoto by Carl Van Vechten
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2023-02-14T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/f1897a32-32de-4b24-b625-3c2d78503a8a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":19262244,"duration_in_seconds":1426}]},{"id":"efb6ae5e-f65e-4d7c-82d0-0ed427eceb06","title":"Episode 56: Queen Elizabeth, On Monsieur's Departure","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/56","content_text":"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. \n\n(For the text of the poem, scroll to the bottom.)\n\nIn this episode, we attempt to describe the magnificence of some of Queen Elizabeth's portraiture. To learn more, visit the National Portrait Gallery of London: \n\nTo learn more about Petrarch and his poems that were such an enormous influence on English poets of the sixteenth century, please read this book, which provides Petrarch's original poems in Italian and Robert Durling's stunning translations into English. \n\nTo learn more about what it meant to \"fashion a self\" in the Renaissance, see Stephen Greenblatt's foundational work on this idea .\n\nOn Monsieur’s Departure\nBY QUEEN ELIZABETH I\n\nI grieve and dare not show my discontent,\nI love and yet am forced to seem to hate,\nI do, yet dare not say I ever meant,\nI seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.\nI am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,\nSince from myself another self I turned.\n\nMy care is like my shadow in the sun,\nFollows me flying, flies when I pursue it,\nStands and lies by me, doth what I have done.\nHis too familiar care doth make me rue it.\nNo means I find to rid him from my breast,\nTill by the end of things it be supprest.\n\nSome gentler passion slide into my mind,\nFor I am soft and made of melting snow;\nOr be more cruel, love, and so be kind.\nLet me or float or sink, be high or low.\nOr let me live with some more sweet content,\nOr die and so forget what love ere meant.","content_html":"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.
\n\n(For the text of the poem, scroll to the bottom.)
\n\nIn this episode, we attempt to describe the magnificence of some of Queen Elizabeth's portraiture. To learn more, visit the National Portrait Gallery of London:
\n\nTo learn more about Petrarch and his poems that were such an enormous influence on English poets of the sixteenth century, please read this book, which provides Petrarch's original poems in Italian and Robert Durling's stunning translations into English.
\n\nTo learn more about what it meant to "fashion a self" in the Renaissance, see Stephen Greenblatt's foundational work on this idea .
\n\nOn Monsieur’s Departure
\nBY QUEEN ELIZABETH I
I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
\nI love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
\nI do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
\nI seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
\nI am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
\nSince from myself another self I turned.
My care is like my shadow in the sun,
\nFollows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
\nStands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
\nHis too familiar care doth make me rue it.
\nNo means I find to rid him from my breast,
\nTill by the end of things it be supprest.
Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
\nFor I am soft and made of melting snow;
\nOr be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
\nLet me or float or sink, be high or low.
\nOr let me live with some more sweet content,
\nOr die and so forget what love ere meant.
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.
\n\n"Crib" appears in The Best of It © 2010 by Kay Ryan. Used by permissions of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
\n\nFor more on Kay Ryan and her work, you can visit the Poetry Foundation website.
\n\nOur favorite interview with Kay Ryan appears in the Paris Review.
","summary":"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. ","date_published":"2022-12-19T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/840b1f09-e220-42b2-a6a9-98e233556cea.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13479144,"duration_in_seconds":1037}]},{"id":"bde634cf-ea48-487a-83a6-338c2bc87aa8","title":"Grant Writing Break","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/grantbreak","content_text":"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.","content_html":"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.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2022-12-05T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/bde634cf-ea48-487a-83a6-338c2bc87aa8.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":2324213,"duration_in_seconds":179}]},{"id":"fa72b9f5-3c9f-4db2-83f9-1e0618d86161","title":"Episode 54: Carl Phillips, To Autumn","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/54","content_text":"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.\n\nFor more on Carl Phillips, please visit the Poetry Foundation.\n\nFor more on David Baker, please visit the Poetry Foundation.\n\n\"To Autumn\" has been read from Carl Phillips' latest book of poetry, Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.\n\nThe latest book by Carl Phillips is a collection of essays called My Trade Is Mystery. Purchase at Yale University Press or Amazon or wherever you get your books.","content_html":"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.
\n\nFor more on Carl Phillips, please visit the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on David Baker, please visit the Poetry Foundation.
\n\n"To Autumn" has been read from Carl Phillips' latest book of poetry, Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.
\n\nThe latest book by Carl Phillips is a collection of essays called My Trade Is Mystery. Purchase at Yale University Press or Amazon or wherever you get your books.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2022-11-21T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/fa72b9f5-3c9f-4db2-83f9-1e0618d86161.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18352960,"duration_in_seconds":1487}]},{"id":"820e9c0d-2600-4c00-b573-5ffefcc56e86","title":"Episode 53: Carter Revard, What the Eagle Fan Says","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/53","content_text":"In this episode, we focus on the life and work of Carter Revard, an Osage poet whose medieval scholarship informs the structure of \"What the Eagle Fan Says.\" Jessica Rosenfeld, a professor of medieval literature at Washington University in St. Louis, joins us for this discussion. \n\nCarter Revard was a prolific poet and scholar. To learn more about his work, click here.\n\n\"What the Eagle Fan Says\" was published in How the Songs Came Down (Salt Publishing, 2005).\n\nTo learn more about accentual verse, read this brief treatment by poet Dana Gioia. ","content_html":"In this episode, we focus on the life and work of Carter Revard, an Osage poet whose medieval scholarship informs the structure of "What the Eagle Fan Says." Jessica Rosenfeld, a professor of medieval literature at Washington University in St. Louis, joins us for this discussion.
\n\nCarter Revard was a prolific poet and scholar. To learn more about his work, click here.
\n\n"What the Eagle Fan Says" was published in How the Songs Came Down (Salt Publishing, 2005).
\n\nTo learn more about accentual verse, read this brief treatment by poet Dana Gioia.
","summary":"In this episode, we focus on the life and work of Carter Revard, an Osage poet whose medieval scholarship informs the structure of \"What the Eagle Fan Says.\" Jessica Rosenfeld, a professor of medieval literature at Washington University in St. Louis, joins us for this discussion. ","date_published":"2022-11-07T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/820e9c0d-2600-4c00-b573-5ffefcc56e86.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":20914212,"duration_in_seconds":1538}]},{"id":"13d355a6-a036-47b6-b642-d4d5d336ca04","title":"Episode 52: Shakespeare, Sonnet 73","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/52","content_text":"This sonnet reflects on the autumn of life and an intimate love, and it turns on that love growing stronger in and through its age, even as the body decays.\n\nTo learn more about Shakespeare's sonnets, visit Folger Shakespeare page.\n\nOur favorite editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are edited by Colin Burrow and Stephen Booth.\n\nSir Patrick Stewart's reading of Sonnet 73 is one of our favorites. ","content_html":"This sonnet reflects on the autumn of life and an intimate love, and it turns on that love growing stronger in and through its age, even as the body decays.
\n\nTo learn more about Shakespeare's sonnets, visit Folger Shakespeare page.
\n\nOur favorite editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are edited by Colin Burrow and Stephen Booth.
\n\nSir Patrick Stewart's reading of Sonnet 73 is one of our favorites.
","summary":"This sonnet reflects on the autumn of life and an intimate love, and it turns on that love growing stronger in and through its age, even as the body decays.","date_published":"2022-10-24T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/13d355a6-a036-47b6-b642-d4d5d336ca04.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16268093,"duration_in_seconds":1158}]},{"id":"86b3cbca-40ad-4acc-9917-84e9109324a2","title":"Episode 51: Martín Espada, Jumping Off the Mystic Tobin Bridge","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/51","content_text":"To learn more about Martín Espada, click here.\n\nTo read the poem, click here.\n\nThis is the first poem that appears in Floaters, the winner of the 2021 National Book Award. To purchase a copy of the book, click here.\n\nPhoto credit: Lauren Marie Schmidt (cropped to fit dimensions)","content_html":"To learn more about Martín Espada, click here.
\n\nTo read the poem, click here.
\n\nThis is the first poem that appears in Floaters, the winner of the 2021 National Book Award. To purchase a copy of the book, click here.
\n\nPhoto credit: Lauren Marie Schmidt (cropped to fit dimensions)
","summary":"In this episode, we talk with the 2021 winner of the National Book Award, Martín Espada, about narrative poetry, poetry of engagement, and the witness of poetry as a work of advocacy.","date_published":"2022-10-10T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/86b3cbca-40ad-4acc-9917-84e9109324a2.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":23943988,"duration_in_seconds":1820}]},{"id":"54ff6502-605c-4e66-8030-40d7e5b6cd77","title":"Episode 50: Rafael Campo, Primary Care","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/50","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss how Rafael Campo, a practicing physician, uses blank verse to explore the experience of illness and suffering.\n\nThanks to the Georges Borchardt, Inc. for granting us permission to read this poem. You can find \"Primary Care\" in Alternative Medicine (Duke University Press, 2013). Links:Campo reads Primary CareCampo Author PageCampo at the Poetry Foundation","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss how Rafael Campo, a practicing physician, uses blank verse to explore the experience of illness and suffering.
\n\nThanks to the Georges Borchardt, Inc. for granting us permission to read this poem. You can find "Primary Care" in Alternative Medicine (Duke University Press, 2013).
Links:
","summary":"In this episode, we discuss how Rafael Campo, a practicing physician, uses blank verse to explore the experience of illness and suffering. ","date_published":"2022-09-26T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/54ff6502-605c-4e66-8030-40d7e5b6cd77.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":17486930,"duration_in_seconds":1344}]},{"id":"0804192b-db4a-4576-ac09-113567690760","title":"Episode 49: Lisel Mueller, When I am Asked","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/49","content_text":"In this episode, we closely read Lisel Mueller's \"When I am Asked\" in order to better understand grief as a deep source of artistic expression. We look at language as a source of connection and hope, even in the midst of sorrow and solitude. With this poem about the making of poetry (an_ ars poetica_), we come to see how one artist turned to the intricacies of language in the face of a nature that seemed indifferent to her loss.\n\n\"When I Am Asked\" appears in Alive Together: New and Selected Poems, published by Louisiana State University Press (1996). Thanks to LSU Press for granting us permission to read this poem on the podcast.\n\nFor the text of the poem, click here: \"When I Am Asked\"\n\nNote: When out of copyright, we reproduce the text of the poem ourselves. When still in copyright, we link to the text of the poem elsewhere.\n\nFor more on Lisel Mueller, see the Poetry Foundation.","content_html":"In this episode, we closely read Lisel Mueller's "When I am Asked" in order to better understand grief as a deep source of artistic expression. We look at language as a source of connection and hope, even in the midst of sorrow and solitude. With this poem about the making of poetry (an_ ars poetica_), we come to see how one artist turned to the intricacies of language in the face of a nature that seemed indifferent to her loss.
