Poetry For All

Episode 26: Brenda Cárdenas, "Our Lady of Sorrows"

September 15th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  21 mins 44 secs

21st century, ekphrasis, erasure, free verse, grief and loss, guest on the show, hispanic heritage month, nature poetry, social justice and advocacy, spirituality, visual poetry, word and image

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.

Episode 21: Christian Wiman, I Don't Want to Be a Spice Store

April 13th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  18 mins 45 secs

21st century, children, father's day, free verse, guest on the show, surprise

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.

Episode 19: Naomi Shihab Nye, Gate A-4

March 9th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  18 mins 59 secs

21st century, hope, joy, narrative, social justice and advocacy, spirituality, surprise, wonder

Remember airports? In this wonderful, narrative poem, Nye speaks of the remarkable capacity for community in a world of strangers.

Episode 18: Jenny Johnson, Dappled Things

March 2nd, 2021  |  Season 2  |  27 mins 25 secs

21st century, gratitude, guest on the show, joy, lgbtqia month, nature poetry, thanksgiving, wonder

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.

Episode 15: Amanda Gorman, Chorus of the Captains

February 9th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  17 mins 56 secs

21st century, alliterative verse, black history month, free verse, gratitude, narrative, social justice and advocacy

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.

Episode 13: Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

January 25th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  18 mins 48 secs

21st century, black history month, free verse, hope, social justice and advocacy

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.

For 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

For more on Amanda Gorman, please see personal website: https://www.theamandagorman.com/

Episode 11: Alberto Ríos, When Giving Is All We Have

November 17th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  15 mins 46 secs

21st century, free verse, friendship, gratitude, hispanic heritage month, joy, repetition or refrain, thanksgiving

In this episode, we read and discuss a poem about giving by Alberto Ríos, the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona.

Episode 10: Mary Jo Bang, The Head of a Dancer

November 10th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  22 mins 22 secs

21st century, ekphrasis, free verse, guest on the show, intimacy, visual poetry, word and image

This week Mary Jo Bang joins us! We learn about the Bauhaus movement and a photographer named Lucia Moholy. And we look at both ekphrastic poetry (poetry about an image) and prose poetry (poetry with no line breaks).

Episode 8: Toi Derricotte, "The Minks"

October 20th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  20 mins 18 secs

21st century, black history month, free verse, guest on the show, narrative, surprise, wonder

This week, with special guest Carl Phillips, we take a close look at "The Minks" and consider the art of narrative poetry and the movements of a single-stanza poem.

Episode 6: Jen Bervin, Nets

October 6th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  19 mins 13 secs

21st century, erasure, eros and desire, grief and loss, intimacy, women's history month

In this episode we learn about erasure poetry and poetic tradition by looking at Jen Bervin's incredible book NETS, created from the sonnets of Shakespeare.