“Three Controversial Musicians”: Today’s three poems spotlight three individuals known for their musical talents, as well as the controversy they provoked.  Naomi Shihab Nye, “Cross That Line,” from You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2011), used by kind permission of the author.  Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died,” from Lunch Poems (City Lights Books, 1964).  William Matthews, “Mingus at the Half Note,” from Search Party: Collected Poems, Sebastian Matthews and Stanley Plumly, eds. (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), read with kind permission of the William Matthews estate.  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. ...

“Gifts”: One poet recalls her complex strategies as a teen gift-giver, a second recalls the gift his parents bestowed on him when he was eleven and about to move away from home, and the third imagines the circumstances in which her father gave a gift to her mother before they were married, before they became her parents.  Brenda Shaughnessy, “A Mix Tape: ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me),'” from So Much Synth (Copper Canyon Press, 2016).  Seamus Heaney, “The Conway Stewart,” from Selected Poems 1988-2013 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014).  Eavan Boland, “The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me,” from Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (W, W....

“A Redwood, an Ancient Orchard, a Sequoia”: Do you have a favorite tree you pay special attention to when you take a routine walk?  Is it older than you?  We project so many attributes on to trees, including longevity and strength.  We develop an emotional attachment to trees.  Today’s episode considers such attachments and features two poems by Dana Gioia: “Becoming a Redwood” and “Planting a Sequoia.”  Both are included in Dana Gioia’s 99 Poems: New and Selected (Graywolf Press, 2016) and used with the kind permission of the author.   Also included are brief passages from the final book of Homer’s Odyssey, translated by Robert...

“Running on Empathy”: Three authors display various degrees of empathy in their depictions of Abraham Lincoln.  Walt Whitman, prose passages from Specimen Days, and “O Captain! My Captain.”  Kathleen Flenniken, “To Ease My Mind,” from Famous (U. of Nebraska Press, 2006), and used with kind permission of the author.  Leigh Stein, “Lincoln, Abraham, Melancholy Of,” from What To Miss When (New York: Soft Skull, 2021), and used with kind permission of the author.  Some historical background information provided by Joshua Wolf Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness (2005); David Reynolds, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times (2020); Ron Chernow, Grant (2017).  The show’s theme music is...

“Mysterious Encounters”: Three sing-songy poems are featured on today’s episode.  All three depict encounters between two individuals: all three resist our efforts to make total sense of their motives and actions.  We may think we know what happens between the couples, but the poems seem to run ahead of our ability to catch up to them and make complete sense of them.  Robert Burns, “Coming Through the Rye.”  John Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad.”  Padraic Colum: “She Moved Through the Fair.”  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana, available at sweetgrassmusic.com and used with Mr. Aaberg’s...

“Why Serve?: First World War Poems of Internal Conflicts”: Young men in the 19 teens attempted to rationalize whether serving in the military during wartime was the right thing to do.  What’s in it for them?  Are they under peer pressure to enlist?  What do they see as the likely outcome if they do enlist?  Their answers are not predictable.  W.B. Yeats, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” Edward Thomas, “As the Team’s Head Brass,” Wilfred Owen, “Disabled.”  Various anthologies of First World War Poetry or devoted to work by the individual author include these poems.  The show’s theme music...

“Children Thinking”: This episode features the voices of children–filtered through adult poets–in three poems that express a variety of insights.  These poems may prompt you to wonder, did you once think like these three children?  The poems are read in this order: William Wordsworth, “We Are Seven” (originally published in 1798).  Elizabeth Bishop, “In the Waiting Room,” from The Complete Poems 1927-1979 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979, 1983).  Seamus Heaney, “Death of a Naturalist,” from Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (available at Sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with kind permission of Philip...

“Desk Jobs”: Did you ever have a job you abruptly quit soon after it began?  Why did you do that?  The first three lines of our first poem refer to a job the speaker quit after just one shift.  The next two poems feature office interactions between the speaker and a work colleague and boss.  Dorianne Laux, “What I Wouldn’t Do,” from What We Carry (BOA Editions, 1994), and used with the kind permission of the author.  Deborah Garrison, “Superior,” from A Working Girl Can’t Win (Random House, 1998), and used with kind permission of the author.  Stephen Dunn, “The Last Hours,” from Different Hours (Norton,...

“Manual Labor”: What do you remember from your first paid job? Did you develop any work-habits that you carried into adulthood? From your twenties on, has much of your identity been shaped by your work? Poems on this and next month’s episodes offer a variety of perspectives on work. Three poems are featured: Jericho Brown’s “Labor”, from The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). Seamus Heaney’s “Thatcher,” from  Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998). Mary Robinson, “London’s Summer Morning.” The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used...

“Swimming”: We dive in with two action-packed excerpts from ancient poetic narratives. Both depict heroic swimmers moving through dangerous waters. This episode concludes with a contemporary American poet’s solitary naked swim in a pond in the early morning mist. Homer, The Odyssey (trans. Robert Fitzgerald), from Book V, lines 403-408, 415-437, 441-486. Beowulf (trans. Seamus Heaney), lines 506-510, 515-518, 532-581 (Norton, 2000). Maxime Kumin, “Morning Swim,” from Selected Poems 1960-1990 (Norton), used by kind permission of the Maxine Kumin Literary Trust. {Splash!, by Howard Means, provided useful, entertaining context.} The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with kind permission of...