\n\n"When I Am Asked" appears in Alive Together: New and Selected Poems, published by Louisiana State University Press (1996). Thanks to LSU Press for granting us permission to read this poem on the podcast.
\n\nFor the text of the poem, click here: "When I Am Asked"
\n\nNote: When out of copyright, we reproduce the text of the poem ourselves. When still in copyright, we link to the text of the poem elsewhere.
\n\nFor more on Lisel Mueller, see the Poetry Foundation.
","summary":"In this episode, we closely read Lisel Mueller's \"When I am Asked\" in order to better understand grief as a deep source of artistic expression. ","date_published":"2022-09-12T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/0804192b-db4a-4576-ac09-113567690760.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16116082,"duration_in_seconds":1197}]},{"id":"ccf1e90f-4821-4671-8253-cafdd084830f","title":"Episode 48: Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/48","content_text":"In this episode, we examine The Golden Shovel form and discuss the idea of \"survivance\" through the work of Muscogee (Creek) poet Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.\n\nYou can find the text of \"An American Sunrise\" here, though this is an earlier version of the poem. The final version appears in her finished book of the same title, which you can find here.\n\nFor an introduction to The Golden Shovel form, see here.Links:Joy Harjo Official Site - Joy HarjoAn American Sunrise by Joy Harjo | Poetry MagazineAn American Sunrise - Joy HarjoIntroduction: The Golden Shovel by Don Share | Poetry Magazine","content_html":"In this episode, we examine The Golden Shovel form and discuss the idea of "survivance" through the work of Muscogee (Creek) poet Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.
\n\nYou can find the text of "An American Sunrise" here, though this is an earlier version of the poem. The final version appears in her finished book of the same title, which you can find here.
\n\nFor an introduction to The Golden Shovel form, see here.
Links:
In this episode, Christopher Hanlon joins us to discuss an excerpt from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. We discuss the poem's prophetic voice, its patterns of repetition, the connective tissue that binds his ideas and invites readers in, and the cultural context in which Whitman produced his work.
\n\nTo read the text of this poem, click here or see below:
\n\nTo learn more about Walt Whitman and his work, visit the Walt Whitman Archive, a magnificent compendium of information about Whitman's life, cultural context, and editions of Leaves of Grass.
\n\nTo learn more about scholar Christopher Hanlon, click here.
\n\nText from Leaves of Grass:
\n\nA child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
\nHow could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.
\nI guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
\nA scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
\nBearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegetation.
\n\nOr I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
\nAnd it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
\nGrowing among black folks as among white,
\nKanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
\n\nTenderly will I use you curling grass,
\nIt may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
\nIt may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken,
\nIt may be if I had known them I would have loved them, soon out of their mothers' laps,
\nAnd here you are the mothers' laps.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
\nDarker than the colorless beards of old men,
\nDark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
\nAnd I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
\nAnd the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
\nWhat do you think has become of the young and old men?
\nAnd what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
\nThe smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
\nAnd if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
\nAnd ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
\nAnd to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) was one of the most powerful poets of the twentieth century. This joyful poem caps a sequence of sixteen poems called "some jesus," which walks through biblical characters (beginning with Adam and Eve) and ends on four poems for Holy Week and Easter. She wrote other poems on the Bible as well, including "john" and "my dream about the second coming," which reimagine a way into biblical characters to make their stories fresh.
\n\nClifton wrote from the perspective of a Black woman and many of her most famous poems address race and gender. Clear-eyed about struggles and hardships, insistent in her calls for justice and equality, Clifton's poetry carries a consistent joy and hope, which is apparent (and abundant) in "spring song."
\n\nClifton's poetry was known for its lean style, paring everything down to its essential elements. In addition to award-winning collections of poetry, Clifton also wrote sixteen books for children (and had six children herself).
\n\nFor the text of "spring song," and for a recording of Lucille Clifton reading it, see The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on Lucille Clifton see her biography at The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor an introduction to Lucille Clifton, see the poem sampler "Lucille Clifton 101" by Benjamin Voigt.
Links:
We’re sharing a special preview of a podcast we’ve been enjoying, Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, from Pushkin Industries. Talk Easy is a weekly interview podcast, where writer Sam Fragoso invites actors, writers, activists, and musicians to come to the table and speak from the heart in ways you probably haven't heard from them before. Driven by curiosity, he’s had revealing conversations with everyone from George Saunders and Cate Blanchett to Ocean Vuong and Gloria Steinem. In this preview, Sam talks with poet Claudia Rankine about her book Just Us: An American Conversation, how history remains present for black people, and why we must repeatedly unpack what privilege looks and sounds like in America. You can listen to Talk Easy at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/tepoetryforall.
Links:
","summary":"We’re sharing a special preview of a podcast we’ve been enjoying, Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, from Pushkin Industries. Talk Easy is a weekly interview podcast, where writer Sam Fragoso invites actors, writers, activists, and musicians to come to the table and speak from the heart in ways you probably haven't heard from them before. Driven by curiosity, he’s had revealing conversations with everyone from George Saunders and Cate Blanchett to Ocean Vuong and Gloria Steinem. In this preview, Sam talks with poet Claudia Rankine about her book Just Us: An American Conversation, how history remains present for black people, and why we must repeatedly unpack what privilege looks and sounds like in America. You can listen to Talk Easy at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/tepoetryforall.","date_published":"2022-04-03T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/1d54ed6e-2396-471e-89dd-5ab89bc64cd7.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15606510,"duration_in_seconds":933}]},{"id":"17d09639-6627-43d2-8d4c-4213262de74e","title":"Episode 45: Ben Jonson, On My First Son","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/45","content_text":"In this episode, we look at Ben Jonson's elegy for his son who died of the plague at the age of 7. This poem is so brief, and yet, it manages to cross a lot of emotional terrain as Jonson struggles to understand the profundity of his loss. \n\nHere is the poem:\n\nOn my First Son\n\nFarewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;\nMy sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.\nSeven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,\nExacted by thy fate, on the just day.\nO, could I lose all father now! For why\nWill man lament the state he should envy?\nTo have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,\nAnd if no other misery, yet age?\nRest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, \"Here doth lie\nBen Jonson his best piece of poetry.\"\nFor whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,\nAs what he loves may never like too much.\n\nTo learn more about the magnificent Ben Jonson, check this page on the British Library website.\n\nTo learn more about couplets, epigrams, elegies, and apostrophes, click this page on the Academy of American Poets website.","content_html":"In this episode, we look at Ben Jonson's elegy for his son who died of the plague at the age of 7. This poem is so brief, and yet, it manages to cross a lot of emotional terrain as Jonson struggles to understand the profundity of his loss.
\n\nHere is the poem:
\n\nOn my First Son
\n\nFarewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
\nMy sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
\nSeven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
\nExacted by thy fate, on the just day.
\nO, could I lose all father now! For why
\nWill man lament the state he should envy?
\nTo have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
\nAnd if no other misery, yet age?
\nRest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lie
\nBen Jonson his best piece of poetry."
\nFor whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,
\nAs what he loves may never like too much.
To learn more about the magnificent Ben Jonson, check this page on the British Library website.
\n\nTo learn more about couplets, epigrams, elegies, and apostrophes, click this page on the Academy of American Poets website.
","summary":"In this episode, we look at Ben Jonson's elegy for his son who died of the plague at the age of 7. This poem is so brief, and yet, it manages to cross a lot of emotional terrain as Jonson struggles to understand the profundity of his loss. ","date_published":"2022-03-23T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/17d09639-6627-43d2-8d4c-4213262de74e.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15859533,"duration_in_seconds":1278}]},{"id":"b0cab87b-117a-4082-aaa6-ee6510244df2","title":"Episode 44: Ann Hudson, Soap","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/44","content_text":"In this episode, Ann Hudson joins us to read her poem “Soap” and discuss how its narrative structure allows her to explore the history of science, technology, and our notions of progress and beauty, even when those notions do great harm to ordinary workers. \n\nAnn is the author of two collections of poetry: The Armillary Sphere, which was selected by Mary Kinzie as the winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and published by Ohio University Press; and Glow, published by Next Page Press. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Crab Orchard Review, North American Review, Orion, Prairie Schooner, and The Seattle Review. Ann is senior editor for RHINO.\n\nTo learn more about Ann's work, please visit her website.","content_html":"In this episode, Ann Hudson joins us to read her poem “Soap” and discuss how its narrative structure allows her to explore the history of science, technology, and our notions of progress and beauty, even when those notions do great harm to ordinary workers.
\n\nAnn is the author of two collections of poetry: The Armillary Sphere, which was selected by Mary Kinzie as the winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and published by Ohio University Press; and Glow, published by Next Page Press. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Crab Orchard Review, North American Review, Orion, Prairie Schooner, and The Seattle Review. Ann is senior editor for RHINO.
\n\nTo learn more about Ann's work, please visit her website.
","summary":"In this episode, Ann Hudson joins us to read her poem “Soap” and discuss how its narrative structure allows her to explore the history of science, technology, and our notions of progress and beauty, even when those notions do great harm to ordinary workers. ","date_published":"2022-03-16T15:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/b0cab87b-117a-4082-aaa6-ee6510244df2.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":22432147,"duration_in_seconds":1399}]},{"id":"ce4a6484-817c-4f46-a044-399bd232d31a","title":"Episode 43: Margaret Noodin, What the Peepers Say","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/43","content_text":"In this episode, Margaret Noodin joins us to discuss her poem \"What the Peepers Say.\" In our conversation, we talk about Margaret's writing in both Anishinaabemowin and English, her attention to sounds and rhythms, and what the peeper--a tiny springtime frog--can teach us about presence and listening.\n\nMargaret Noodin is the author of two bilingual collections of poetry in both Anishinaabemowin and English: Weweni and What the Chickadee Knows. She is a professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she also serves as director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education. \n\nTo learn more about Ahishinaabemowin, visit ojibwe.net.\n\nTo hear the sound of the spring peeper, click on this link. \n\nPhoto of Margaret Noodin © Troye Fox.","content_html":"In this episode, Margaret Noodin joins us to discuss her poem "What the Peepers Say." In our conversation, we talk about Margaret's writing in both Anishinaabemowin and English, her attention to sounds and rhythms, and what the peeper--a tiny springtime frog--can teach us about presence and listening.
