Louise Carter and I get real about feeling like frauds. Why do poets sometimes end up with what’s known as ‘imposter syndrome’? And can we get past it enough to enjoy our accomplishments? Whether you’re new to writing poetry or a widely published poet, I think there’ll be something in this one for you.

I check back in with Eleanor 24 hours after we finished our recording about Emily Berry’s The End. What did she learn? How did she feel?

We chat about getting back into reading poetry after a break, feeling like being an outsider/insider and feeling like you may have got it ‘wrong’.

Shout out to Jen Campbell for her fantastic YouTube review of Emily Berry’s Stranger, Baby!

Are poets who write ‘difficult’ poems being intentionally obtuse? Are they trying to hide something? How on earth do you approach poems like these for the first time?

Today I chat with ModPo classmate and friend Eleanor about Emily Berry’s The End, just out in Poetry magazine. We make our way through a totally unprepared first reading of the poem’s first few lines.

Ready for more? Here’s a bonus follow-up with Eleanor’s thoughts on this poem after doing some further research. And you can also check out Jacket2’s First Readings.

Anne Carson’s shapeshifting long poem The Glass Essay exists somewhere between lyric, confessional and narrative. The deeper we get into it, the less useful these terms seem to be. They also bring up questions of what we expect from our female poets…

Show notes

Did studying poetry at school spark your interest or leave you cold? In this episode I chat with my sister-in-law Terri – a Leading Teacher in a K-12 school who’s a passionate advocate of poetry in the classroom. We hear about what connects, what’s challenging and how she matches poetry with curriculum demands.

Show notes