Present Poetry

Maxwell Bodenheim was born on May 26th, 1892, in Hermanville, Mississippi. In 1900, when Maxwell was eight, the family moved from Mississippi to Chicago. Maxwell remained under the radar until 1912 when he met writer Ben Hecht. The two quickly formed a literary friendship, and Bodenheim published his first poem in 1914, then again in 1917.

He married his first wife, Minna, in 1918. They had a son, Solbert, in 1920 but divorced in 1938.

At this time, Bodenheim had established himself as a leading figure in the bohemian scene of New York's Greenwich Village, an active member of the Raven Poetry Circle, and an upcoming American author. He published ten books of poetry between 1918 and 1946 and co-founded the Chicago Literary Times with Ben Hecht in 1923. However, he quickly deteriorated after his success and became a panhandler. Then, he married his second wife, Grace, in 1939, and they lived in the Catskills until her untimely death in 1950.

In 1952, Bodenheim married Ruth Fagin, who shared his affinity for Bodenheim's derelict lifestyle. Homeless, they slept on park benches. Bodenheim would panhandle or write verse for money and drink, while Ruth became a prostitute- a career that Bodenheim would beat her for.

Their wild and carefree lifestyle eventually caught up to them, and Maxwell Bodenheim and Ruth Fagin were murdered on February 6th, 1954, by Harold, a 25-year-old dishwasher. Allegedly, he slept with Ruth while Bodenheim was passed out drunk, but when Bodenheim confronted the pair, Harold shot him before beating and stabbing Ruth to death.

Despite his macabre ending, Bodenheim left a legacy that continues to make waves in literary circles. We are reading from Against this Age, a collection of poetry published in 1923 at the height of Bodenheim's career. To learn more about this author and his works, check out the link above or visit his Wikipedia page.

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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email [email protected] with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!

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Stuart Brkn Johns was born in 1979 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has a deep passion for poetry and is often compelled to express his thoughts and emotions in diverse literary forms, from Prose to Haiku, depending on the creative inspiration of the moment.

In 2012, he was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, which has led to some unique challenges in his personal and professional life.

Nevertheless, he strives to pour his heart and soul out through his verse and is the author of seven poetry collections- all of which can be found on Amazon. 

If you'd like to know more about this author and his works, check out his Goodreads profile or connect with him on Twitter! 

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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email [email protected] with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!

Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9, 1821, in Paris, France to Joseph-Francois Baudelaire (a French civil servant and amateur artist) and his young wife, Caroline.
After his father died and his mother remarried, Charles was sent to Lyon for education and boarded there for several years. One of his classmates described him as "much more refined and distinguished than any of our fellow pupils."
After some time, Charles left to attend the Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He studies law, which was the default major for those without a career in mind, and received his degree in 1839. However, instead of going into law or diplomacy, Charles decided upon a literary career- much to the disapproval of his family.
To combat his decision, Charle's stepfather sent him to Calcutta, India, in 1841. However, the trip instead left strong impressions of the sea, sailing, and exotic ports, which he later employed in his poetry.

Upon his return to Paris, Charles wrote some of the poems within Les Fleurs du Mal, his first collection. He also became known as a dandy and free-spender, which eventually prompted his family to place his finances in a trust so he wouldn't squander them.

If you'd like to learn more about this poet or his works, click the link above or visit his Wikipedia Page!

If you write poetry, I want to read it!!! That's why Present Poetry Podcast offers this OPEN SUBMISSION CALL for poets of all ages, types, and genres! 

Submit a biography, links you want to share, and five (5) poems to [email protected] or through the form at LadyErynn.com/Present-poetry-podcast. 

Any length, style, genre, and subject are welcome, but please include a content warning for anything graphic. 

That's it! Submit your poems today and get your featured episode on the Present Poetry Podcast!

Gary Clarke moved to the Whaligo steps area of Scotland in 1989 and quickly formed a love of history, nature, music, and blogging. In 2021, he hoped to build up interest in a blogging website (found Here) by finding like-minded individuals. During his exploration, he found poetry.