\n\nMargaret Noodin is the author of two bilingual collections of poetry in both Anishinaabemowin and English: Weweni and What the Chickadee Knows. She is a professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she also serves as director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education.
\n\nTo learn more about Ahishinaabemowin, visit ojibwe.net.
\n\nTo hear the sound of the spring peeper, click on this link.
\n\nPhoto of Margaret Noodin © Troye Fox.
","summary":"In this episode, Margaret Noodin joins us to discuss her poem \"What the Peepers Say.\" In our conversation, we talk about Margaret's writing in both Anishinaabemowin and English, her attention to sounds and rhythms, and what the peeper--a tiny springtime frog--can teach us about presence and listening.","date_published":"2022-03-02T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/ce4a6484-817c-4f46-a044-399bd232d31a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18291331,"duration_in_seconds":1462}]},{"id":"8983eed6-67c2-48cf-bd0f-c6e9ce371d1c","title":"Episode 42: Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/42","content_text":"To read Hayden's poem, click here.\n\nThanks to W.W. Norton & Company for granting us permission to read this poem. Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction to the Collected Poems of Robert Hayden is very moving, as is the afterword by Arnold Rampersad.\n\nFor a series of insightful observations about Hayden's sonnet, see Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Patrick Rosal, and Ira Sadoff, \"Poets Respond: A Discussion of \"Frederick Douglass\" by Robert Hayden.\" American Poetry Review, 38.3 (2009): 25-28.\n\nFor a helpful close reading of the poem, see Fred M. Fetrow, \"Robert Hayden's 'Frederick Douglass': Form and Meaning in a Modern Sonnet.\" CLA Journal 17.1 (September 1973): 78-84. ","content_html":"To read Hayden's poem, click here.
\n\nThanks to W.W. Norton & Company for granting us permission to read this poem. Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction to the Collected Poems of Robert Hayden is very moving, as is the afterword by Arnold Rampersad.
\n\nFor a series of insightful observations about Hayden's sonnet, see Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Patrick Rosal, and Ira Sadoff, "Poets Respond: A Discussion of "Frederick Douglass" by Robert Hayden." American Poetry Review, 38.3 (2009): 25-28.
\n\nFor a helpful close reading of the poem, see Fred M. Fetrow, "Robert Hayden's 'Frederick Douglass': Form and Meaning in a Modern Sonnet." CLA Journal 17.1 (September 1973): 78-84.
","summary":"In this episode, we offer a close reading of \"Frederick Douglass,\" a poem in which Hayden channels the prophetic energies of his subject in order to imagine what freedom might one day mean. ","date_published":"2022-02-23T16:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/8983eed6-67c2-48cf-bd0f-c6e9ce371d1c.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14220755,"duration_in_seconds":1078}]},{"id":"b19c55e5-513f-4224-9a20-48c56939222c","title":"Episode 41: F.E.W. Harper, Learning to Read","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/41","content_text":"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prolific writer and activist of the nineteenth century. In this episode, Professor Janaka Bowman Lewis joins us to discuss her power, influence, voice, and work. \"Learning to Read\" foregrounds the ballad style in a narrative poem designed to keep alive the memories of fighting for both literacy and liberation.\n\nFor the full text of the poem, see here: \"Learning to Read\"\n\nJanaka Bowman Lewis is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina--Charlotte, and she includes a chapter on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings.\n\nFor a good recent article about this poem by Madeline Zehnder, see Commonplace.\n\nFor more on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, see the Poetry Foundation.\n\nFor good resources on F.E.W. Harper, especially materials related to the recovery and teaching of her first book of poems, Forest Leaves, see the Just Teach One archive at Commonplace.\n\nFor the best collection of Harper's work, see Frances Smith Foster, A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader\n\nFor further reading, see Harper's most famous novel, Iola Leroy.Links:Learning to Read by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poetry FoundationFrances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poetry FoundationFrances Ellen Watkins Harper, Media Theorist - Commonplace - The Journal of early American LifeJust Teach One: Early African American Print » Frances Ellen Watkins (Harper)’s Forest Leaves (ca. 1846)A Brighter Coming Day — Feminist PressIola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: 9780143106043 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books","content_html":"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prolific writer and activist of the nineteenth century. In this episode, Professor Janaka Bowman Lewis joins us to discuss her power, influence, voice, and work. "Learning to Read" foregrounds the ballad style in a narrative poem designed to keep alive the memories of fighting for both literacy and liberation.
\n\nFor the full text of the poem, see here: "Learning to Read"
\n\nJanaka Bowman Lewis is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina--Charlotte, and she includes a chapter on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings.
\n\nFor a good recent article about this poem by Madeline Zehnder, see Commonplace.
\n\nFor more on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor good resources on F.E.W. Harper, especially materials related to the recovery and teaching of her first book of poems, Forest Leaves, see the Just Teach One archive at Commonplace.
\n\nFor the best collection of Harper's work, see Frances Smith Foster, A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader
\n\nFor further reading, see Harper's most famous novel, Iola Leroy.
Links:
In this episode, we provide a close reading of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which allows us to consider the poem's definition of a love that is enduring. In addition, though, we consider a reading of the poem which foregrounds a disappointed poetic speaker who can see the love's transience, too.
\n\nFor the text of this poem, click here.
\n\nColin Burrow and Stephen Booth's editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about this amazing sonnet sequence.
\n\nDuring the pandemic, Sir Patrick Stewart has read one Shakespeare sonnet each day and share it on YouTube. To hear him read Sonnet 116 and so many others, click here.
","summary":"In this episode, we provide a close reading of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which allows us to consider the poem's definition of a love that is enduring. In addition, though, we consider a reading of the poem which foregrounds a disappointed poetic speaker who can see the love's transience, too. We also pay special attention to rhythm and sound, and we even get to learn a bit about the Great Vowel Shift from Professor Kristin Van Engen, a linguist at Washington University in St. Louis.","date_published":"2022-02-09T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/bbf605a0-01f5-46df-82b4-b13fdacee494.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18708427,"duration_in_seconds":1558}]},{"id":"548cde6e-728c-4640-984c-113502b8c988","title":"Episode 39: Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear The Mask","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/39","content_text":"This week, Rafia Zafar joins us to discuss \"We Wear the Mask\" by the great poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Rafia leads us in a discussion of Dunbar's fame and influence while opening up broader themes of African American history and literature.\n\nWe Wear the Mask\nBY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR\n\nWe wear the mask that grins and lies,\nIt hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—\nThis debt we pay to human guile;\nWith torn and bleeding hearts we smile,\nAnd mouth with myriad subtleties.\n\nWhy should the world be over-wise,\nIn counting all our tears and sighs?\nNay, let them only see us, while\n We wear the mask.\n\nWe smile, but, O great Christ, our cries\nTo thee from tortured souls arise.\nWe sing, but oh the clay is vile\nBeneath our feet, and long the mile;\nBut let the world dream otherwise,\n We wear the mask!\n\nFor more on Paul Laurence Dunbar, visit The Poetry Foundation.\n\nFor more on Rafia Zafar, see her personal website at Washington University in St. Louis.\n\nYoutube has a brief clip from the Library of America hosting Kevin Young's discussion of \"We Wear the Mask.\"\n\nElizabeth Alexander also discusses this poem for the Library of America.\n\nFor more on the poetic form of the rondeau, see the Academy of American Poets.Links:Paul Laurence Dunbar | Poetry FoundationRafia Zafar | Arts & SciencesHome | Rafia Zafar | Washington University in St. LouisKevin Young Discusses \"We Wear the Mask\" by Paul Laurence Dunbar - YouTubeElizabeth Alexander Comments on \"We Wear the Mask\" by Paul Laurence Dunbar - YouTubeRondeau | Academy of American Poets","content_html":"This week, Rafia Zafar joins us to discuss "We Wear the Mask" by the great poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Rafia leads us in a discussion of Dunbar's fame and influence while opening up broader themes of African American history and literature.
\n\nWe Wear the Mask
\nBY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
\nIt hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
\nThis debt we pay to human guile;
\nWith torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
\nAnd mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
\nIn counting all our tears and sighs?
\nNay, let them only see us, while
\n We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
\nTo thee from tortured souls arise.
\nWe sing, but oh the clay is vile
\nBeneath our feet, and long the mile;
\nBut let the world dream otherwise,
\n We wear the mask!
For more on Paul Laurence Dunbar, visit The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on Rafia Zafar, see her personal website at Washington University in St. Louis.
\n\nYoutube has a brief clip from the Library of America hosting Kevin Young's discussion of "We Wear the Mask."
\n\nElizabeth Alexander also discusses this poem for the Library of America.
\n\nFor more on the poetic form of the rondeau, see the Academy of American Poets.
Links:
In this episode, our guest Laura Van Prooyen reads "Elegy for My Mother's Mind," a poem that navigates the complexities of memory, loss, and familial relationships. Laura's poem gives us an opportunity to think about the deep sources of poetic inspiration, the revision process, and the power of metaphor.
\n\nTo learn more about Laura's work, check her website.
\n\nClick here to see the version of the poem that appeared in Prairie Schooner.
\n\nOur two favorite books on elegy are Jahan Ramazani's Poetry of Mourning: The Modern Elegy from Hardy to Heaney and Peter Sacks's The English Elegy: Studies in the Genre from Spenser to Yeats.
","summary":"In this episode, our guest Laura Van Prooyen reads \"Elegy for My Mother's Mind,\" a poem that navigates the complexities of memory, loss, and familial relationships. Laura's poem gives us an opportunity to think about the deep sources of poetic inspiration, the revision process, and the power of metaphor.","date_published":"2022-01-26T16:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/e8ff6d2a-ccb4-41ee-ac36-d35a7bab69d0.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":23363040,"duration_in_seconds":1756}]},{"id":"3814d406-8a90-49f3-aef5-3d62ce674001","title":"Episode 37: Why Poetry For All","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/37","content_text":"Joanne and Abram launch the fourth season of Poetry For All with a short discussion about what this podcast is all about and how it relates to all the other great poetry podcasts in the world.\n\nThis conversation is an excerpt from our virtual visit with the students in Grace Talusan's creative writing workshop at Brandeis University. Grace uses our podcast in her course, and her students have gone on to create their own podcasts that focus on close readings of poems. If you want more information on how to use our podcast in the classroom, please reach out to us via Facebook, Twitter, or our gmail account (poetryforall2020).\n\nFor more on Grace Talusan and her excellent work, please see here.Links:Writer | Grace Talusan","content_html":"Joanne and Abram launch the fourth season of Poetry For All with a short discussion about what this podcast is all about and how it relates to all the other great poetry podcasts in the world.
