PoetryNow

By Poetry Foundation

What's PoetryNow about?

PoetryNow is a weekly four-minute radio series featuring some of today’s most accomplished and innovative poets who offer an acoustically rich and reflective look into a single poem.

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PoetryNow episodes:

04.18.2023
The Editor's Ex
By Caitlin Doyle
12.30.2019
I Thought a Tree Dying
Sandra Doller meditates on aging and motherhood. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
12.23.2019
I Saw This Day Coming
Stacy Szymaszek writes a poem in gratitude to her students. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
12.16.2019
Hypersensitive Emanation
Will Alexander finds ways of writing poems to revitalize language as a whole. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
12.09.2019
There Is No Meaning Here
Christine Kanownik examines the place of religion and spirituality in secular life. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
12.02.2019
anti-immigration
Evie Shockley expresses frustration over ongoing immigration policies and thinks about ways Americans might better live together. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
11.25.2019
A poem from From A Winter Notebook
Matei Yankelevich meditates on the nature of poetic language and lingers over events from his past. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
11.18.2019
Quiescence
Alyse Knorr writes about motherhood and loss. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
11.11.2019
Ekphrasis with Toothing Chainsaw in Unnamed Halhul Vineyard
George Abraham invents a new sonnet form to investigate an act of vandalism that occurred in a Palestinian vineyard. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
11.04.2019
I’m an Avid Skier
Jill Magi explores the intersections between sports culture and corporate job-speak. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
10.28.2019
Beds
Divya Victor considers the effects of transnational migration on family life. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
10.21.2019
The Other Side
Jennifer Foerster imagines encountering her younger self on a walk through the streets of Vienna. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
10.14.2019
Pearl
Wendy Lotterman wonders what home invasion and poetry have in common. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
10.07.2019
Skype Healer
Emmalea Russo recalls a Skype healing session and remembers the death of her aunt Vera. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
09.30.2019
As If to Misread Song
Lotte L.S. considers the legacy of British poet and political activist Anna Mendelssohn. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
09.23.2019
Goodbye 14
Emily Sieu Liebowitz begins a poem by wondering if the Trojan Horse was merely a metaphor for written language. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
09.16.2019
Standards-Based Assessment
Dora Malech reflects on the way gun violence and school shootings have affected her own life. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
09.09.2019
Girl Soup
Sawako Nakayasu imagines eating a bowl of girl soup and the conundrum posed by her own intervention. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
09.02.2019
No People in It
Emily Skillings writes a tribute to poet John Ashbery who died in September of 2017. Produced by Sarah Geis.
08.26.2019
poem for bruce
Rodney Koeneke considers the mystery and language of riddles. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
08.19.2019
We Are Saying Yes, But Who Are We to Say
Khaled Mattawa remembers the sense of hope felt during the Arab Spring and at the prospect of having a second child. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
08.12.2019
immediately motionless likeness
Kirsten Ihns considers the way a poem can dance the reader’s mind. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
08.05.2019
Euphorbia
Eric Baus demonstrates how the powerful can learn from something seemingly small and weak. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
07.29.2019
At the Vietnam Center and Archive
Hai-Dang Phan examines archival documents concerning the abduction of a young Vietnamese woman by Thai pirates in the 1980s. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
07.22.2019
Cold Valley
Cedar Sigo pays tribute to the poet Joanne Kyger, who died in March of 2017. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
07.15.2019
Time Traveler's Haibun: 1989
Maureen Thorson recalls details of her life in 1989 when she was 10 years old. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
07.08.2019
Sanctuary Stairs
Jared Stanley imagines how climate change will displace populations and what that could mean for one’s family. Produced by Katie Klocksin. Need a transcript of this episode? Request a transcript here.
07.01.2019
Goodwill, Buffalo, NY
Kimberly Lyons interrogates the purchase of second-hand clothes and the writing of poetry. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
06.24.2019
Roadrunners
André Naffis-Sahely visits the desert of Arizona and contemplates the cruelty of the Trump Administration’s policy of family separation at the southern border. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
06.17.2019
Held in the Arms of St. Francis & the Virgin
Jasmine Gibson writes a love poem to her partner. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
06.10.2019
15 Years of Paris
Katy Bohinc leaves Paris and writes a poem of apology after a misunderstanding with someone close to her. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
06.03.2019
Beulah Peel Me a Grape
Patricia Spears Jones considers the dynamics of race through the lens of a 1930s Mae West film. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
05.27.2019
Nerve
Geoffrey Hilsabeck imagines a conversation between Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson as they walk through Boston Common.
05.20.2019
An Animal Unfit for Living Unmolested
Ginger Ko imagines the near future when humans will possess a fully automated representative. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
05.13.2019
The Great San Bernardino Pitch Party
Callie Garnett makes an ad pitch for her poetry. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
05.06.2019
Black Flowers
Norma Cole meditates on the Syrian refugee crisis. Produced by Colin McNulty.
04.29.2019
X Number
Chris Glomski considers the variables that comprise a human life. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
04.22.2019
In a Daydream of Being the Big House Missus
Justin Phillip Reed imagines an inverted history of slavery. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
04.15.2019
Taste
Jessica Laser considers wisdom, poetry, and procrastination. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
04.08.2019
Hour in which I consider hydrangea
Simone White documents a mother’s life with her infant son. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
04.01.2019
Things to Do in Hell
Chris Martin composes a list of things one might do in hell. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
03.25.2019
The Great Deceiver
Brian Lucas takes a speculative look at figures of deception. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
03.18.2019
Who’s That
Ana Božičević explores the feelings and emotions of spring. Produced by Sarah Geis.
03.11.2019
the name before the name before mine
Jay Besemer considers heredity and the uncertainty of one’s past. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
03.04.2019
About Suffering
Elisa Gabbert meditates on the nature of suffering and the language we use to describe it. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
02.25.2019
encasement (storage e)
Rusty Morrison recalls an encounter in an airport and considers how touch can be a source of knowledge. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
02.18.2019
pronoun circle-jerk and the dog charlie
Julian Talamantez Brolaski considers the way we use pronouns to signal gender. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
02.11.2019
Seventeen Funerals
Richard Blanco remembers the 17 students killed in a mass-shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14th, 2018. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
02.04.2019
The Ambassador of the Interior Has a Talking to With the Minister of the Cabinet of Vengeance
Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer imagines the prospect of a God who may have created humanity in order to battle evil. Produced by Katie Klocksin.
01.28.2019
Phantom Twin
Katy Lederer recalls her experience with in vitro fertilization and finds poetry in the language of science. Produced by Katie Klocksin.

