The Poetry Exchange

Hello friends!

In between our fuller episodes, in which we share a conversation with someone talking about a poem that is very special to them, we thought we'd start a new occasional offering, between friends...

Expect voices, readings, poems and stories, from our continuing adventures with The Poetry Exchange...

In this first mini-episode between friends, John Prebble reads a poem that has come back to him recently, which really makes him of The Poetry Exchange: 'Introductions' by Moya Cannon.

There will be a new, fuller conversation coming soon, so stay tuned!!

In the meantime, between friends, thank you for listening.

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Introductions

by Moya Cannon

Some of what we love

we stumble upon –

a purse of gold thrown on the road,

a poem, a friend, a great song.

And more

discloses itself to us –

a well among green hazels,

a nut thicket –

when we are worn out searching

for something quite different.

And more

comes to us, carried

as carefully

as a bright cup of water,

as new bread.

'Introductions' by Moya Cannon, from The Parchment Boat, The Gallery Press, 1997

https://moyacannon.ie

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In this latest episode in our mini series of 'Poems with Friends', John Prebble speaks with Charlie Beaumont about a poem that is keeping him company at this time: 'Irises' by Fiona Benson.

Charlie is a great friend to The Poetry Exchange - one of our most avid and closest listeners, always with such thoughtful responses to what we share, and a deep and wide reader of poetry also.

It was a pleasure to speak with him about this beautiful poem...

'Irises' is from Fiona Benson's first collection, Bright Travellers, published by Cape Poetry.

We'll be back with more poems with friends next month!

Thank you for listening,

John and The Poetry Exchange x

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Hello and welcome again to The Poetry Exchange!

We're so pleased to be back with you sharing more stories of connection between people and poems in their lives.

This month we have something very special to share with you: a live recording of our event at Latitude Festival in July 2025, celebrating Poems as Friends: The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology.

This was our third visit to Latitude Festival in Suffolk over the years, and it was incredibly special to be there with our anthology of Poems as Friends.

Michael Shaeffer hosts the event, along with our brilliant guests, poet Roy McFarlane and writer, artist and facilitator Hannah Jane Walker. Together, they read some of the stories and poems held in the pages of The Poetry Exchange Anthology, sharing these with a tent full of people at Latitude Festival 2025!

Massive thanks to Latitude Festival for hosting us and providing this recording, and to everyone who joined us on the day.

Poems as Friends: The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology is published by Quercus Editions and is available now widely in bookshops and online: www.thepoetryexchange.co.uk/anthology

Latitude Festival takes place this year on 23-26 July at Henham Park in Suffolk, UK.

We will be back with more conversations in our latest mini-series of 'Poems with Friends' in September...

With love,

John & The Poetry Exchange

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Hello friends

Welcome back for another episode in this 'mini-series' of The Poetry Exchange podcast - Poems with Friends.

In Poems with Friends, our producer John Prebble speaks with some of the amazing friends he has made through The Poetry Exchange over the last 12 years, inviting them to bring along a poem that's keeping them company at this time.

It's a way of catching up and spending some quality time with friends - over a poem, of course!

In this episode, John speaks with his great friend and co-producer of The Poetry Exchange, Sally Anglesea. Sally worked with Fiona, Michael and John on The Poetry Exchange from the project's very earliest years, nurturing Fiona's gorgeous idea of Poems as Friends into a wide range of experiences for people to enjoy. Sally, Fiona, Michael and John became a very close band of friends and colleagues, and Sally continues to deeply involved and right at the heart of The Poetry Exchange to this day.

Sally talks with John about a poem that has been a friend to her for many years, since she met it through The Poetry Exchange: 'Wild Geese' by Mary Oliver.

Thank you for listening,

John and The Poetry Exchange x

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Welcome back to The Poetry Exchange!

It's very special to be here with you all again.

We're excited to be returning with something a bit different...a 'mini-series' of conversations over the coming months, which we're calling 'Poems with Friends.'

In 'Poems with Friends', our Producer John Prebble catches up with some of the great friends he's made through working on The Poetry Exchange over the last 12 years. He invites each of his friends to speak with him 1:2:1 about a poem that's keeping them company at this time...a poem that's resonating for them and speaking to them now in some way. Together, they read the poem and have a conversation about it, as well as catching up and enjoying some quality time together!

In this first episode of 'Poems with Friends', John speaks with the brilliant Alison McManus. Alison has been a massive friend to and champion of The Poetry Exchange for many years, since she first walked into a chapel in Durham to talk about the poem that's been a friend to her with Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer. Alison went on to become Chair of The Poetry Exchange as a small charity, and has been a vital part of our work and a great friend to so many of us over the years.