\n\nThis conversation is an excerpt from our virtual visit with the students in Grace Talusan's creative writing workshop at Brandeis University. Grace uses our podcast in her course, and her students have gone on to create their own podcasts that focus on close readings of poems. If you want more information on how to use our podcast in the classroom, please reach out to us via Facebook, Twitter, or our gmail account (poetryforall2020).
\n\nFor more on Grace Talusan and her excellent work, please see here.
Links:
","summary":"Joanne and Abram launch the fourth season of Poetry For All with a short discussion about what this podcast is all about and how it relates to all the other great poetry podcasts in the world.","date_published":"2022-01-19T13:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/3814d406-8a90-49f3-aef5-3d62ce674001.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16205355,"duration_in_seconds":871}]},{"id":"56487ce3-6cc9-4743-b9a8-f52af20aa8c4","title":"Episode 36: Denise Levertov, On the Mystery of the Incarnation","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/36","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss Denise Levertov's powerful meditation on the horrors of the twentieth century, and how the mystery of the incarnation might provide humanity with some hope. Our close reading of this poem is informed by Eavan Boland's Preface and Anne Dewey and Paul A. Lacey's Afterword in The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New Directions, 2013). \n\nTo read \"On the Mystery of the Incarnation,\" click here. \n\nTo read Levertov's essay \"Some Notes on Organic Form,\" click here.\n\n''On the Mystery of the Incarnation'' by Denise Levertov comes from her book A DOOR IN THE HIVE, copyright ©1989 by Denise Levertov. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. \n\nPhoto of Denise Levertov © David Geier. For more information see National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian Institution: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2011.103","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss Denise Levertov's powerful meditation on the horrors of the twentieth century, and how the mystery of the incarnation might provide humanity with some hope. Our close reading of this poem is informed by Eavan Boland's Preface and Anne Dewey and Paul A. Lacey's Afterword in The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New Directions, 2013).
\n\nTo read "On the Mystery of the Incarnation," click here.
\n\nTo read Levertov's essay "Some Notes on Organic Form," click here.
\n\n''On the Mystery of the Incarnation'' by Denise Levertov comes from her book A DOOR IN THE HIVE, copyright ©1989 by Denise Levertov. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
\n\nPhoto of Denise Levertov © David Geier. For more information see National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian Institution: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2011.103
","summary":"In this episode, we discuss Denise Levertov's powerful meditation on the horrors of the twentieth century, and how the mystery of the incarnation might provide humanity with hope.","date_published":"2021-12-21T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/56487ce3-6cc9-4743-b9a8-f52af20aa8c4.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14919315,"duration_in_seconds":1002}]},{"id":"a76b112a-fcab-4e78-ac77-595fd2fabd09","title":"Episode 35: Matthew Zapruder, Poem for Wisconsin","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/35","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss the way in which Matthew Zapruder attends to vivid, specific details to create a sense of wonder, connection, and surprise. \n\nTo read \"Poem for Wisconsin,\" click here.\n\n\"Poem for Wisconsin\" originally appeared in the collection Sun Bear. Thanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem on the podcast.\n\nFor a glimpse of the \"Bronze Fonz,\" click here.\n\nTo see how the Milwaukee Art Museum opens its wings, watch this time-lapse video.\n\nFor a sense of the \"many moods\" of Lake Michigan, see the photography of the wonderful Jin Lee.","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss the way in which Matthew Zapruder attends to vivid, specific details to create a sense of wonder, connection, and surprise.
\n\nTo read "Poem for Wisconsin," click here.
\n\n"Poem for Wisconsin" originally appeared in the collection Sun Bear. Thanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem on the podcast.
\n\nFor a glimpse of the "Bronze Fonz," click here.
\n\nTo see how the Milwaukee Art Museum opens its wings, watch this time-lapse video.
\n\nFor a sense of the "many moods" of Lake Michigan, see the photography of the wonderful Jin Lee.
","summary":"In this episode, we discuss the way in which Matthew Zapruder attends to vivid, specific details to create a sense of wonder, connection, and surprise.","date_published":"2021-12-15T12:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/a76b112a-fcab-4e78-ac77-595fd2fabd09.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":19617161,"duration_in_seconds":1376}]},{"id":"34ca3de6-bb2e-4e4d-9276-f1c5aee96062","title":"Episode 34: Tracy K. Smith, Declaration","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/34","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss erasure poetry and its power to reveal hidden histories and redacted stories through Tracy K. Smith's erasure of the Declaration of Independence.\n\nFor the poem (including a reading and discussion of the poem by Tracy Smith), see the Poetry Foundation.\n\nFor Solmaz Sharif's discussion of the political implications of erasure poetry, see \"The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure\": https://thevolta.org/ewc28-ssharif-p1.html\n\nSee also \"Erasure in Three Acts\" by Muriel Leung.\n\nFor more on Tracy K. Smith, see The Library of Congress.\n\nFor a look at the various drafts of the Declaration of Independence, visit this page on the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html\n\nThanks to Graywolf Press for granting us permission to read this poem, which appears in Wade in the Water (2018). \n\nThanks to Harvard University and photographer Stephanie Mitchell for granting us permission to reproduce Tracy Smith's photo.Links:Declaration by Tracy K. Smith | Poetry FoundationTracy K. Smith | Library of CongressLook | Graywolf PressErasure in Three Acts: An Essay by Muriel Leung | Poetry Foundation","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss erasure poetry and its power to reveal hidden histories and redacted stories through Tracy K. Smith's erasure of the Declaration of Independence.
\n\nFor the poem (including a reading and discussion of the poem by Tracy Smith), see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor Solmaz Sharif's discussion of the political implications of erasure poetry, see "The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure": https://thevolta.org/ewc28-ssharif-p1.html
\n\nSee also "Erasure in Three Acts" by Muriel Leung.
\n\nFor more on Tracy K. Smith, see The Library of Congress.
\n\nFor a look at the various drafts of the Declaration of Independence, visit this page on the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html
\n\nThanks to Graywolf Press for granting us permission to read this poem, which appears in Wade in the Water (2018).
\n\nThanks to Harvard University and photographer Stephanie Mitchell for granting us permission to reproduce Tracy Smith's photo.
Links:
This week, the poet and scholar Stephanie Burt joins us to discuss the extraordinary power of Adrienne Rich. We think through how the spacing and stanzas of a poem can draw out denials and divulgences, while also exploring the life and writing of Rich.
\n\nStephanie Burt's excellent book Don't Read Poetry ends with an examination of this poem by Adrienne Rich. The book, which can be found at the link, offers an introduction to reading poems and different ways of approaching them.
\n\nFor the text of the poem, see here.
\n\nFor more on Adrienne Rich, please see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on Stephanie Burt, please see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nPhotograph of Adrienne Rich by Robert Giard.
Links:
In this episode, poet Rick Barot guides us in our reading of his poem "Cascades 501" from The Galleons, his most recent collection. Rick's insights into how poets engage with place, create juxtapositions, and arrive at insights taught us so much about how poets create their best work.
\n\nTo learn more about Rick Barot, you can visit his website:
\n\nhttps://www.rickbarot.com/about/
\n\nTo learn more about The Galleons, you can visit the Milkweed Editions website:
\n\nhttps://milkweed.org/book/the-galleons
\n\nTo read "Cascade 501," visit the Academy of American Poets website:
\n\nhttps://poets.org/poem/cascades-501
","summary":"","date_published":"2021-11-03T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/c1e94ca8-5eae-448b-9593-8ffe60c78acf.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":32689177,"duration_in_seconds":2312}]},{"id":"ba31a9ae-2e22-4739-88b6-2227a917e5ec","title":"Episode 31: Jane Kenyon, Twilight: After Haying","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/31","content_text":"This week we take a closer look at another autumn poem, this one by Jane Kenyon from her wonderful book Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Kenyon builds from and transforms the same tradition of the autumn ode we examined last week with John Keats.\n\nThank you to Graywolf Press for permission to read this poem from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon.\n\nClick here for the full text of Twilight: After Haying.\n\nSee the Poetry Foundation for more on Jane Kenyon.Links:Twilight: After Haying by Jane Kenyon - Poems | poets.orgOtherwise | Graywolf PressJane Kenyon | Poetry Foundation","content_html":"This week we take a closer look at another autumn poem, this one by Jane Kenyon from her wonderful book Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Kenyon builds from and transforms the same tradition of the autumn ode we examined last week with John Keats.
\n\nThank you to Graywolf Press for permission to read this poem from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon.
\n\nClick here for the full text of Twilight: After Haying.
\n\nSee the Poetry Foundation for more on Jane Kenyon.
Links:
To Autumn
\nby John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
\n Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
\nConspiring with him how to load and bless
\n With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
\nTo bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
\n And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
\n To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
\n With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
\nAnd still more, later flowers for the bees,
\nUntil they think warm days will never cease,
\n For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
\n Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
\nThee sitting careless on a granary floor,
\n Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
\nOr on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
\n Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
\n Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
\nAnd sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
\n Steady thy laden head across a brook;
\n Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
\n Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
\n Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
\nWhile barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
\n And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
\nThen in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
\n Among the river sallows, borne aloft
\n Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
\nAnd full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
\n Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
\n The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
\n And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
For more on John Keats, see the Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats
\n\nFurther Resources:
\n\nKeats's Negative Capability: New Origins and Afterlives, ed. Brian Rejack and Michael Theune:
\nhttps://global.oup.com/academic/product/keatss-negative-capability-9781786941817?cc=us&lang=en&
Keats Letters Project:
\nhttps://keatslettersproject.com/
Anahid Nersessian, Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse
\nhttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo77573957.html
Links:
Elizabeth Bishop was one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, and "One Art" is certainly one of the greatest villanelles. In this episode, we talk about the poetic form and its constraints. We also draw upon recent scholarship that has revealed a great deal about Elizabeth Bishop's life and work in order to understand the power of poetic constraint.
\n\nClick here to read "One Art": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
\n\nFor more about Elizabeth Bishop's life and the cultural context that informed her work, read Megan Marshall's Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast.
\n\nTo learn more about the correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, read Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, edited by Thomas Travisano and Saskia Hamilton.