What's PoetryNow about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

PoetryNow episodes:

The Editor's Ex

I Thought a Tree Dying

I Saw This Day Coming

Hypersensitive Emanation

There Is No Meaning Here

anti-immigration

A poem from From A Winter Notebook

Quiescence

Ekphrasis with Toothing Chainsaw in Unnamed Halhul Vineyard

I’m an Avid Skier

Beds

The Other Side

Pearl

Skype Healer

As If to Misread Song

Goodbye 14

Standards-Based Assessment

Girl Soup

No People in It

poem for bruce

We Are Saying Yes, But Who Are We to Say

immediately motionless likeness

Euphorbia

At the Vietnam Center and Archive

Cold Valley

Time Traveler's Haibun: 1989

Sanctuary Stairs

Goodwill, Buffalo, NY

Roadrunners

Held in the Arms of St. Francis & the Virgin

15 Years of Paris

Beulah Peel Me a Grape

Nerve

An Animal Unfit for Living Unmolested

The Great San Bernardino Pitch Party

Black Flowers

X Number

In a Daydream of Being the Big House Missus

Taste

Hour in which I consider hydrangea

Things to Do in Hell

The Great Deceiver

Who’s That

the name before the name before mine

About Suffering

encasement (storage e)

pronoun circle-jerk and the dog charlie

Seventeen Funerals

The Ambassador of the Interior Has a Talking to With the Minister of the Cabinet of Vengeance

Phantom Twin