Artrice and Jon talk about the poets they regularly turn back to or whose work they can't put down and contemplate on why that is. Who do we keep ignoring our TBR for? Why do we hold a place for certain poets when there are so many good ones out there?

Artrice shares E. Hughes debut collection, Ankle Deep in Pacific Water and considers how the collection tackles grief, biography, and the personal archive.

Jon shares CA Conrad's latest collection,

Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return and contemplates on the collection's use of tenderness in the face of grief.

In this episode, we delve into the important and relevant intersection of poetry and programming with a focused discussion on Lilian-Yvonne Bertram’s groundbreaking collection, Travesty Generator. Bertram uses code not only as a tool for poetic generation but as a means of cultural critique—disrupting the perceived neutrality of computation and revealing the inherent racism embedded within code.

We explore how Travesty Generator interrogates the invisibility of Blackness in digital literary spaces, asking: Who is imagined as the reader of code? Who is seen as its author? We unpack how Bertram’s work participates in and expands the field of digital poetics, positioning poetry as a site for resistance and reinvention.

Jon and Artrice read and discuss two poems from the collection, “Counternarratives” and “Soldier Buffalo,” offering listeners to hear and experience Bertram’s voice, vision, and code-poetic strategies.

We also invite you to try digital poetics.

Follow the link below to read Nick Montfort's “Through the Park”, a poem created by the same code as “Counternarratives” and explore the Python-based elision poem generator used by Bertram. Anyone can copy and paste the code into a Python Editor and change the lines of poetry written in between the quotation marks to create their own elision poem generator. I recommend Visual Studio Code.

Link to Nick Montfort’s “Through the Park” https://nickm.com/poems/through_the_park.html

Link to Python code https://nickm.com/poems/through_the_park.py

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. They’ve held previous positions at Northeastern University, UMASS Boston, St. Lawrence University, Ithaca College, and Williams College. They previously directed the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Festival.

Have thoughts about code and poetry? Tried the generator? Share your creations or reflections with us on social media using #PIPO.

Support the show: If you enjoy the podcast, leave us a review and share with friends interested in poetry.

In this episode of PIPO, Jon and Artrice take listeners on a journey through the latest issue of Poetry International. Each of the host, and their guest, Sam Yaziji, select one poem from issue 29 that speaks to them in powerful ways— poems that ignite the imagination, evoke vivid imagery, and encourage a deep connection with the present moment.

Throughout the episode, Jon and Artrice discuss the latest issue with Sam Yaziji, who is the Print Production Editor at Poetry International. He talks about his role in preparing the journal for print, and his experience with exploring language through translating poems.

As the hosts delve into the meaning and significance of each poem, they reflect on how poetry can ground us in the here and now. From meditating on the burning of Smyrna, to reflecting on all the beauty that encourages us to be present, and the power of touch to make visible the invisible.

The episode highlights the poems in issue 29 of Poetry International as formidable yet approachable, and just the beginning of the wide array of work featured from around the world.

Whether you’re a poetry aficionado or new to the genre, this episode is a celebration of language’s ability to bring us closer to the world—and to ourselves.

Buy the latest issue of Poetry International