\n\n“One Art” from POEMS by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © 2011 by The Alice H. Methfessel Trust. Publisher's Note and compilation copyright © 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
","summary":"","date_published":"2021-10-06T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/6bd17207-fdaf-403e-9e55-7b64b17ceed3.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":20399296,"duration_in_seconds":1516}]},{"id":"05c296db-e11a-4b0d-b4dc-0ac5e7558a38","title":"Episode 28: Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/28","content_text":"Countee Cullen was a major voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Joined by the renowned cultural critic Gerald Early, we here examine together story of Countee Cullen and the astounding sonnet that opens his main collection of poetry, My Soul's High Song.\n\nFor more on Countee Cullen, see the Poetry Foundation.\n\nHere is the text of the sonnet: \n\nYet Do I Marvel\nCountee Cullen\n\nI doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,\nAnd did He stoop to quibble could tell why\nThe little buried mole continues blind,\nWhy flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,\nMake plain the reason tortured Tantalus\nIs baited by the fickle fruit, declare\nIf merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus\nTo struggle up a never-ending stair.\nInscrutable His ways are, and immune\nTo catechism by a mind too strewn\nWith petty cares to slightly understand\nWhat awful brain compels His awful hand.\nYet do I marvel at this curious thing:\nTo make a poet black, and bid him sing!\n\nFor the main collection of Countee Cullen's poetry, edited by Gerald Early, see My Soul's High Song.Links:Countee Cullen | Poetry FoundationYet Do I Marvel by Countee Cullen | Poetry FoundationMy Soul's High Song: 9780385412957: Cullen, Countee: Books","content_html":"Countee Cullen was a major voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Joined by the renowned cultural critic Gerald Early, we here examine together story of Countee Cullen and the astounding sonnet that opens his main collection of poetry, My Soul's High Song.
\n\nFor more on Countee Cullen, see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nHere is the text of the sonnet:
\n\nYet Do I Marvel
\nCountee Cullen
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
\nAnd did He stoop to quibble could tell why
\nThe little buried mole continues blind,
\nWhy flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,
\nMake plain the reason tortured Tantalus
\nIs baited by the fickle fruit, declare
\nIf merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
\nTo struggle up a never-ending stair.
\nInscrutable His ways are, and immune
\nTo catechism by a mind too strewn
\nWith petty cares to slightly understand
\nWhat awful brain compels His awful hand.
\nYet do I marvel at this curious thing:
\nTo make a poet black, and bid him sing!
For the main collection of Countee Cullen's poetry, edited by Gerald Early, see My Soul's High Song.
Links:
In this episode, we read and discuss the influential modernist poet Marianne Moore and her witty, wonderful poem called "Poetry," a classic ars poetica (a poem about writing poetry). This poem has gone through many different editions. We take an earlier, longer version and ask how it participated in the modernist practice of "making it new" in the early 1900s.
\n\nMarianne Moore was a technical master with widespread influence who was at the very center of American modernism -- friends with William Carlos Williams (see episode 25), Ezra Pound, H.D., and many others, as well as a mentor to Elizabeth Bishop (who we'll have an episode on soon!). An ardent Presbyterian who wore a cape and tri-cornered hat and who carefully curated her public image, Marianne Moore became a sought-after celebrity in her own day.
\n\nFor more on Marianne Moore, see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor the text of "Poetry," see here.
Links:
","summary":"In this episode, we read and discuss the influential modernist poet Marianne Moore and her witty, wonderful poem called \"Poetry,\" a classic ars poetica (a poem about writing poetry).","date_published":"2021-09-22T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/7929c82a-11d1-4e7a-ab66-7e865e7c8bd1.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16716546,"duration_in_seconds":1271}]},{"id":"16375cf9-6bce-4759-8629-ba78046f964a","title":"Episode 26: Brenda Cárdenas, \"Our Lady of Sorrows\"","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/26","content_text":"In this episode, Brenda Cárdenas guides us through a reading of \"Our Lady of Sorrows,\" an ekphrastic poem that is inspired by the work of Ana Mendieta. \n\nTo read more of Brenda Cárdenas's work, click here:\n\nhttps://uwm.edu/english/our-people/cardenas-brenda/\n\nTo learn more about Ana Mendieta's work, click here:\n\nhttps://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/ana-mendieta","content_html":"In this episode, Brenda Cárdenas guides us through a reading of "Our Lady of Sorrows," an ekphrastic poem that is inspired by the work of Ana Mendieta.
\n\nTo read more of Brenda Cárdenas's work, click here:
\n\nhttps://uwm.edu/english/our-people/cardenas-brenda/
\n\nTo learn more about Ana Mendieta's work, click here:
\n\nhttps://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/ana-mendieta
","summary":"In this episode, Brenda Cárdenas guides us through a reading of \"Our Lady of Sorrows,\" an ekphrastic poem that is inspired by the work of Ana Mendieta. ","date_published":"2021-09-15T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/16375cf9-6bce-4759-8629-ba78046f964a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15849464,"duration_in_seconds":1304}]},{"id":"0a402f82-0f0a-4c4d-950b-d0d546557d16","title":"Episode 25: William Carlos Williams, \"This is Just to Say\"","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/25","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss a simple, iconic, \"sorry-not sorry\" poem from the early age of American modernism, which has taken on new life in the age of Twitter and the pandemic.\n\nFor more on William Carlos Williams, see the Poetry Foundation. See the text of \"This is Just to Say\" there as well.\n\n“This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams, from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909-1939, copyright ©1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss a simple, iconic, "sorry-not sorry" poem from the early age of American modernism, which has taken on new life in the age of Twitter and the pandemic.
\n\nFor more on William Carlos Williams, see the Poetry Foundation. See the text of "This is Just to Say" there as well.
\n\n“This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams, from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909-1939, copyright ©1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
","summary":"In this episode, we discuss a simple, iconic, \"sorry-not sorry\" poem from the early age of American modernism, which has taken on new life in the age of Twitter and the pandemic.","date_published":"2021-09-08T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/0a402f82-0f0a-4c4d-950b-d0d546557d16.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":12799537,"duration_in_seconds":1093}]},{"id":"85fa8fcb-1c95-4f9c-b677-18cb88c47ea1","title":"Episode 24: Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/24","content_text":"Robert Hayden was one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century. His poems are known for their formal grace and his deep and broad explorations of the African American experience. \"Those Winter Sundays\" is one of our all-time favorite poems. We hope you enjoy this conversation.\n\nFor the text of \"Those Winter Sundays,\" click here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46461/those-winter-sundays\n\nFor more about Robert Hayden, click here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-hayden\n\nWe love Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction to the Centenary Edition of Robert Hayden's Collected Poems, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Please do find a copy at your local library or at your favorite bookstore: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780871406798","content_html":"Robert Hayden was one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century. His poems are known for their formal grace and his deep and broad explorations of the African American experience. "Those Winter Sundays" is one of our all-time favorite poems. We hope you enjoy this conversation.
\n\nFor the text of "Those Winter Sundays," click here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46461/those-winter-sundays
\n\nFor more about Robert Hayden, click here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-hayden
\n\nWe love Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction to the Centenary Edition of Robert Hayden's Collected Poems, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Please do find a copy at your local library or at your favorite bookstore: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780871406798
","summary":"","date_published":"2021-06-14T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/85fa8fcb-1c95-4f9c-b677-18cb88c47ea1.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15598451,"duration_in_seconds":1249}]},{"id":"2cb47c0a-05d2-4e9f-9a28-e951a18a5e63","title":"Episode 23: Langston Hughes, \"Johannesburg Mines\"","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/23","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss social poetics, the poetry of witness, and the way poets can speak of the failure of language and the need for silence in the face of trauma. \"The worst is not, so long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'\"\n\nFor the text of Langston Hughes's poem \"Johannesburg Mines,\" see here.\n\nFor more on Langston Hughes, see the Poetry Foundation.\n\nFor more on social poetics, see Mark Nowak's book by that name.\n\nFor more on the poetry of witness, see Sandra Beasley's essay \"Flint and Tinder.\"\n\nFor Anna Akhmatova's \"Instead of a Preface\" in her great work Requiem as an alternative approach, see here.\n\nThanks to Harold Ober Associates, Inc., for granting us permission to read this poem on our podcast.Links:Poem: Johannesburg Mines by Langston HughesLangston Hughes | Poetry FoundationSocial Poetics – Coffee House PressSandra Beasley: “Flint and Tinder – Understanding the Difference Between ‘Poetry of Witness’ and ‘Documentary Poetics’”Requiem Poem by Anna Akhmatova - Poem Hunter","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss social poetics, the poetry of witness, and the way poets can speak of the failure of language and the need for silence in the face of trauma. "The worst is not, so long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'"
\n\nFor the text of Langston Hughes's poem "Johannesburg Mines," see here.
\n\nFor more on Langston Hughes, see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on social poetics, see Mark Nowak's book by that name.
\n\nFor more on the poetry of witness, see Sandra Beasley's essay "Flint and Tinder."
\n\nFor Anna Akhmatova's "Instead of a Preface" in her great work Requiem as an alternative approach, see here.
\n\nThanks to Harold Ober Associates, Inc., for granting us permission to read this poem on our podcast.
Links:
In this episode, we talk with Vince Sherry about two poems of WWI: Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" and Ivor Gurney's "To His Love." The first poem, a stately beauty, imagines war almost peacefully; the second poem, scarred by combat, speaks back nervously and angrily. We talk through this remarkable set of poems and experiences and examine how a careful use of language conveys their effects.
\n\n"The Soldier"
\nby Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
\n That there’s some corner of a foreign field
\nThat is for ever England. There shall be
\n In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
\nA dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
\n Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
\nA body of England’s, breathing English air,
\n Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
\n A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
\n Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
\nHer sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
\n And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
\n In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
To His Love
\nby Ivor Gurney
He's gone, and all our plans
\n Are useless indeed.
\nWe'll walk no more on Cotswold
\n Where the sheep feed
\n Quietly and take no heed.
His body that was so quick
\n Is not as you
\nKnew it, on Severn river
\n Under the blue
\n Driving our small boat through.
You would not know him now ...
\n But still he died
\nNobly, so cover him over
\n With violets of pride
\n Purple from Severn side.
Cover him, cover him soon!
\n And with thick-set
\nMasses of memoried flowers—
\n Hide that red wet
\n Thing I must somehow forget.
For more on Rupert Brooke, see The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor more on Ivor Gurney, see The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nGurney was also a prolific composer. For a sample of his music, see his Goucestershire Rhapsody.
Links:
In this episode we talk with Christian Wiman about the arc of a book of poetry, the structure of an individual poem, the desire for openness and accessibility, and the surprising shifts from levity to seriousness that take even the writer by surprise. The episode considers how poets construct and organize their poems, and it also touches on differing approaches poets take across their career.
\n\nChristian Wiman is the Clement-Muehl Professor of Communication Arts at Yale Divinity School, the former editor of Poetry magazine, and the author, editor, and translator of multiple books. He has won countless awards for his poetry and also has extraordinary books of prose, including My Bright Abyss and He Held Radical Light. Today, we talk with him about his poem “I Don’t Want to be a Spice Store” from his latest book of poetry, Survival is a Style.
