Poetry For All

Episode 104: Jane Zwart, I read that the moon is rusting

January 31st, 2026  |  Season 8  |  24 mins 28 secs

21st century, children, free verse, grief and loss, guest on the show, spirituality, surprise, wonder

This episode brings together a collage of images to explore the meaning of time, the emergence of events from one to another, and the wonder of the unknown.

Episode 101: Emerald GoingSnake, Someday I'll Love--

November 19th, 2025  |  Season 7  |  23 mins 53 secs

21st century, aging, elegy, free verse, gratitude, grief and loss, guest on the show, love, native american heritage month

This episode opens "Someday I'll Love" poems through the vivid imagery of a young poet's connection with their grandmother, remembering in love as memory begins to slip.

Episode 81: Niki Herd, The Stuff of Hollywood

October 31st, 2024  |  Season 6  |  37 mins 37 secs

21st century, black history month, found poetry, free verse, guest on the show, social justice and advocacy, violence, word and image

In this episode, Niki Herd joins us to read and discuss an excerpt from The Stuff of Hollywood, a collection in which Herd experiments with a range of forms and procedures to examine the history of violence in America.

Episode 79: W.H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts

October 3rd, 2024  |  Season 6  |  39 mins 1 sec

20th century, ekphrasis, free verse, guest on the show, lgbtqia month, modernism, word and image

In this episode, Shankar Vendantam joins us to read and discuss "Musee des Beaux Arts," a poem that explores the ways in which humans become indifferent to the suffering of others.

Episode 69: Live with Marilyn Nelson!

February 11th, 2024  |  Season 6  |  55 mins 17 secs

21st century, anger, ars poetica, black history month, children, guest on the show, poet laureate, sonnet, surprise, wonder

Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem "How I Discovered Poetry."

Episode 66: Katy Didden, The Priest Questions the Lava

November 21st, 2023  |  Season 6  |  26 mins 10 secs

21st century, christianity, climate change, erasure, grief and loss, guest on the show, nature poetry, spirituality, visual poetry, word and image

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.

Episode 65: Du Fu, Facing Snow

October 19th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  23 mins 57 secs

8th century, grief and loss, guest on the show, poetry in translation, rhymed verse, world poetry

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.

Episode 63: Rumi, Colorless, Nameless, Free

August 29th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  29 mins 56 secs

13th century, ghazal, guest on the show, islam, joy, poetry in translation, restlessness, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise, wonder, world poetry

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.

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 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.