Arty Farty with Vincent

This week I look at a poem by the greatest poet NEVER to win the Noble Prize for Literature. Yehuda Amichai was able to write about the experience of being an Israeli and Jew during the years when the state of Israel came into being and endured three military attacks from their neighbours in what was seen as a fight for survival spurned on from the horrors of The Shoah. But he wrote about these events in a manner that focused more on the internal conflicts of the individual rather than the nation around him, and in so doing he joined the likes of Seamus Heaney in breaking the barriers of the border of his country and the narrow frame of reference of place, to become a truly universal and beloved poet. 

His work was translated into forty different languages, making him the most translated Hebrew poet since King David.

To read more about this amazing poet, please click HERE.

To read the poem, click the link HERE.

Yehuda Amichai, “Poem Without an End” from The Selected Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai. Copyright © 1996 by Yehuda Amichai. The recording of Yehuda Amichai reciting his poem is taken from the TV show Poetry Spots Season 2. To find out about the landmark TV show, click the link HERE.

To learn more about my work, including my upcoming new collection of poetry called Oxide-Doo-La-Daisy, then check out my website HERE.

The sound recordings in this podcast are being used in a noncommercial and educational manner only. All rights to the material remain with the author, translator, and with rights owners of the TV show Poetry Spots. 

This week I visit a poem by the grandaddy of Irish English language poetry. Adam's Curse is a sad, evocative poem that laments the attitudes of people towards those in the creative fields, the pressures and expectations placed on women to fit in with society's ideas of beauty, and also the moment when the poet realises his chances of winning the affections of the woman he loves have finally run out. It is one of Yeat's most evocative poems from early in his career that draws on religious imagery to lament his lot in life while capturing a moment when he is walking one evening with Maud Gonne and a friend not long before she marries Major John MacBride. 

To read the poem click HERE.

To read a little more about Yeats, click HERE.

To find out more about my writing check out my website HERE.

To comment on this poem or any other poem that is featured in the podcast, then please use the hash-tag #poemsapennyeach, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes or send us a voice message and you'll get played on the show.

Thanks for listening and stay safe.

This week I look at a poem by a writer who had a profound impact on my development from a hobbyist poet, to one who took the writing of poetry as a serious calling. This particular poem always appealed to me, no less because of the dark subject matter, but also because of the way Emily Dickinson was able to tell a complete story, in such a compelling way, with a few clever devices.  

To read the poem click HERE 

To learn a bit more about Emily Dickenson (and I strongly urge to learn more about her) check out the link HERE. 

Photo by Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via Getty Images 

To find out more about my writing check out my website HERE. 

To comment on this poem or any other poem that is featured in the podcast, then please use the hash-tag #poemsapennyeach, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes or send us a voice message and you'll get played on the show.   

Thanks for listening and stay safe.

This week to celebrate the start of the baseball season, I want to look at my favourite baseball poem, 7th Game: 1960 Series. In this episode, I explain why this poem is not only the best baseball poem written to date but why, it is an amazing time capsule, taking us back to that faithful afternoon of 13th October 1960 when The Pirates beat the Yankees. In a poem loaded with sometimes problematic language, and infused with meaning, Paul Blackburn captures the essence of New York and America in a moment of uncertainty and defeat.  

Again, I want to thank Al Filreis and the staff of Penn Sound for giving me permission to use the recording of Paul Blackburn which is available for non-commercial and educational use only. 

 © 2012 the Estate of Paul Blackburn. All rights reserved. Used with permission. 

Distributed by PennSound. 

To read the poem, click on the link HERE. 

To hear Paul Blackburn reading the poem, click HERE. 

You can read more about Paul Blackburn, HERE. 

And to learn more about the Kelly Writer's house check out the link here, or go here for the #Modpo Course. 

Seriously if you have any aspirations to develop as a writer, or even just in your ability to get more out of reading poems, you will not regret taking part in this free online course. It is AMAZING!! 

Lastly, to learn more about my work as a poet, and to buy my books then check out my website Here. 

Thanks once again for listening. Until next time. Slán.  

In this week's episode, I discuss the poem Bullet Points, by Jericho Brown.  Jericho Brown is an American poet whose most recent book The Tradition published by Copper Canyon Press in 2019, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The poem was published first in 2016 on Buzz Feed and was written in the wake of a number of high-profile cases of police brutality which saw the birth of the Black Lives Matter as a movement and saw the end of Colin Kaepernick's career (to date) as a footballer. 

This poem uses visceral language to describe the common fears held by many black people in America, and one that I feel should be read because it reminds us that behind each murder and subsequent protest there is a personal loss and an individual who suffered. A fact that often gets lost in the noise of protest, and reaction that follows.  

To read the poem, click HERE. 

For more information about the writer, check out his website HERE. 

For more information about my writing, check out my website HERE. 

To comment on this poem or any other poem that is featured in the podcast, then please use the hash-tag #poemsapennyeach, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes.  Thanks for listening and stay safe.