This special episode introduces a new ambient album by Andy Stermer, who composes all of our music. Of Modern Poetry is inspired by a selection of poetic masterpieces from the mid-19th through mid-20th centuries, all of which have been featured previously on this show. The seven compositions, arranged chronologically according to the date of each poem’s first publication, offer what we hope you’ll find to be a richly textured sonic meditation on the origins and development of modern poetry. 

Earlier versions of Andy’s compositions were inspired by recitations and remarks made by the following guests: Sheryl Paul, Theo Padnos, Grian Chatten, Hrishikesh Hirway, Krista Tippett, Enrique Martínez Celaya, and Alec Soth.  

The album is accompanied by a limited-edition chapbook anthology featuring each of the poems that inspired Andy’s compositions. The books were designed, printed, and assembled by Brendan Stermer, in collaboration with Salome Hauge. 

Both the album and the book are available for purchase on Bandcamp. All proceeds will be used to support the continued production of this show. 

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In this episode, novelist Lisa Ko reads “Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?” by Tracy K. Smith. Ko’s first book, The Leavers, was a 2017 National Book Award finalist. Her most recent book, Memory Piece (Riverhead Books, 2024) was described in Electric Literature as “a poignant meditation on late-stage capitalism: what it means to exist in an age of surveillance and government tracking, what it means to create art in an era where identity itself is commodified, and what it means to find purpose.” 

Tracy K. Smith is an American poet born in 1972. “Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?” was first collected in Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The poem is also included in Such Color: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2021).

Keep up with Lisa Ko at lisa-ko.com.

We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Facebook.

Dig the music in this episode? Check out Of Modern Poetry by Andy Stermer – an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast. All proceeds support the continued production of this show.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This IPRP Poetry Playlist features a selection of archival recordings from PennSound, a project of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. The PennSound website includes an extensive audio archive with free recordings of hundreds of poets reading their own work.

1. “Long Track Blues” by Sterling Brown appears in The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, published by TriQuarterly. A recording of the poem is included in the Sterling Brown archive on PennSound.

2. “Rails in the Subway” by Charles Reznikoff appears in The Poems Of Charles Reznikoff: 1918-1975, published by Black Sparrow Press. A recording of the poem is included in the Charles Reznikoff archive on PennSound.

3. “At North Farm” by John Ashbery appears in Selected Poems, published by Penguin Books. A recording of the poem is included in the John Ashbery archive on PennSound.

This episode uses the sounds “Accordion drone” and “Untuned piano” by adrianorhagen from freesound.org under the Attribution 4.0 license.

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In this episode, Amy Dickinson reads “Say It” by Roland Flint. Dickinson wrote the beloved daily advice column “Ask Amy,” which appeared in newspapers across the country from 2003 until her retirement in June of 2024. She is also the author of two memoirs and a new Substack newsletter.

Roland Flint was born in Park River, North Dakota in 1934. “Say It” was first published in Say It (Dryad Press, 1979). It appears in The Complete Poems of Roland Flint, published by Elizabeth Flint in 2022.

We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Facebook.

Dig the music in this episode? Check out Of Modern Poetry by Andy Stermer – an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast. All proceeds support the continued production of this show.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In this IPRP Poetry Playlist, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón reads three selections from the anthology You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, out now from Milkweed Editions. The collection, edited and introduced by Limón, offers “fifty poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by our most celebrated contemporary writers.” Click here to learn more about the anthology, including upcoming events and how to share your own “You Are Here” nature poem.

1. “Reasons to Live” by Ruth Awad

2. “Lullaby for the Grieving” by Ashley M. Jones

3. “Twenty Minutes in the Backyard” by Alberto Ríos

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In this episode, Roy Foster reads “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats. Foster is Emeritus Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford and the author of many books, including his classic, two-volume biography of Yeats, published in 1997 and 2003. In a review of the first volume published in the New York Review of Books, the Irish novelist John Banville wrote: “W.B. Yeats: A Life is a great and important work, a triumph of scholarship, thought, and empathy such as one would hardly have thought possible in this age of disillusion. It is an achievement wholly of a scale with its heroic subject.”

“Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats was first published in 1927 and included in his magnificent collection, The Tower, published in 1928. To learn more about Yeats’ life and work, look no further than Roy Foster’s W.B Yeats: A Life, Vol. I: The Apprentice Mage and Vol. II: The Arch-Poet.

We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Facebook.

Dig the music in this episode? Check out Of Modern Poetry by Andy Stermer – an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast. All proceeds support the continued production of this show.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In this IPRP Poetry Playlist, our host Brendan Stermer reads three poems from his debut chapbook, Forgotten Frequencies, out now from North Dakota State University Press. The books were printed in a limited edition at The Braddock News Letterpress Museum in Braddock, ND and assembled by hand by students in the publishing program at North Dakota State University in Fargo. Forgotten Frequencies was selected as the winner of the 2023 Poetry of the Plains & Prairies Award and named a 2024 Midwest Book Awards finalist. Purchase a signed copy of Forgotten Frequencies here.

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In this episode, musician and writer Dessa reads an excerpt from “Natural Enemies of the Conch” by Alan Dugan. Dessa first gained prominence as a rapper with the Twin Cities hip hop collective Doomtree, but has since worked across many genres and creative disciplines. She has collaborated with the Minnesota Orchestra, published a memoir and poetry collections, and even hosted a BBC science podcast. Her fantastic new album, Bury the Lede, is an embrace of dance floor-ready pop music. 

Alan Dugan was an American poet born in New York City in 1923. “Natural Enemies of the Conch” appears in Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry, published by Seven Stories Press.

In 2026, Seven Stories Press announced the publication of a new selection of Dugan’s work, Love Poems. The press describes the book as reflecting “the core of his art, blending hurt and hardship with a powerful belief in the driving force that love is.”

Keep up with Dessa on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at dessawander.com. 

We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Facebook.

Dig the music in this episode? Check out Of Modern Poetry by Andy Stermer – an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast. All proceeds support the continued production of this show.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

For each IPRP Poetry Playlist, we curate a selection of three poems, loosely thematically related, presented with musical score, but without any commentary or historical context. We encourage you to approach these short episodes with the same relaxed attitude you might take toward a playlist on a burnt CD, given to you by a friend, which you casually pop in on a long road trip. Don’t worry about perfect comprehension, and steer clear of academic analysis. Just turn up the volume, roll down your windows, and enjoy the ride.

1. “Little Exercise” by Elizabeth Bishop appears in Poems, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

2. “Love For Other Things” by Tom Hennen appears in Darkness Sticks to Everything, published by Copper Canyon Press.

3. “The Lady Speaks” by William Carlos Williams appears in The Collected Poems: Volume II, 1939-1962, published by New Directions.

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In this episode, Tish Harrison Warren reads “Possible Answers to Prayer” by Scott Cairns. Warren is an Anglican priest and the author of two award-winning books, Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night. She also writes a weekly newsletter for the New York Times on “faith in private life and public discourse.” 

“Possible Answers to Prayer” by Scott Cairns appears in Slow Pilgrim, published by Paraclete Press. Cairns is an American poet born in 1954. Much of his work explores spiritual themes and is influenced by his Eastern Orthodox faith.

Keep up with Tish Harrison Warren on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at tishharrisonwarren.com. 

We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on Facebook.

Dig the music in this episode? Check out Of Modern Poetry by Andy Stermer – an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast. All proceeds support the continued production of this show.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.