Poetry For All

Episode 39: Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear The Mask

February 2nd, 2022  |  Season 4  |  22 mins 9 secs

19th century, anger, black history month, grief and loss, guest on the show, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, rondeau, social justice and advocacy

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.

Episode 38: Laura Van Prooyen, Elegy for My Mother's Mind

January 26th, 2022  |  Season 4  |  29 mins 16 secs

21st century, aging, children, elegy, free verse, gratitude, grief and loss, guest on the show, love, mother's day

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.

Episode 34: Tracy K. Smith, Declaration

December 7th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  23 mins 10 secs

21st century, anger, black history month, erasure, grief and loss, poet laureate, social justice and advocacy

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.

Episode 29: Elizabeth Bishop, One Art

October 6th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  25 mins 16 secs

20th century, grief and loss, lgbtqia month, love, rhymed verse, villanelle, women's history month

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 23: Langston Hughes, "Johannesburg Mines"

May 21st, 2021  |  Season 2  |  19 mins 29 secs

20th century, anger, black history month, free verse, grief and loss, laborers, modernism, repetition or refrain, social justice and advocacy

In this episode, we discuss social poetics, poetry of witness, and the places where poetry speaks loudly of silence -- where language fails in the face of trauma. "The worst is not, so long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'"

Episode 22: Two Poems of World War I

April 27th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  24 mins 43 secs

20th century, grief and loss, guest on the show, modernism, rhymed verse, sonnet, veteran's day

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.

Episode 16: John Milton, When I Consider How My Light is Spent

February 15th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  15 mins 57 secs

17th century, aging, anger, body in pain, christianity, grief and loss, hope, rhymed verse, sonnet, surprise

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.

Episode 12: James Merrill, Christmas Tree

December 2nd, 2020  |  Season 1  |  21 mins 37 secs

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

Episode 9: Anne Bradstreet, In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet

October 27th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 52 secs

17th century, anger, children, christianity, elegy, grief and loss, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, sonnet, surprise, women's history month

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.