The Verb

Ian McMillan gets into the subjunctive mood with brand new writing from Toby Litt, a new poetry commission from Holly Pester, on the subjunctive in welsh with Menna Elfyn and Rob Drummond explains why the subjunctive is dying out amongst the young...

Presenter: Ian McMillan

The Verb this week is an extended conversation with the poet, editor, mentor, teacher and aphorist Don Paterson. Don Paterson first came to prominence in the early 90s, winning the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection for ‘Nil Nil’ in 1993. The following year he was selected as one of the Poetry Society’s ‘New Generation Poets’ alongside contemporaries such as Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathleen Jamie and his friend and mentor Michael Donaghy. He has published nine collections of poems, two of which have been awarded the TS Eliot Prize; God’s Gift to Women in 1997, and again in 2003 for Landing Light. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010. He also teaches at the University of St Andrews and is the Poetry editor at Picador.

In a 45-minute conversation, Ian takes a forensic look at Don Paterson’s language map. They discuss the concept of the ‘true poem, the relationship between inspiration and spontaneity, where the impulse to write a poem comes from – and when to give up on a poem.

We hear a close examination of poetic language as Don considers ‘the dance between vowels and consonants’, the weight of an ending, his love of an ellipsis. Don also explains why he dislikes poems set to music, and why you shouldn’t worry too much about your poetic voice…

Don Paterson’s latest publication is his book of New and Collected Aphorisms, ‘The Fall at Home’. This book, and all his collections of poetry are published by Faber.

Presenter: Ian McMillan

The Verb celebrates the centenary of the poet W.S. Graham - exploring his language and his relationship with Cornwall. Ian McMillan presents new poetry inspired by Graham from Rachael Boast and Penelope Shuttle, songs inspired by the Cornish landscape from Gwenno, specially commissioned work from Gerry Diver ('The Speech Project') and a collaboration between Bob Devereux and Adrian O'Reilly.

Writer's block, the silence of the blank page, words for the Cornish landscape, the Welsh concept of 'inspiration', 'the sea as metaphor of the sea' - hear about all of this and more in our W.S.Graham special. The Verb is in St Ives to celebrate W.S.Graham (known as Sydney), a poet fascinated by language, its possibilities and difficulties, who also wrote about 'love imagined into words' . In honour of Graham's centenary year, we hear unpublished poems (broadcast for first time), new commissions inspired by him ( written especially for The Verb), and we also present innovative performances of Graham's work. All this takes place in a remarkable venue called the 'St Ives Arts Club' in front of a poetry and art-loving audience.

Graham grew up in Greenock in Scotland, but moved to Cornwall in the 1940s and spent the best part of his life there, in the midst of a flourishing community of artists (including Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, and Terry Frost ).

T.S. Eliot was Graham's editor at Faber and Faber - he argued that Graham wrote some of the most important poems of the 20th century. His long poem 'The Nightfishing', with lines like 'sea as a metaphor of the sea' and ' the iron sea engraved to our faintest breaths', is one of Graham's greatest achievements, but as The Verb discovers he was also a remarkable poet of place, and of intimacy and thwarted intimacy. Above all he was preoccupied by language as his medium and subject.

Presenter: Ian McMillan

Join Ian McMillan as he comperes a special evening of some of the very best poetry published over the last year - at the annual T.S.Eliot Prize readings, recorded in front of an audience at the Royal Festival Hall. All the short-listed poets will be featured, including the U.S. Laureate Tracy K Smith, Terrance Hayes, Nick Laird, Zaffar Kunial, Fiona Moore, Sean O'Brien, Ailbhe Darcy, Hannah Sullivan, Richard Scott and Phoebe Power.

We're crossing senses on The Verb this week, examining Synesthesia, with musician LJ Rich, linguist Rob Drummond, and poetry from Ruth Padel, Abi Palmer and Hannah Silva.

For musician, broadcaster and synesthete LJ Rich, the world is drenched in music. With the help of a piano, she lets us inside her experience of the world, where tastes, colours and even the most boring train station make beautiful music.

Verb regular, the linguist Rob Drummond has been researching the colour associations we all have with certain vowel sounds and has discovered some intriguing patterns.

And there's plenty of poetry to stimulate your senses, Ruth Padel's latest collection is 'Emerald' (Chatto). The book is a meditation on grief, but is also shot through with colour. Hannah Silva presents her 'musical shirt', as made for her by Tomomi Adachi, the shirt is an invention that allows her to turn movement into sound poetry. And finally, poet and performer Abi Palmer finds that her synesthesia is heightened by the experience of water, so especially for The Verb she presents a poem written while taking a 'musical bath'...

Presenter: Ian McMillan

Merry Verb Christmas! We're at Vinyl Tap in Huddersfield for a festive evening of storytelling and song with brand new writing from poet, Simon Armitage, Joanne Harris and her Storytime Band and Owen Roberts.

Presenter: Ian McMillan

Ian McMillan and guests examine the language of sleeplessness.

How does AL Kennedy's insomnia inform her prose? Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun presents excerpts from her diary of motherhoood, there's brand new poetry from Bridget Minnamore on her experience of disordered sleep, and Marina Benjamin on her new book 'Insomnia'

Producer Cecile Wright

With Will Eaves, Ben Schott, Selina Nwulu and Jeremy Noel-Tod

with Iain Sinclair, Kate Fox, Sam Illingworth and Marilyn Hacker

To mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, The Verb presents ‘Unwritten’, a special edition of the programme telling the neglected stories of those who fought in the British West Indian Regiment, and the stories of those they left behind, through a series of new poems.

The Verb recorded Unwritten in front of an audience at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull earlier this year. We couldn't fit all the poems in the broadcast edition, so we've produced this extra podcast episode featuring the full length poems as performed at Contains Strong Language, alongside a previously unbroadcast poem by Kat Francois.