Since then, Gary has combined his inspiration from nature, music, and general philosophy into his own form of rhyming poetry.

Within his first year, he felt lots of love and support from some significant talents on Twitter which encouraged Gary to keep going.

Gary's been published in We wear the world, different, a collection of poems from the Twitter writing community raising awareness/acceptance about Autism, with proceeds going to Autism Angels UK, as well as A Whisper Of Your Love, which is a collection of poems contributed by the poetry community under the #InstantEternal banner on Twitter, with the theme of love.

In late January of 2023, Gary was also published in the anthology Hidden in Childhood, the debut book from a new publishing house called Literary Revelations- which is associated with the award-winning poet Gabriela Marie Milton. 

To learn more about this author and his works, visit the link above or connect with him on Twitter. 

Tyler Gambill is 30 years old and his hometown is Indianola, OK. A town with a population of about 200 located about 1.5 hours south of Tulsa. He currently lives in Tulsa with a roommate, three cats, and two dogs.

In high school, he was a “skater kid,” who got kicked out of Mannford High School for having (and acting) on a deep streak of anti-authority. Starting at 21, and for seven years after, he worked full-time making airplane parts during the day. He took evening classes to get his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from TCC and NSU/BA, graduating with the highest honors. During this time he was also a high-functioning alcoholic.

Today he is a non-practicing alcoholic, which is basically a fun way of saying that he used to drink a lot, found out that he and substances weren’t a good match, and so gave drinking up. 

He celebrated four years of sobriety this past October and will also celebrate four years of employment at the Tulsa Boys’ Home in February. His work here is what made him decide to pull the trigger on becoming a therapist and he will graduate with his master’s degree in mental health counseling this May. He is currently an intern therapist at the Center for Therapeutic Intervention and works mostly with men who are on their own journey toward recovery and/or participants in the Tulsa Drug Court Program.

Above all, his mission to help men and teen boys is what keeps him grounded enough to write poetry. Poetry, Wordsworth said, is something like “emotion recollected in tranquility.” His work helping others is what allows him to find the tranquility necessary to recollect and reflect upon the emotions that fuel his poetry. This process, to him, is something akin to alchemy: some sort of magical thing where we turn experiences—even the most painful and, at face value, ugly ones—into something beautiful. Something beautiful straight from our hearts. Something that we can share with others that may just open their hearts up too. In as much as writing and sharing poetry is an act of sharing truth and beauty, writing poetry is also an act of loving, which is really what it’s all about.

He, thus far, has one published poem at NSU and one published short story at TCC. He will be self-publishing his first collection of poems—“Everything is New under the Moon”—very soon.

George Edward Farrow was born on March 17th, 1862 in Ipswitch, England. Very little is known about his early life- only that he was educated in London for a time before moving to America to continue his studies. He worked as a clerk for a while in 1891, then declared himself an author in 1901. 

During his career, Farrow wrote over 30 books for children- some adventure, some poetry, and some nonsense-  and is often compared to the likes of Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum.  His first book, the Wallypug of Why, was first printed in 1895 and still remains a beloved classic for kids and adults alike. 

Farrow died around 1919 and has no descendants as far as we know. 

We are reading from Absurd Ditties, a children's poetry collection published in 1903. To learn more about the author and his works, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page!

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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email [email protected] with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!

Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!

Jubran Khalil Jubran was born on January 6th, 1883, in the village of Bisharri, which was part of the Ottoman Empire back then but is now in modern-day Lebanon. 

After his father got into legal trouble, his mother took Khalil and his siblings to the united states in 1895, where they settled in the South End of Boston. Kahlil's mother became a peddler and seamstress, and she opened a shop with her oldest son and her two young daughters. Kahlil, however, went to school and quickly understood English, even changing his name to the Americanized "Gibran," though his writing of it remained erratic. 

To help his writing, one of his teachers recommended drawing classes at the nearby settlement house. In 1896, Kahlil met Fred Holland Day, the eccentric leader of the Boston Avant-garde group known as the Visionists. The Visionists were responsible for two of the first poetry and art magazines in the united states, and Khalil soon became a model for Day's artistic photographs. 

