Take this poem

What is lost and what is gained when poetry moves from one language to another? I briefly ponder this question and share three translations of Anna Akhmatova's poem "Heart's Memory of Sun Grows Fainter". 

In this episode I share two highlights from the mailbag this week.

Tom Clark reads from Paige Lewis' collection Space Struck. 

This episode is another field trip to a cemetery, this time in the good company of classicist-poet A.E. Stallings and her beautiful poem "Memorial (Mnemosyne)".

Two of my college roommates sent me audio files recently, and they both happened to be poems by Robert Lewis Stevenson. It seemed like a good time for an episode featuring his winsome, easily memorizable poetry that so captures the childhood experience. 

I read "Bed in Summer"

Lydia and Will share "My Shadow"

Melanie shares "The Swing" 

In this episode I share "The Pupil" by native Kentucky poet Maurice Manning. This poem tells the story of an interior Appalachian scene and does artistic work that I believe is unique to poetry. I draw upon Matthew Zapruder's book Why Poetry? to aid my attempts to explain it. 

When the air smells like cut grass it's time for some spring poetry! This week I share the sonnet "God's World" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. 

Name a more iconic duo than love and poetry.

Love poems most frequently focus on the fiery beginnings and weighty endings of relationships. 

Today I bring you two of the rarer kind: poems from the middle of love. 

"Here" by Grace Paley

"Touch Me" by Stanley Kunitz

In this episode I talk with Dave Mehler--a local poet, friend, and poetry mentor-- about how the course of his life was changed by the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. We discuss Hopkins at length and read aloud several of his wild, brilliant, numinous poems.

Dave also shares his advice for how to find your way to the poems that will speak to you.

We went really long, I accidentally sang, and there's more traffic-pet-and-child noise in the background than usual.

Enjoy! 

Story time!

In this episode I read screenwriter Stewart Stern's reflection on a poem given to him as a gift. "The Pasture" by Robert Frost has stayed with Stern for decades, both as a beautiful poem and as a memorial of the teacher who introduced it to him. 

The anthology I read from is The Poem I Turn To: Actors Present Poetry That Inspires Them edited by Jason Shinder.

TTP hosts its first mini poetry reading, as three listeners each share a beloved poem. Grab a seat in the front row and enjoy!

Tom Clark reads "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

Melinda Westervelt reads "Happiness" by Raymond Carver

Keith Hansen reads "A Birthday Card To My Mother" by Philip Appleman

(If you don't need my pep talk about facing the fear of your own recorded voice skip to 5:00 where the poetry begins.)