In this conversation, Alison catches up with John and talks with him about a poem that's keeping her company at this time: 'The Tyger' by William Blake.

We are looking forward to sharing more conversations in this 'mini-series' of Poems with Friends with you soon.

Thank you for listening,

John and The Poetry Exchange x

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Friends - it is our 100th episode!

We are so pleased to be here with you, sharing, listening, celebrating.

We have a very special conversation to mark the occasion: our very own Michael Shaeffer, host of The Poetry Exchange, talks about the poem that has been a friend to him - 'Having a Coke with You' by Frank O'Hara.

10 years...100 episodes...countless more poems, stories, converastions...and now Michael shares his story of connection with O'Hara's gorgeous poem.

We're thrilled and immensely grateful to Michael for sitting 'in the other chair' for this one, and sharing the story of his friendship so openly. You'll hear Michael in conversation with Roy McFarlane and Andrea Witzke Slot.

Our thanks to the Alfred A. Knopf and the Frank O'Hara estate for allowing us to share the poem with you, and to the South London Gallery for hosting the conversation.

Michael talks about his appearance in the re-staging of London Road at the National Theatre, which runs 7th - 21st June. Get your tickets while you can if you're in or around London during this time!

As Michael says in this episode, we will be taking a pause from the podcast for a while after this episode, having reached this extraordinary milestone. Michael will also be stepping back from hosting at this point, having co-hosted The Poetry Exchange with Fiona since the very beginning.

What an enormous journey it has been for Michael, for us all, and we are so grateful for all your friendship and support along the way.

The Poetry Exchange is continuing, and for now we will be focussing on some new collaborations that create live, intimate encounters between people and poems....something that has always been at the heart of The Poetry Exchange.

Keep in touch with us to find out more about as these new adventures as they unfold, including ways of being involved. You can sign up to our mailing list at www.thepoetryexchange.co.uk, follow us on Instagram @PoetryExch, or drop us a line any time on [email protected].

For now, thank you so much for being with us over the years...for all your love, support and companionship. Here's to living life filled with poems as friends.

Thank you for listening,

Michael, John and The Poetry Exchange Xx

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In this episode we talk with writer and academic Serena Trowbridge about the poem that's been a friend to her: 'A Shropshire Lad 31: On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble' by A.E. Housman.

This conversation was recorded in April 2022 at the Birmingham & Midland Institute. It is very special to listen back to this converation now, particularly to hear Fiona with all her usual passion and insights in conversation with Serena.

Dr Serena Trowbridge is a writer and academic specialising in Pre-Raphaelitism in art and literature. She is Reader in Victorian Literature at Birmingham City University.

Serena is Vice-President and Chair of the Pre-Raphaelite Society, and Senior Vice-President at the Birmingham & Midland Institute. You can find her thoughts on art and literature on Substack.

Huge thanks to Serena for joining us for this conversation and allowing us to share it with you.

We are so grateful to you all for listening and for all your continuous support of The Poetry Exchange. This is episode 99 and we are looking forward to sharing our special 100th episode with you soon.

With love,

Michael, John and The Poetry Exchange

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In this episode of The Poetry Exchange, poet Nick Makoha talks with us about the poem that has been a friend to him: 'White Egrets (I)' by Derek Walcott.

Nick actually joined us back in 2017 at Pushkin House, London, and we are delighted to be sharing this conversation with you now. It is very special to hear Fiona in this conversation, with all her usual warmth and brilliance.

Nick Makoha's latest collection 'The New Carthaginians' is published this month from Allen Lane - you can order/buy your copy here.

The event for 'On the Brink of Touch' by Fiona Bennett is on 26th February at The Bedford in Balham, London, and live streamed. We'd love for you to join us, and you can book your places here!

Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet. His new collection is The New Carthaginians published by Penguin UK. Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and the Poetry London Prize. In 2017, Nick’s debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. He was the ICA 2023 Writer-in-Residence. He was the 2019 Writer-in-Residence for The Wordsworth Trust and Wasafiri. A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and Complete Works alumnus. He won the 2015 Brunel African Poetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His play The Dark—produced by Fuel Theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander—was on a national tour in 2019. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and won the 2021 Columbia International Play Reading prize. His poems have appeared in the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo Birmingham Lit Journal and Wasafiri.

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White Egrets

By Derek Walcott

I

The chessmen are as rigid on their chessboard

as those life-sized terra-cotta warriors whose vows

to their emperor with bridle, shield and sword

were sworn by a chorus that has lost its voice;

no echo in that astonishing excavation.

Each soldier gave an oath, each gave his word

to die for his emperor, his clan, his nation,

to become a chess soldier, breathlessly erect

in shade or crossing sunlight, without hours –

from clay to clay and odourlessly strict.

