Poetry For All

Episode 117: Richard Wilbur, Praise in Summer

October 26th, 2026  |  Season 9  |  26 mins 4 secs

21st century, ars poetica, gratitude, joy, nature poetry, poet laureate, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer, surprise, wonder

This live episode looks at the power of poetry for defamiliarizing the familiar and increasing our attention to the world around us. We met with First United Methodist Church in Normal, Illinois to discuss Richard Wilbur's sonnet and Abram Van Engen's book "Word Made Fresh."

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 88: Oksana Maksymchuk, Tempo

March 20th, 2025  |  Season 6  |  29 mins 12 secs

21st century, Ukraine, War, free verse, grief and loss, surprise, violence

Oksana Maksymchuk joins us for a reading and discussion of "Tempo," a poem that explores the how war causes us to "whirl with / planets and stars that coil / around our fragile core."

Episode 69: Live with Marilyn Nelson!

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

21st century, Children, anger, ars poetica, black history month, 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 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 63: Rumi, Colorless, Nameless, Free

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

13th century, Islam, ghazal, guest on the show, 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 62: Kobayashi Issa, Haiku

August 11th, 2023  |  Season 6  |  17 mins 19 secs

18th century, haiku, joy, poet laureate, poetry in translation, spring, surprise, world poetry

What makes haiku "the perfect poetic form"? This episode reads three wonderful haiku by Kobayashi Issa and explores what makes them so moving and fun.

Episode 61: Ada Limón, "The Raincoat"

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

21st century, Children, Mother's Day, body in pain, free verse, gratitude, hispanic heritage month, love, 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 35: Matthew Zapruder, Poem for Wisconsin

December 15th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  22 mins 56 secs

21st century, free verse, laborers, surprise, winter, wonder

In this episode, we discuss the way in which Matthew Zapruder attends to vivid, specific details to create a sense of wonder, connection, and surprise.

Episode 32: Rick Barot, Cascades 501

November 3rd, 2021  |  Season 3  |  38 mins 32 secs

21st century, asian american & pacific islander month, free verse, guest on the show, lgbtqia month, narrative, nature poetry, surprise