Poetry For All

Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem "How I Discovered Poetry." On January 31, we met at Calvin University for its January Series and spoke with Marilyn Nelson about poetry and her work for a live audience. For more on Marilyn Nelson, visit her website (https://marilyn-nelson.com/) or The Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marilyn-nelson). This poem is the title poem of an extraordinary book called How I Discovered Poetry (https://a.co/d/6xrZVm9) It was originally published in The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (https://a.co/d/0iajt2m) Thank you to LSU Press for permission to read and discussion this poem on our podcast.

We share some news about a new website at poetryforallpod.com and a live event next week! https://poetryforallpod.com/

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. Picking up on the "radical hope" we discussed in Dimitrov's "Winter Solstice," we turn to Merwin's sense of what is untouched but still possible as he greets the new year. In this episode, we quote a few pieces from The New Yorker. Here they are, plus a few other resources. "The Aesthetic Insight of W.S. Merwin (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/18/the-ascetic-insight-of-w-s-merwin)" by Dan Chiasson "The Final Prophecy of W.S. Merwin (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-final-prophecy-of-w-s-merwin)" by Dan Chiasson "The Palm Trees and Poetry of W.S. Merwin (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-palm-trees-and-poetry-of-w-s-merwin)" by Casey Cep "When You Go Away: Remembering W.S. Merwin (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/when-you-go-away-remembering-w-s-merwin)" by Kevin Young See also The Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-s-merwin). The poem originally appeared in Present Company (https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/present-company-by-w-s-merwin/) (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Thanks to the Wylie Agency for granting us permission to read this poem on the episode.

In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year. To learn more about Alex Dimitrov, please visit his website (https://www.alexdimitrov.com/poems). Thanks to Copper Canyon Press (https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/authors/alex-dimitrov/) for granting us permission to read this poem from Love and Other Poems. During our conversation, we briefly allude to "Love," Dimitrov's wonderful poem that he continues to write each day. To read the original poem, you can check the American Poetry Review (https://aprweb.org/poems/love0); and to read Dimitrov's additional lines on Twitter, you can follow him at @apoemcalledlove on Twitter (https://x.com/apoemcalledlove?s=20).

In our discussion of "The Priest Questions the Lava," Katy describes 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. To see Katy's erasure, click on the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day feature (https://poets.org/poem/ore-choir-priest-questions-lava). Visit the Tupelo Press website to purchase a copy of Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland (https://www.tupelopress.org/product/ore-choir-the-lava-on-iceland/). The website includes a lesson plan for those who might want to introduce Katy's poetry into the classroom.

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. To learn more about Du Fu's life, work, and cultural significance, please see Lucas Bender's Du Fu Transforms: Tradition and Ethics amid Societal Collapse (Harvard University Press, 2021). (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674260177)

In episode 64, we talk about Shakespeare's sonnet 29, a poem about comparison and competition, leading the poet almost to despise himself before, by chance, he remembers his dear friend and is lifted by the deep joy of that relationship. We link our discussion to present-day concerns about social media, the Surgeon General's warning about an epidemic of loneliness in this country, and a long-term Harvard study of happiness. Links below. Here is the poem: Sonnet 29 When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate; For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. Links to the Surgeon General's Warning about Social Media https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177626373/u-s-surgeon-general-vivek-murthy-warns-about-the-dangers-of-social-media-to-kids#:~:text=Social%20media%20can%20present%20a,a%20new%20advisory%20released%20Tuesday. Various Links on the Harvard Happiness Study https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/harvard-happiness-study-relationships/672753/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/10/85-year-harvard-study-found-the-secret-to-a-long-happy-and-successful-life.html https://www.reuters.com/markets/wealth/what-worlds-longest-happiness-study-says-about-money-2023-02-06/

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. Haleh Liza Gafori's translations of Rumi's poetry appear in Gold (https://www.nyrb.com/products/gold) (NYRB Press, 2022). You can learn more about her work as a vocalist, poet, translator and performer here (https://www.halehliza.com/). To learn more about Rumi, visit the Poetry Foundation website (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jalal-al-din-rumi). Cover photo from The Walters Art Museum (https://art.thewalters.org/detail/77715/illuminated-preface-to-the-second-book-of-the-collection-of-poems-masnavi-2/)

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. We use the beautiful translations of award-winning poet Robert Haas in The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa. To see these haiku and others online, visit The Poetry Foundation here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50983/selected-haiku-by-issa). To see (and purchase) the book, see HarperCollins here (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/essential-haiku-volume-20-hass?variant=32118145876002). Thank you to HarperCollins for permission to read these translations on our podcast. For more on Kobayashi Issa, visit the Poetry Foundation here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kobayashi-issa).

With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in "The Raincoat." "The Raincoat" appears in Ada Limón's book The Carrying (https://milkweed.org/book/the-carrying) by Milkweed Editions. Thank you to Milkweed Editions for permission to read the poem on this podcast. You can find the "The Raincoat" on the Poetry Foundation website (https://poets.org/poem/raincoat). To learn more about Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, visit the Library of Congress website (https://guides.loc.gov/poet-laureate-ada-limon/activities-at-the-library). Ada Limón's author website (https://www.adalimon.net/) includes information about her six books of poetry as well as interviews, press releases, and her calendar of events. Photo credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress

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. For more on Li-Young Lee, see The Poetry Foundation here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/li-young-lee). Thanks to BOA Editions for granting us permission to read Li-Young Lee's work on our podcast. "From Blossoms (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43012/from-blossoms)" and "The Weight of Sweetness (https://poets.org/poem/weight-sweetness)" originally appeared in Rose (https://www.boaeditions.org/products/rose) (BOA Editions, 1986).