If vows were visible they might see ours

as changeless chessmen in the changing light

on the lawn outside where bannered breakers toss

and palms gust with music that is time’s

above the chessmen’s silence. Motion brings loss.

A sable blackbird twitters in the limes.

From White Egrets by Derek Walcott, Faber & Faber 2010.

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In this episode, we are joined by acclaimed poet Tamar Yoseloff, who shares with us the poem that has been a friend to her: 'Morning' by Frank O'Hara.

The conversation, like the poem, is full of joy and delight, as well as sadness and loss. Tamar spoke with Michael and Andrea in early May 2024, and the conversation takes on a new light now, as we continue to hold Fiona so closely in our hearts.

Tamar Yoseloff has published seven collections, including The Formula for Night: New and Selected Poems (2015) and most recently, Belief Systems, which was a PBS Summer Recommendation in 2024. She’s also the author of Formerly, a chapbook incorporating photographs by Vici MacDonald (Hercules Editions, 2012) shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. She was a lecturer on the Poetry School / Newcastle University MA in Writing Poetry and continues to teach independently. She received a Cholmondeley Award in 2023.

Tamar Yoseloff was one of Fiona's outstanding poetry mentors, having taught her on the MA in 2022, along with Glyn Maxwell. It is very fitting that Tammy is our guest this month, as we celebrate the arrival of Fiona's own collection of poetry: 'On the Brink of Touch', now available from Live Canon. Tamar Yoseloff and Glyn Maxwell, along with Helen Eastman of Live Canon, were all instrumental in ensuring Fiona's collection was published - something Fiona knew was going to happen, even if she didn't get to see her book its final form. 'On the Brink of Touch' is a work of great beauty and immense humanity, and it is extraordinary that we are all now able to hold it in our hands.

Michael also mentions the memorial we held recently to remember and celebrate Fiona, which you can view anytime here.

•••••••••

Morning

by Frank O'Hara

I’ve got to tell you

how I love you always

I think of it on grey

mornings with death

in my mouth the tea

is never hot enough

then and the cigarette

dry the maroon robe

chills me I need you

and look out the window

at the noiseless snow

At night on the dock

the buses glow like

clouds and I am lonely

thinking of flutes

I miss you always

when I go to the beach

the sand is wet with

tears that seem mine

although I never weep

and hold you in my

heart with a very real

humor you’d be proud of

the parking lot is

crowded and I stand

rattling my keys the car

is empty as a bicycle

what are you doing now

where did you eat your

lunch and were there

lots of anchovies it

is difficult to think

of you without me in

the sentence you depress

me when you are alone

Last night the stars

were numerous and today

snow is their calling

card I’ll not be cordial

there is nothing that

distracts me music is

only a crossword puzzle

do you know how it is

when you are the only

passenger if there is a

place further from me

I beg you do not go

From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF FRANK O'HARA © 1971 by Maureen Granville- Smith, renewed 1999 by Maureen O'Hara Granville-Smith and Donald Allen. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

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Dear friends

We are mourning and missing our beloved Fiona, whilst also celebrating her extraordinary life and work, and everything she brought to all our lives. We continue to feel her with us in everything we do.

This month, we pay tribute to Fiona by re-relasing the conversation in which Fiona visits The Poetry Exchange for herself, talking about the poem that has been a friend to her: 'A Kite for Aibhín' by Seamus Heaney.

The conversation was originally recorded in France in 2017, and you can also find it as episode 23 of the podcast.

We are incredibly grateful for all the amazing messages of support, gratitude, loss and condolence we have received from so many of you around the world. Your words speak volumes about Fiona and the way she touched and changed your lives, whether you knew her in person or simply through listening to her voice each month. Michael reads a small selection of some of these messages at the beginning of the episode.

Please do continue to write to us with thoughts, feelings and memories of Fiona at [email protected].

Fiona's own collection of poetry - On the Brink of Touch - will be published later this month by Live Canon, and we will let you know more about that very soon. You will hear Fiona's reading of her poem 'Imprint' at the end of this episode.

Thank you so much for all your support, love and friendship,

Michael, John and The Poetry Exchange xx

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A Kite for Aibhín

by Seamus Heaney

After "L'Aquilone" by Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912)

Air from another life and time and place,

Pale blue heavenly air is supporting

A white wing beating high against the breeze,

And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon

All of us there trooped out

Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,

I take my stand again, halt opposite

Anahorish Hill to scan the blue,

Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.

And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askew,

Lifts itself, goes with the wind until

It rises to loud cheers from us below.

Rises, and my hand is like a spindle

Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower

Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher

The longing in the breast and planted feet

And gazing face and heart of the kite flier

Until string breaks and—separate, elate—

The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.

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