\n\nFor more on Christian Wiman, please see The Poetry Foundation.
\n\nThis poem comes from Survival is a Style.
Links:
","summary":"In this episode we talk with Christian Wiman about the arc of a book of poetry, the structure of an individual poem, the desire for openness and accessibility, and the surprising shifts from levity to seriousness that take even the writer by surprise. ","date_published":"2021-04-13T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/97145389-ce2e-45f1-9c1d-d866e6b5a104.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13792849,"duration_in_seconds":1125}]},{"id":"c42b6c15-8881-4318-861b-5db613153526","title":"Episode 20: Hester Pulter, View But This Tulip","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/20","content_text":"Wendy Wall joins us to discuss an extraordinary poet whose works went unknown for over three hundred years. Hester Pulter brought together science, religion, poetic traditions and so much more. Her 120 remarkable poems are now available at the award-winning Pulter Project website.\n\nIn this episode we discuss her work with emblems, her scientific chemistry experiment with flowers, and her wonderment (both worried and confident, doubtful and awestruck) about the resurrection of the body and its reunification with the soul after death.\n\nFor a biography of Hester Pulter, see here: \nhttps://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/about-hester-pulter-and-the-manuscript.html\n\nFor her poems, see the Pulter Project here:\nhttps://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/\n\nHere is the text of today's poem:\n\n\"View But This Tulip\" (Emblem 40)\n\nView but this tulip, rose, or gillyflower,\nAnd by a finite, see an infinite power.\nThese flowers into their chaos were retired\nTill human art them raised and reinspired\nWith beating, macerating, fermentation,\nCalcining, chemically, with segregation;\nThen, lest the air these secrets should reveal,\nShut up the ashes under Hermes’s seal;\nThen, with a candle or a gentle fire,\nYou may reanimate at your desire\nThese gallant plants; but if you cool the glass,\nTo their first principles they’ll quickly pass:\nFrom sulfur, salt, and mercury they came;\nWhen they dissolve, they turn into the same.\nThen, seeing a wretched mortal hath the power\nTo recreate a Virbius of a flower,\nWhy should we fear, though sadly we retire\nInto our cause? Our God will reinspire\nOur dormant dust, and keep alive the same\nWith an all-quick’ning, everlasting flame.\nThen, though I into atoms scattered be,\nIn indivisibles I’ll trust in Thee.\nThen let this comfort me in my sad story:\nDust is but four degrees removed from glory\nBy Nature’s paths, but God from death and night\nCan raise this flesh to endless life and light.\nThen, my impatient soul, contented be,\nFor thou a glorious spring ere long shalt see.\nAfter these gloomy shades of death and sorrow,\nThou shalt enjoy an everlasting morrow.\nAs wheat in new-plowed furrows rotting lies,\nIncapable of quick’ning till it dies,\nSo into dust this flesh of mine must turn\nAnd lie a while forgotten in my urn.\nYet when the sea, and earth, and Hell shall give\nTheir treasures up, my body too shall live:\nNot like the resurrection at Grand Caire,\nWhere men revive, then straight of life despair;\nBut, with my soul, my flesh shall reunite\nAnd ne’er involvéd be with death and night,\nBut live in endless pleasure, love, and light.\nThen hallelujahs will I sing to thee,\nMy gracious God, to all eternity.\nThen at thy dissolution patient be:\nIf man can raise a flower, God can thee.","content_html":"Wendy Wall joins us to discuss an extraordinary poet whose works went unknown for over three hundred years. Hester Pulter brought together science, religion, poetic traditions and so much more. Her 120 remarkable poems are now available at the award-winning Pulter Project website.
\n\nIn this episode we discuss her work with emblems, her scientific chemistry experiment with flowers, and her wonderment (both worried and confident, doubtful and awestruck) about the resurrection of the body and its reunification with the soul after death.
\n\nFor a biography of Hester Pulter, see here:
\nhttps://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/about-hester-pulter-and-the-manuscript.html
For her poems, see the Pulter Project here:
\nhttps://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/
Here is the text of today's poem:
\n\n"View But This Tulip" (Emblem 40)
\n\nView but this tulip, rose, or gillyflower,
\nAnd by a finite, see an infinite power.
\nThese flowers into their chaos were retired
\nTill human art them raised and reinspired
\nWith beating, macerating, fermentation,
\nCalcining, chemically, with segregation;
\nThen, lest the air these secrets should reveal,
\nShut up the ashes under Hermes’s seal;
\nThen, with a candle or a gentle fire,
\nYou may reanimate at your desire
\nThese gallant plants; but if you cool the glass,
\nTo their first principles they’ll quickly pass:
\nFrom sulfur, salt, and mercury they came;
\nWhen they dissolve, they turn into the same.
\nThen, seeing a wretched mortal hath the power
\nTo recreate a Virbius of a flower,
\nWhy should we fear, though sadly we retire
\nInto our cause? Our God will reinspire
\nOur dormant dust, and keep alive the same
\nWith an all-quick’ning, everlasting flame.
\nThen, though I into atoms scattered be,
\nIn indivisibles I’ll trust in Thee.
\nThen let this comfort me in my sad story:
\nDust is but four degrees removed from glory
\nBy Nature’s paths, but God from death and night
\nCan raise this flesh to endless life and light.
\nThen, my impatient soul, contented be,
\nFor thou a glorious spring ere long shalt see.
\nAfter these gloomy shades of death and sorrow,
\nThou shalt enjoy an everlasting morrow.
\nAs wheat in new-plowed furrows rotting lies,
\nIncapable of quick’ning till it dies,
\nSo into dust this flesh of mine must turn
\nAnd lie a while forgotten in my urn.
\nYet when the sea, and earth, and Hell shall give
\nTheir treasures up, my body too shall live:
\nNot like the resurrection at Grand Caire,
\nWhere men revive, then straight of life despair;
\nBut, with my soul, my flesh shall reunite
\nAnd ne’er involvéd be with death and night,
\nBut live in endless pleasure, love, and light.
\nThen hallelujahs will I sing to thee,
\nMy gracious God, to all eternity.
\nThen at thy dissolution patient be:
\nIf man can raise a flower, God can thee.
Naomi Shihab Nye, a Palestinian-American poet born in St. Louis and raised in Jerusalem and San Antonio, focuses on the ordinary to observe the extraordinary. Her poetry often speaks of cultural encounters and celebrates different cultures. She is the recipient of many awards and is currently the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate.
\n\nIn this poem, we explore what makes a poem "poetry" versus some other genre, and we consider what difference such designations make while walking through a longer, narrative poem.
\n\nFor the text of the poem, see here: https://poets.org/poem/gate-4
\n\nFor more on Naomi Shihab Nye, see the Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-shihab-nye
\n\nThis poem comes from Honeybee: Poems and Short Prose.
\n\nThe image has a creative commons license and can be found here.
","summary":"Remember airports? In this wonderful, narrative poem, Nye speaks of the remarkable capacity for community in a world of strangers.","date_published":"2021-03-09T18:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/4e75b8fc-c85a-4f4e-8355-dbd15488422a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15130345,"duration_in_seconds":1139}]},{"id":"6ae4fd6e-30a4-444e-98e2-e7f1740d9396","title":"Episode 18: Jenny Johnson, Dappled Things","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/18","content_text":"Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017). Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a NEA Fellowship. She has also received awards and scholarships from the Blue Mountain Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, New England Review, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere. After earning a BA/MT in English Education from the University of Virginia, she taught public school for several years in San Francisco, and she spent ten summers on the staff of the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop. She earned an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program.\n\nFor more about Jenny, please visit her website: https://www.jennyjohnsonpoet.com/","content_html":"Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017). Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a NEA Fellowship. She has also received awards and scholarships from the Blue Mountain Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, New England Review, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere. After earning a BA/MT in English Education from the University of Virginia, she taught public school for several years in San Francisco, and she spent ten summers on the staff of the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop. She earned an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program.
\n\nFor more about Jenny, please visit her website: https://www.jennyjohnsonpoet.com/
","summary":"In this episode, Jenny Johnson discusses the sources of inspiration for her poem \"Dappled Things,\" her love of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the incredible diversity--and fragility--of the natural world.","date_published":"2021-03-02T11:30:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/6ae4fd6e-30a4-444e-98e2-e7f1740d9396.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15664719,"duration_in_seconds":1645}]},{"id":"35439135-75b3-4571-bcb0-504b79603378","title":"Episode 17: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/17","content_text":"Pied Beauty\n\nGlory be to God for dappled things –\n For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;\n For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;\nFresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;\n Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;\n And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.\n\nAll things counter, original, spare, strange;\n Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)\n With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;\nHe fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:\n Praise him.\n\nIn this extraordinary curtal sonnet (a shortened sonnet, curtailed), Hopkins packs immense power. He uses the shortened form to heighten the emotion, drawing himself up short in the end with nothing else that can be said other than \"Praise him.\" This week, we walk through these short lines and unfold some of the ways that Hopkins works. \n\nHopkins was an immensely influential poet of the Victorian era (late 1800s) whose work was not published or encountered until 1918 in the modernist era. He was a reclusive, Jesuit priest who struggled with depression, but who could also be given over to incredible acts of wonder and praise (as in this poem). He stands outside his time, and has been read and loved by poets of all different persuasions throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.\n\nFor more informaiton on Hopkins, please see The Poetry Foundation.","content_html":"Pied Beauty
\n\nGlory be to God for dappled things –
\n For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
\n For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
\nFresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
\n Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
\n And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
\n Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
\n With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
\nHe fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
\n Praise him.
In this extraordinary curtal sonnet (a shortened sonnet, curtailed), Hopkins packs immense power. He uses the shortened form to heighten the emotion, drawing himself up short in the end with nothing else that can be said other than "Praise him." This week, we walk through these short lines and unfold some of the ways that Hopkins works.
\n\nHopkins was an immensely influential poet of the Victorian era (late 1800s) whose work was not published or encountered until 1918 in the modernist era. He was a reclusive, Jesuit priest who struggled with depression, but who could also be given over to incredible acts of wonder and praise (as in this poem). He stands outside his time, and has been read and loved by poets of all different persuasions throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
\n\nFor more informaiton on Hopkins, please see The Poetry Foundation.