In this episode, we read the elegy of Chidiock Tichborne, written the night before his execution, and contemplate the power of repetitions, the balanced precision of a man facing his end, and the drumbeat of monosyllables that takes his imagination beyond the moment of his death. Tichborne's Elegy My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares, And all my good is but vain hope of gain: The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done. The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung, My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green, The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung, I saw the world, and yet I was not seen: My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun, And now I live, and now my life is done. I sought my death, and found it in my womb, I looked for life, and saw it was a shade, I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but made; The glass is full, and now the glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done. For more on Tichborne, see The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chidiock-tichborne See also all the related content at The Poetry Foundation

In this episode, we are delighted to have Richie Hofmann as our guest. Richie Hofmann is the author of two collections: Second Empire (https://www.alicejamesbooks.org/bookstore/second-empire) and A Hundred Lovers (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/689918/a-hundred-lovers-by-richie-hofmann/). His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Yale Review, and many other literary magazines, and he is the recipient of Ruth Lilly and Wallace Stegner fellowships. To learn more about Richie, visit his website (https://www.richiehofmann.com/). To learn more about Richie Hofmann's poetry and process, read Jesse Nathan's interview with Richie Hoffman in McSweeney's (https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/richie-hofmann). Richie Hofmann photo credit: Marcus Jackson

She called herself Vincent, she smoked cigarettes, and she wore shimmery golden evening gowns when she read her poetry to sold-out crowds. Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century...but in years after her death, her literary reputation suffered, and only recently have critics and historians revisited and properly celebrated her work. In this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases the ways in which Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry. To learn more about Edna St. Vincent Millay and her life and times, take a look Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an informative documentary available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ItdEiBR-o&t=2901s Here is the poem: She had forgotten how the August night Was level as a lake beneath the moon, In which she swam a little, losing sight Of shore; and how the boy, who was at noon Simple enough, not different from the rest, Wore now a pleasant mystery as he went, Which seemed to her an honest enough test Whether she loved him, and she was content. So loud, so loud the million crickets’ choir. . . So sweet the night, so long-drawn-out and late. . . And if the man were not her spirit’s mate, Why was her body sluggish with desire? Stark on the open field the moonlight fell, But the oak tree’s shadow was deep and black and secret as a well. We so admire the podcast Poem Talk. In this episode, Al Filreis, Elisa New, Jane Malcolm, and Sophia DuRose offer a close reading of two more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/155947/biologically-speaking-a-discussion-of-love-is-not-all-and-i-shall-forget-you-presently-by-edna-st-vincent-millay photo by Carl Van Vechten

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was one of the longest-reigning monarchs in all of British history, but she was also a gifted poet. In this episode, we discuss "On Monsieur's Departure," a poem that is inspired by Petrarchan conventions and gives insight into the public and private selves of a powerful queen. (For the text of the poem, scroll to the bottom.) In this episode, we attempt to describe the magnificence of some of Queen Elizabeth's portraiture. To learn more, visit the National Portrait Gallery of London (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/the-queens-likeness-portraits-of-elizabeth-i): To learn more about Petrarch and his poems that were such an enormous influence on English poets of the sixteenth century, please read this book (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674663480&content=toc), which provides Petrarch's original poems in Italian and Robert Durling's stunning translations into English. To learn more about what it meant to "fashion a self" in the Renaissance, see Stephen Greenblatt's foundational work on this idea (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3680145.html) . On Monsieur’s Departure BY QUEEN ELIZABETH I I grieve and dare not show my discontent, I love and yet am forced to seem to hate, I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate. I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned, Since from myself another self I turned. My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done. His too familiar care doth make me rue it. No means I find to rid him from my breast, Till by the end of things it be supprest. Some gentler passion slide into my mind, For I am soft and made of melting snow; Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind. Let me or float or sink, be high or low. Or let me live with some more sweet content, Or die and so forget what love ere meant.

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).

This week, Joanne and Abram take a break to write a grant for the podcast. We very much hope you enjoy Poetry For All. And if you do, please leave us a review, share it with a friend, and let us know! Thank you all for listening.

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. For more on Carl Phillips, please visit the Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carl-phillips). For more on David Baker, please visit the Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/david-baker). "To Autumn" has been read from Carl Phillips' latest book of poetry, Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 (https://www.amazon.com/Then-War-Selected-Poems-2007-2020/dp/0374603766). The latest book by Carl Phillips is a collection of essays called My Trade Is Mystery. Purchase at Yale University Press (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300257878/my-trade-is-mystery/) or Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/My-Trade-Mystery-Meditations-Writing/dp/0300257872) or wherever you get your books.

In this episode, we focus on the life and work of Carter Revard, an Osage poet whose medieval scholarship informs the structure of "What the Eagle Fan Says." Jessica Rosenfeld, a professor of medieval literature at Washington University in St. Louis, joins us for this discussion. Carter Revard was a prolific poet and scholar. To learn more about his work, click here (https://source.wustl.edu/2022/01/obituary-carter-revard-of-arts-sciences-90/). "What the Eagle Fan Says" was published in How the Songs Came Down (https://www.saltpublishing.com/products/how-the-songs-come-down-9781844710645) (Salt Publishing, 2005). To learn more about accentual verse, read this brief treatment (https://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and-reading/accentual-verse/) by poet Dana Gioia.

This sonnet reflects on the autumn of life and an intimate love, and it turns on that love growing stronger in and through its age, even as the body decays. To learn more about Shakespeare's sonnets, visit Folger Shakespeare page (https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/). Our favorite editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are edited by Colin Burrow (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/complete-sonnets-and-poems-9780199535798?cc=us⟨=en&) and Stephen Booth (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300085068/shakespeares-sonnets/). Sir Patrick Stewart's reading (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqdhZo9b7NU) of Sonnet 73 is one of our favorites.