Poetry For All

Episode 72: Victoria Chang, My Mother--died unpeacefully...

May 22nd, 2024  |  Season 6  |  20 mins 1 sec

21st century, aging, asian american, elegy, free verse, grief and loss

In this episode, we read one of Victoria Chang’s moving poems from her collection OBIT, and discuss how the poem explores the interplay between life, death, grieving, and memory as the poet tries to process her mother’s passing.

Episode 70: Lauren Camp, Inner Planets

March 19th, 2024  |  Season 6  |  28 mins 29 secs

21st century, free verse, nature poetry, night, poet laureate, wonder

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

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

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

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

Episode 67: Alex Dimitrov, Winter Solstice

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

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

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

Episode 61: Ada Limón, "The Raincoat"

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

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

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

Episode 60: Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms

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

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

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

Episode 58: Richie Hofmann, Things That Are Rare

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

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

Episode 55: Kay Ryan, Crib

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

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

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

Episode 54: Carl Phillips, To Autumn

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

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

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

Episode 49: Lisel Mueller, When I am Asked

September 12th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  19 mins 57 secs

20th century, ars poetica, elegy, free verse, grief and loss, repetition or refrain

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.