","summary":"In this extraordinary curtal sonnet (a shortened sonnet, curtailed), Hopkins packs immense power. He uses the shortened form to heighten the emotion, drawing himself up short in the end with nothing else that can be said other than \"Praise him.\" This week, we walk through these short lines and unfold some of the ways that Hopkins works. ","date_published":"2021-02-23T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/35439135-75b3-4571-bcb0-504b79603378.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":11340826,"duration_in_seconds":875}]},{"id":"4ab5e9d9-4cd1-4a49-948e-0b332ae2d5c4","title":"Episode 16: John Milton, When I Consider How My Light is Spent","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/16","content_text":"The episode explores Milton's great sonnet spun from the difficulties of middle age and new disappointments. We consider how he pulls consolation from his sense of defeat and near despair. Faced with his coming blindness, he hears the voice of Patience giving him the strength to wait.\n\nTHE TEXT\n\nJohn Milton, \"When I Consider How My Light is Spent\"\n\nWhen I consider how my light is spent,\n Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,\n And that one Talent which is death to hide\n Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent\nTo serve therewith my Maker, and present\n My true account, lest he returning chide;\n “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”\n I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent\nThat murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need\n Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best\n Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state\nIs Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed\n And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:\n They also serve who only stand and wait.”\n\nhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-milton","content_html":"The episode explores Milton's great sonnet spun from the difficulties of middle age and new disappointments. We consider how he pulls consolation from his sense of defeat and near despair. Faced with his coming blindness, he hears the voice of Patience giving him the strength to wait.
\n\n\n\nJohn Milton, "When I Consider How My Light is Spent"
\n\nWhen I consider how my light is spent,
\n Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
\n And that one Talent which is death to hide
\n Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
\nTo serve therewith my Maker, and present
\n My true account, lest he returning chide;
\n “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
\n I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
\nThat murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
\n Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
\n Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
\nIs Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
\n And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
\n They also serve who only stand and wait.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-milton
","summary":"The episode explores Milton's great sonnet spun from the difficulties of middle age and new disappointments. We consider how he pulls consolation from his sense of defeat and near despair. Faced with his coming blindness, he hears the voice of Patience giving him the strength to wait.","date_published":"2021-02-15T12:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/4ab5e9d9-4cd1-4a49-948e-0b332ae2d5c4.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":12589957,"duration_in_seconds":957}]},{"id":"c0bfa0cf-1b7c-4894-8980-304b33011c68","title":"Episode 15: Amanda Gorman, Chorus of the Captains","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/15","content_text":"Amanda Gorman became the first poet ever to perform at the Super Bowl on February 7, 2021. In this episode we talk about poetry for the masses, mass media, genres of poetry, spoken word, the visual and the verbal, and the mix of ancient methods with emergent forms.\n\nSee her poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ejbSCjg2qo\n\nSee this great article by Virginia Jackson and Meredith Martin about Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem at Avidly:\nThe Poetry of the Future\n\nFor more on Amanda Gorman, see The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amanda-gorman","content_html":"Amanda Gorman became the first poet ever to perform at the Super Bowl on February 7, 2021. In this episode we talk about poetry for the masses, mass media, genres of poetry, spoken word, the visual and the verbal, and the mix of ancient methods with emergent forms.
\n\nSee her poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ejbSCjg2qo
\n\nSee this great article by Virginia Jackson and Meredith Martin about Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem at Avidly:
\nThe Poetry of the Future
For more on Amanda Gorman, see The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amanda-gorman
","summary":"Amanda Gorman became the first poet ever to perform at the Super Bowl on February 7, 2021. In this episode we talk about poetry for the masses, mass media, genres of poetry, spoken word, the visual and the verbal, and the mix of ancient methods with emergent forms.","date_published":"2021-02-09T20:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/c0bfa0cf-1b7c-4894-8980-304b33011c68.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13575073,"duration_in_seconds":1076}]},{"id":"13b04c3a-c56c-4b40-88c5-87ef8067cede","title":"Episode 14: George Herbert, The Collar","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/14","content_text":"In this episode, we look at \"The Collar\"--a famous single-stanza poem, playing with meter, rhythm, and rhyme by the seventeenth-century priest and poet, George Herbert.\n\nHere is the poem in full:\n\nTHE COLLAR\n\nI struck the board, and cried, \"No more;\n I will abroad!\nWhat? shall I ever sigh and pine?\nMy lines and life are free, free as the road,\nLoose as the wind, as large as store.\n Shall I be still in suit?\nHave I no harvest but a thorn\nTo let me blood, and not restore\nWhat I have lost with cordial fruit?\n Sure there was wine\nBefore my sighs did dry it; there was corn\n Before my tears did drown it.\n Is the year only lost to me?\n Have I no bays to crown it,\nNo flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?\n All wasted?\nNot so, my heart; but there is fruit,\n And thou hast hands.\nRecover all thy sigh-blown age\nOn double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute\nOf what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage,\n Thy rope of sands,\nWhich petty thoughts have made, and made to thee\nGood cable, to enforce and draw,\n And be thy law,\nWhile thou didst wink and wouldst not see.\n Away! take heed;\n I will abroad.\nCall in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears;\n He that forbears\n To suit and serve his need\n Deserves his load.\"\nBut as I raved and grew more fierce and wild\n At every word,\nMethought I heard one calling, Child!\n And I replied My Lord.\n\nFor more on George Herbert, visit the poetry foundation.","content_html":"In this episode, we look at "The Collar"--a famous single-stanza poem, playing with meter, rhythm, and rhyme by the seventeenth-century priest and poet, George Herbert.
\n\nHere is the poem in full:
\n\nTHE COLLAR
\n\nI struck the board, and cried, "No more;
\n I will abroad!
\nWhat? shall I ever sigh and pine?
\nMy lines and life are free, free as the road,
\nLoose as the wind, as large as store.
\n Shall I be still in suit?
\nHave I no harvest but a thorn
\nTo let me blood, and not restore
\nWhat I have lost with cordial fruit?
\n Sure there was wine
\nBefore my sighs did dry it; there was corn
\n Before my tears did drown it.
\n Is the year only lost to me?
\n Have I no bays to crown it,
\nNo flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?
\n All wasted?
\nNot so, my heart; but there is fruit,
\n And thou hast hands.
\nRecover all thy sigh-blown age
\nOn double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
\nOf what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage,
\n Thy rope of sands,
\nWhich petty thoughts have made, and made to thee
\nGood cable, to enforce and draw,
\n And be thy law,
\nWhile thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
\n Away! take heed;
\n I will abroad.
\nCall in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears;
\n He that forbears
\n To suit and serve his need
\n Deserves his load."
\nBut as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
\n At every word,
\nMethought I heard one calling, Child!
\n And I replied My Lord.
For more on George Herbert, visit the poetry foundation.
","summary":"In this episode, we look at \"The Collar\"--a famous single-stanza poem, playing with meter, rhythm, and rhyme by the seventeenth-century priest and poet, George Herbert.","date_published":"2021-02-01T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/13b04c3a-c56c-4b40-88c5-87ef8067cede.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13735224,"duration_in_seconds":1104}]},{"id":"2de082f9-2324-456a-8bf9-86826226b6bd","title":"Episode 13: Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/13","content_text":"In this episode, we discuss Amanda Gorman's \"The Hill We Climb,\" the poem that she recited at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We discuss how well suited the poem is to its occasion, Gorman's powerful use of sound, and the conversation that she engages in--with John Winthrop, the Constitution, the Bible, George Washington, Maya Angelou, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Like everyone else in America, we are in love with this poem and hope you enjoy the discussion. ","content_html":"In this episode, we discuss Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," the poem that she recited at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We discuss how well suited the poem is to its occasion, Gorman's powerful use of sound, and the conversation that she engages in--with John Winthrop, the Constitution, the Bible, George Washington, Maya Angelou, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Like everyone else in America, we are in love with this poem and hope you enjoy the discussion.
","summary":"In this episode, we discuss Amanda Gorman's \"The Hill We Climb,\" the poem that she recited at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We discuss how well suited the poem is to its occasion, Gorman's powerful use of sound, and the conversation that she engages in--with John Winthrop, the Constitution, the Bible, George Washington, Maya Angelou, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Like everyone else in America, we are in love with this poem and hope you enjoy the discussion. \r\n\r\nFor the full text of \"The Hill We Climb,\" please see this page: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/amanda-gorman-inaugural-poem-transcript/index.html\r\n\r\nFor more on Amanda Gorman, please see personal website: https://www.theamandagorman.com/","date_published":"2021-01-25T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/2de082f9-2324-456a-8bf9-86826226b6bd.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":14721466,"duration_in_seconds":1128}]},{"id":"5ebb194d-2f3b-4857-93b1-85c731445f5a","title":"Episode 12: James Merrill, Christmas Tree","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/12","content_text":"In this episode, Spencer Reece guides us through a reading of \"Christmas Tree,\" one of the last poems that James Merrill wrote before his death. We learned so much through this conversation--about the friendship between James Merrill and Spencer Reece, the rhetorical force of visual poems, and the emotional power of elegy during the AIDS pandemic as well as in our own moment. \n\nFor the full text of \"Christmas Tree,\" please see this page from the September 1995 issue of Poetry magazine.\n\nFor more on James Merrill, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.\n\nFor more on Spencer Reece, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website. ","content_html":"In this episode, Spencer Reece guides us through a reading of "Christmas Tree," one of the last poems that James Merrill wrote before his death. We learned so much through this conversation--about the friendship between James Merrill and Spencer Reece, the rhetorical force of visual poems, and the emotional power of elegy during the AIDS pandemic as well as in our own moment.
\n\nFor the full text of "Christmas Tree," please see this page from the September 1995 issue of Poetry magazine.
\n\nFor more on James Merrill, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.
\n\nFor more on Spencer Reece, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.
","summary":"","date_published":"2020-12-02T14:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/5ebb194d-2f3b-4857-93b1-85c731445f5a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16757055,"duration_in_seconds":1297}]},{"id":"2848cea7-0a47-452c-89d7-5aadbe2df955","title":"Episode 11: Alberto Ríos, When Giving Is All We Have","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/11","content_text":"In this episode, we think with the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona, Alberto Ríos, about the meaning of giving. Why do we give? What is giving? And what are its consequences? Ríos wrote this poem for a broad audience and has shared it with many different groups. It is, on the one hand, a very simple and accessible poem, easy to understand. And it is also, on the other hand, filled with rich layers, structures, images, and contexts. We explore here how simplicity and complexity work together.\n\nFor the full text of the poem, see here.\n\nFor more on Alberto Ríos, see the Poetry Foundation here.\n\nThanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem in this episode. You can find \"When Giving Is All We Have\" in A Small Story about the Sky: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/a-small-story-about-the-sky-by-alberto-rios/Links:When Giving Is All We Have by Alberto Ríos - Poems | poets.org — inaugural state poet laureate of ArizonaAlberto Ríos | Poetry Foundation","content_html":"In this episode, we think with the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona, Alberto Ríos, about the meaning of giving. Why do we give? What is giving? And what are its consequences? Ríos wrote this poem for a broad audience and has shared it with many different groups. It is, on the one hand, a very simple and accessible poem, easy to understand. And it is also, on the other hand, filled with rich layers, structures, images, and contexts. We explore here how simplicity and complexity work together.
