web02.fireside.fm Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:52:49 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Poetry For All - Episodes Tagged with “Advent/Christmas” https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/tags/advent%2Fchristmas Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0500 This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know very little about it. In this podcast, we read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it one more time. Introducing our brand new Poetry For All website: https://poetryforallpod.com! Please visit the new website to learn more about our guests, search for thematic episodes (ranging from Black History Month to the season of autumn), and subscribe to our newsletter. en-us episodic Finding Our Way Into Great Poems Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know very little about it. In this podcast, we read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it one more time. Introducing our brand new Poetry For All website: https://poetryforallpod.com! Please visit the new website to learn more about our guests, search for thematic episodes (ranging from Black History Month to the season of autumn), and subscribe to our newsletter. no poetry, poems, literature, teaching, education Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen vanengen@wustl.edu Episode 55: Kay Ryan, Crib https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/55 840b1f09-e220-42b2-a6a9-98e233556cea Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0500 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen full 5 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen 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. 17:17 no 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. "Crib" appears in The Best of It © 2010 by Kay Ryan. Used by permissions of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. For more on Kay Ryan and her work, you can visit the Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kay-ryan) website. Our favorite interview with Kay Ryan appears in the Paris Review (https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5889/the-art-of-poetry-no-94-kay-ryan). 20th century, advent/christmas, free verse, lgbtqia month, poet laureate, rhymed verse, wonder In this episode, we discuss Kay Ryan's "Crib," a brief poem that begins with an interest in the deep archaeology of language and shifts to a powerful meditation on theft, innocence, and guilt.

"Crib" appears in The Best of It © 2010 by Kay Ryan. Used by permissions of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

For more on Kay Ryan and her work, you can visit the Poetry Foundation website.

Our favorite interview with Kay Ryan appears in the Paris Review.

]]> 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.

"Crib" appears in The Best of It © 2010 by Kay Ryan. Used by permissions of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

For more on Kay Ryan and her work, you can visit the Poetry Foundation website.

Our favorite interview with Kay Ryan appears in the Paris Review.

]]> Episode 36: Denise Levertov, On the Mystery of the Incarnation https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/36 56487ce3-6cc9-4743-b9a8-f52af20aa8c4 Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:00:00 -0500 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen full 3 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen 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. 16:42 no 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). To read "On the Mystery of the Incarnation," click here (https://allpoetry.com/On-The-Mystery-Of-The-Incarnation). To read Levertov's essay "Some Notes on Organic Form," click here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69392/some-notes-on-organic-form-56d249032078f). ''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. Photo 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 20th century, advent/christmas, free verse, wonder 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).

To read "On the Mystery of the Incarnation," click here.

To read Levertov's essay "Some Notes on Organic Form," click here.

''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.

Photo 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

]]> 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).

To read "On the Mystery of the Incarnation," click here.

To read Levertov's essay "Some Notes on Organic Form," click here.

''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.

Photo 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

]]> Episode 12: James Merrill, Christmas Tree https://poetryforall.fireside.fm/12 5ebb194d-2f3b-4857-93b1-85c731445f5a Wed, 02 Dec 2020 14:00:00 -0500 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen full 1 Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen 21:37 no 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. For the full text of "Christmas Tree," please see this page (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=39363) from the September 1995 issue of Poetry magazine. For more on James Merrill, please see this page (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/james-merrill) from the Poetry Foundation website. For more on Spencer Reece, please see this page (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/spencer-reece) from the Poetry Foundation website. 20th century, advent/christmas, aging, body in pain, elegy, friendship, grief and loss, guest on the show, intimacy, lgbtqia month, love, science and medicine, visual poetry 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.

For the full text of "Christmas Tree," please see this page from the September 1995 issue of Poetry magazine.

For more on James Merrill, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.

For more on Spencer Reece, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.

]]> 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.

For the full text of "Christmas Tree," please see this page from the September 1995 issue of Poetry magazine.

For more on James Merrill, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.

For more on Spencer Reece, please see this page from the Poetry Foundation website.

]]>