In 1898, Kahlil met Josephine Prescott Peabody, a poet from Cambridge, and the two exchanged letters until Kahlil's mother sent him back to Lebanon to further his education. 

During that time, Kahlil devoured French and Arabic literature, established a school-wide poetry magazine, and won a poetry contest. He then left school in 1901 and traveled Europe, but returned to the United States in 1902 upon the death of his sister. 

While there, he reconnected with Peabody, and she encouraged his writing and art. In May of 1903, Peabody arranged for Kahlil's work to be part of an art exhibition at Wellesley College. However, Kahlil had little time to celebrate his success due to the untimely deaths of his mother and older brother. 

In 1904, however, Khalil met Mary Haskill, who became his patron and one of the most influential people in his life. Under her encouragement and financial support, Khalil published his first book, On Music, in 1905. That, along with a job writing for a local Arabic magazine, led to a lengthy writing career. 

Khalil Gibran ended up publishing around fifteen books and plays in English, with more than that in his native tongue of Arabic. 

Kahlil Gibran died on April 10th, 1931, at the young age of 48, and his body was sent home to Lebanon, where it rests in the Gibran Museum. He also willed all future Royalties from his American books to his hometown of Bsharri for "civic betterment."

We are reading from The Prophet, a poetry collection published in 1923 and widely regarded as his most influential work. 

To learn more about this author, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page! 

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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email [email protected] with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!

Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!

Nikola Družeta is a 26-year-old from Croatia that enjoys writing poetry. He primarily writes in English but will occasionally write in Croatian as well. He also enjoys video games, music, and martial arts. 

According to the author, the poems that inspire him include Invictus by William Ernest Henley and Koza (The Goat) by Mate Balota. 

People Call It Poetry is Nikola's debut collection, and it's a collage of random thoughts that pop into his mind, weird things he does, curiosities he's encountered, and his perception of the world. 

To connect with this author and learn more about his works, you can find him on Instagram, AllPoetry, Tapas, and more! 

Robert Burns was born on Jan. 25, 1759, in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the eldest of seven children born to tenant farmers William Burns and Agnes Broun. 

When he was 7, his father moved them to a farm near Mount Oliphant, where they began a life of hardship and poverty. That resulted in Burns having little schooling save what his father and tutors could teach him. 

In 1774, Burns was the principal laborer on the farm. Nelly Kilpatrick assisted him occasionally and inspired him to try writing poetry. That encouragement paved the way for his first work- O, Once I loved a Bonnie Lass.

In 1775, he left the farm to finish his education, where he met Peggy Thompson and wrote two songs about her:  "Now Westlin' Winds" and "I Dream'd I Lay."

In 1781, Burns became initiated into the Masonic Lodge at St. David, Tarbolton, where the family lived after moving from Mt. Oliphant. He also worked as a flax dresser, but the shop unfortunately burnt to the ground during a worker's celebration. However, he met and befriended Captain Richard Brown, who encouraged Burns to become a poet. 

He continued to write poems and songs and began a commonplace book in 1783. 

From there, he rapidly grew as a poet and published his first collection, titled "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect," in 1786 to immediate success. 

His professional life took off with a bound, and his personal life saw many romantic entanglements, including Elizabeth Paton, Jean Armour, and Mary Campbell. Robert Burns had 10 children, 7 of which survived infancy. 

He died on July 21, 1796, from a previously unknown heart condition. He is buried in the Burns Mausoleum at the St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries, where he made his home.

Despite being 37 at the time of his death, Burns has a reputation as the national poet of Scotland, the founder of romanticism, and a rebel against orthodox religion and morality. To learn more about this author and his works, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page! 

Poems in this episode are Winter, a Dirge, The Bookworm, The Poet's Progress, Raptures of Folly, and To a Mouse. Find them all at Project Gutenberg! 

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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email [email protected] with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!

Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!