In this episode, Lauren Camp joins us to read and discuss "Inner Planets," a poem that she wrote during her time as the astronomer in residence at Grand Canyon National Park. She describes her poetic process and the value of solitude in a place full of wonderment. To learn more about the Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence program, click here. To learn more about Lauren Camp, visit her website. Lauren's newest collection, In Old Sky, is a collection of the poems that were inspired by the Grand Canyon ..read more

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" by Dan Chiasson "The Final Prophecy of W.S. Merwin" by ..read more

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. Thanks to Copper Canyon Press 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; and to read Dimitrov's additional lines on Twitter, you can follow him at @apoemcalledlove on Twitter ..read more

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. Visit the Tupelo Press website to purchase a copy of 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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 (NYRB Press, 2022). You can learn more about her work as a vocalist, poet, translator and performer here. To learn more about Rumi, visit the Poetry Foundation website. Cover p ..read more

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. To see (and purchase) the book, see HarperCollins here. Thank you to HarperCollins for permission to read these translations on our podcast. For more on Kobayashi Issa, visit the Poetry Foundation here ..read more

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 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. To learn more about Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, visit the Library of Congress website. Ada Limón's author website includes information about her six books of poetry as well as interviews, press releases, and ..read more

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. Click here to see and order his book, Rose. We cannot reproduce the text of his poem "From Blossoms" here, but to see the text of his poem, click here. We likewise cannot reproduce the text of his poem "The Weight of Sweetness," but to read that poem, click here ..read more