\n\nFor the full text of the poem, see here.
\n\nFor more on Alberto Ríos, see the Poetry Foundation here.
\n\nThanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem in this episode. You can find "When Giving Is All We Have" in A Small Story about the Sky: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/a-small-story-about-the-sky-by-alberto-rios/
Links:
This week Mary Jo Bang joins us! We learn about the Bauhaus movement and an influential photographer named Lucia Moholy, whose works were largely stolen during her lifetime. Mary Jo Bang's collection, A Doll for Throwing uses ekphrastic prose poetry throughout to delve into the riches of the Bauhaus movement which flourished in Germany between the world wars and had longlasting consequences for modern art. With Mary Jo Bang's poem this week, we explore both ekphrasis (poetry about an image) and prose poetry (poetry with no line breaks).
\n\nFor the full text of the "Head of the Dancer," please see here.
\n\nFor the image by Lotte Jacobi about which this poem is written, please see here.
\n\nFor more on Lucia Moholy, please see the MoMA here..
\n\nFor more on Mary Jo Bang, please see the Poetry Foundation here.
Links:
This week we read Anne Bradstreet's elegy for her grandchild Elizabeth and draw out the multiple voices (both faith and doubt, both grief and consolation) and the tensions and deep emotions in the work of this talented Puritan poet--the first woman from British North America to publish a book of poems.
\n\n"In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665 Being a Year and a Half Old"
\n\nFarewell dear babe, my heart's too much content,
\nFarewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye,
\nFarewell fair flower that for a space was lent,
\nThen ta'en away unto eternity.
\nBlest babe why should I once bewail thy fate,
\nOr sigh the days so soon were terminate;
\nSith thou art settled in an everlasting state.
By nature trees do rot when they are grown.
\nAnd plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall,
\nAnd corn and grass are in their season mown,
\nAnd time brings down what is both strong and tall.
\nBut plants new set to be eradicate,
\nAnd buds new blown, to have so short a date,
\nIs by His hand alone that guides nature and fate.
For more on Anne Bradstreet, please see the Poetry Foundation.
\n\nFor an essay on Anne Bradstreet's art, please see this short piece by Kevin Prufer.
\n\nFor an essay on Anne Bradstreet's publication of The Tenth Muse (the first published book by a woman from British North America) and her ambitions as a poet, see this piece by Charlotte Gordon.
\n\nFor an understanding of Puritan spirituality, please see this short review essay by Abram Van Engen.
Links:
Carl Phillips joins us this week to take a close look at Toi Derricotte's "The Minks." Together we consider the art of narrative poetry, the movements of a single-stanza poem, and the meaning of line breaks.
\n\nToi Derricotte is the author of five books of poetry and a collection of prose called The Black Notebooks. She has won numerous awards and fellowhips, including the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award from the United Black Artists, the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, the PEN/Voelcker Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. With Cornelius Eady she co-founded Cave Canem in 1996, an organization committed to furthering the artistic and professional opportunities for African American poets. "The Minks" comes from her 1990 book Captivity, which explores the legacies of slavery and its impact on African American families in the present day. It is included in I: New and Selected Poems published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, which granted us permission to read it for this podcast.
\n\nCarl Phillips, our guest for this episode, is also an award-winning poet of multiple collections, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (2020). He has had three books nominated for a National Book Award and has won the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, a Pushcart Prize, the Kingsley Tuft Poetry Award, and numerous fellowships and other awards. Thank you to Carl for joining us today as our first guest!
\n\nFor more on Toi Derricotte, please see here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/toi-derricotte
\n\nFor more on Carl Phillips, please see here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carl-phillips
\n\nFor the full text of "The Minks," please see here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42872/the-minks
Links:
This week we look at one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets from the seventeenth century. This famous poem (#14, "Batter my heart") turns a poetic tradition of love and longing to religious ends, earnestly seeking God and questioning whether union with God will ever be achieved.
\n\nJohn Donne was an influential metaphysical poet who enjoyed wide fame in his own day, then went largely unread for two centuries, and then, saw his reputation radically revived in the early twentieth century. He was born into a Catholic family, converted to Anglicanism, and became a minister. Along the way, he wrote both "secular" erotic love poems and "religious" poems of many forms. This poem is one of the nineteen "Holy Sonnets" he wrote.
\n\nFor a sequence on sonnets, this episode caps a mini-sequence in Poetry For All, which included a sonnet of Shakespeare's (episode 4), a reconception of the sonnet tradition by the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay (episode 5), a set of erasure poems drawn from Shakespeare's sonnets by Jen Bervin (episode 6), and a return to the seventeenth-century sonnet tradition with John Donne (episode 7).
\n\nFor more on John Donne, please see the Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-donne
Links:
In this episode we learn about erasure poetry and poetic tradition by looking at Jen Bervin's incredible book NETS, composed of erasure poems created from the sonnets of Shakespeare. The erasures are extraordinary--short and moving--and you'll never see Shakespeare the same way again. We also discuss poetic traditions, and the idea of writing into and over top of what has come before.
\n\nFor an important essay on the political implications of erasure poetry, please see "The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure" by Solmaz Sharif.
\n\nFor more on Jen Bervin, please visit her website: http://jenbervin.com/
\n\nSpecial thanks this week to Ugly Duckling Presse for giving us permission to read Bervin's poetry aloud. "18" "63" and "64" by Jen Bervin were first published in Nets (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009).
\n\nTo purchase Nets please visit Ugly Duckling Presse.
Links:
In this episode, we discuss Claude McKay, an influential poet of the Harlem Renaissance, taking a close look at his incredible sonnet "America."
\n\nFor help in our preparations for this podcast, we want to thank Professors Bill Maxwell and Vince Sherry at Washington University in St. Louis, both of whom have often taught Claude McKay and this poem in particular. Bill Maxwell in addition has written extensively on McKay, and we encourage you to look up his work.
\n\nFor the complete collection of McKay's poetry, see Bill Maxwell's edited volume:
\nClaude McKay, Complete Poems
And for more information on McKay, please visit the Poetry Foundation:
Links:
In this episode we introduce listeners to one of the most resilient forms in English-language poetry: the sonnet. And we do it with one of the most famous sonnets Shakespeare wrote.
\n\nFor the sonnet in full, see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45087/sonnet-18-shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day
\n\nFor helpful works on Shakespeare's sonnets, see:
\n\nStephen Booth's edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets
\n\nand
\n\nHelen Vendler's edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
","summary":"In this episode we introduce listeners to one of the most resilient forms in English-language poetry: the sonnet. And we do it with one of the most famous sonnets Shakespeare wrote.","date_published":"2020-09-22T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/2894d036-d0b3-4e4e-a25f-68e7a6c0d18a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13161456,"duration_in_seconds":972}]},{"id":"1f9de9eb-fda2-4472-b9c0-2a84e635c9b7","title":"Episode 3: Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/3","content_text":"To view the poem, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america\n\nTo hear Cornelius Eady reading the poem and discussing it, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QezAVP_HiY\n\nFor a foundational essay about Phillis Wheatley and her work, please see June Jordan's essay, \"The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America.\"\n\nFor two examples of the way Wheatley has inspired other artists and writers, please see the work of Cornelius Eady and Honoree Fanonne Jeffers.\n\nEady, \"Diabolic\"\nEady, \"To Phillis Wheatley's Mother\"\nEady, Interview\n\nJeffers, The Age of PhillisLinks:The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America… | Poetry FoundationCornelius Eady Reading and Discussing Phillis Wheatley's \"On Being Brought from Africa to America\" Read by Cornelius Eady - YouTubeHonoree Fanonne Jeffers, The Age of Phillis – HFS Books","content_html":"To view the poem, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america
\n\nTo hear Cornelius Eady reading the poem and discussing it, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QezAVP_HiY
\n\nFor a foundational essay about Phillis Wheatley and her work, please see June Jordan's essay, "The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America."
\n\nFor two examples of the way Wheatley has inspired other artists and writers, please see the work of Cornelius Eady and Honoree Fanonne Jeffers.
\n\nEady, "Diabolic"
\nEady, "To Phillis Wheatley's Mother"
\nEady, Interview
Jeffers, The Age of Phillis
Links:
Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263)
\nby Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
\nSuccess in Circuit lies
\nToo bright for our infirm Delight
\nThe Truth's superb surprise
\nAs Lightning to the Children eased
\nWith explanation kind
\nThe Truth must dazzle gradually
\nOr every man be blind —
For more on Emily Dickinson, see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson
Links:
","summary":"What does it mean to tell the truth \"slant\"? Is this a ballad, a hymn? What is \"ars poetica\" and is this an example? Join us for a discussion of this great, short, fun, rich poem by Dickinson.","date_published":"2020-09-10T07:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/56332c0e-1cc3-402a-9f17-cf36ba09dfbc.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":11334417,"duration_in_seconds":853}]},{"id":"f3ee8c5e-d400-41d1-bd00-cb5e68ad530d","title":"Episode 1: Seamus Heaney, Digging","url":"https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/1","content_text":"In this episode, we begin learning about poetry through Seamus Heaney's great poem \"Digging.\"\n\nFor the text of Heaney's poem, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging\n\nTo hear Seamus Heaney reading this poem himself, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRkPU1LSUg\n\nFor more on Seamus Heaney, please visit: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/seamus-heaneyLinks:Digging by Seamus Heaney | Poetry FoundationSeamus Heaney reading \"Digging\"More on Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist","content_html":"In this episode, we begin learning about poetry through Seamus Heaney's great poem "Digging."
\n\nFor the text of Heaney's poem, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging
\n\nTo hear Seamus Heaney reading this poem himself, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRkPU1LSUg
\n\nFor more on Seamus Heaney, please visit: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/seamus-heaney
Links:
","summary":"We begin Poetry for All by teaching and talking about a great poem on poetry itself: Seamus Heaney's \"Digging.\"","date_published":"2020-08-31T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/d55a3bfc-6538-4214-882b-a389e71b4bf6/f3ee8c5e-d400-41d1-bd00-cb5e68ad530d.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":11475646,"duration_in_seconds":884}]}]}![found here](\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naomishihabnye.jpg\"){kind=link}