Lit from the Basement

In celebration of her appointment as the United States Poet Laureate, Danielle shares Joy Harjo's poem "Unmailed Letter" with Max. Topics include: irrational numbers, dialectical argument structure, and frustrating relationships.

We open season three (and celebrate 4th of July) with a fistful of Americana as Danielle introduces Max to Bruce Snider through his poem "Map." Talking points include the ghazal structure, Indiana, the color yellow, homoerotic Americana, and Walt Whitman.

For our last show of season two, we have a twofer! Danielle shares Don Bogen's "A Citizen" and "Immediate Song" with Max. Talking points include lyric sequences, persona poems, an empire's twilight, and phrenology.

Danielle shares Carmen Giménez Smith's "Something New" with Max. Talking points include love as work, marriage as labor, plushy chambers, and the etymology of mortgage.

Danielle shares Gary Soto's "Ambition" with Max. Talking points include friendship, Seneca, Cicero, zoomorphism, pleasure, and Max’s time as a disgruntled shoe salesman.

Danielle shares A. Molotkov's "Lightening" with Max. Talking points include the prose poem, Aloysius Bertrand, fig trees, eye surgery, and Duncan MacDougall's dead-weighing experiments. 

Danielle shares "[but the rain is full of ghosts tonight]" by dawn lonsinger with Max. Talking points include Danielle's coining of the term "maximalism," Edna St. Vincent Millay, ghosts of lovers past, and rain, rain, rain.

Guest host dawn lonsinger shares Frank O'Hara's "Animals" with Danielle and Max. Talking points include: idioms, the New York School, personism, dune buggies, time, and square things vs. round things.

Danielle shares "The Romantic Lead" by Ian Williams with Max. Talking points include contemporary sonnets, sextets and octaves, Swan Lake vs. Ladyhawk, reaction shots, and finding displeasure with Aquaman.

Danielle shares "The Soils I Have Eaten" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil with Max. Talking points include strophes, memories of place, prospecting by taste, and the 1980s arcade game Dig Dug.