This week Testament - poet, theatre-maker and world-record-breaking human beatboxer, explores the meaning and power of the sounds we make between words, including sighing and laughing - with spoken word artist and writer Polar Bear (Steven Camden) , 'Wild' author Jay Griffiths, and poets Shirley May and John McAuliffe.

Polar Bear presents a brand new commission for our series celebrating the BBC's centenary ('Something Old, Something New') which includes the sounds of his childhood home, John McAuliffe shares poems of deep sighs and his work inspired by the experiences of organ donors and recipients, Jay Griffiths lets us into the way our fellow creatures take pleasure in sound and the importance of wild sound to humans, and Shirley May explores the importance of breath in her work, and the role of the body in performance - something she teaches as artistic director of 'Young Identity' - the youth spoken word collective.

As a new season arrives, Ian McMillan and guests consider ambivalence and beauty in writing about spring.

This week Ian peers into the yellow heart of the daffodil to find out what makes a great spring poem, and shares poetry by some of the most remarkable poets of our moment, as well as those inspired by the colours of crocuses past. Spring is always beautiful, but there is earthiness and grief in the language of the season too. His guests will include writers and those who work with and study the earth itself.

Ian is joined by Booker Prize-winning novelist and keen gardener Penelope Lively who has contributed an essay to the new anthology 'In The Garden' (Daunt) on 'the Gardening Eye', passing the passion for growing on to her daughters, and gardening later in life.

In his poem 'Here Too Spring Comes to Us with Open Arms', Caleb Femi takes us to spring on a South London Estate.

In books such as the T.S Eliot prize shortlisted collection 'The Mizzy' (Picador), Paul Farley turns our attention to the overlooked and unloved places, finding spring thrives here just as in the meadow.

We also hear a selection of poems read by Colin Tierney and Indira Varma:

Crocuses - Richard Meier

Presenter: Ian McMillan

What's stopping us telling the stories of women's inner lives, or listening to them, especially once they become mothers, or are over forty? Actresses discover there are far fewer roles once they're no longer seen as young; whilst middle-aged and older women's lives are conflated, as if they are having exactly the same experiences.

Ian McMillan is joined by Victoria Smith, author of 'Hags: the demonisation of middle-aged women' , by poet Patrick McGuinness (sharing poems from his forthcoming collection 'Blood Feather') by Jenny Lewis, author of 'Gilgamesh Retold' (her retellings of Mesopotamian myth reveal a female inn-keeper at the edge of the world) , and by folk legends Marry Waterson and Lisa Knapp (performing as 'Hack Poets Guild ) who share haunting songs of silenced and traduced women.

We also hear our latest BBC Centenary commission - this week it's 'Deep Listening' by Emily Berry.

Secret names, original names, nicknames, invented names for characters - this Verb explores the intimacy of naming, the sound of names, and the way they can influence character.

Ian is joined by the former Makar (National Poet of Scotland) Jackie Kay, with a brand new commission for The Verb - by Liz Berry, who shares poems about an ancestor called Eliza from her new collection 'Home Child' - and by Christopher Reid with explorations of childhood (and an imaginary character called Theodore Faddlefoot) all taken from his collection 'Toys/Tricks/Traps' - just published.

Ian McMillan celebrates 100 years of BBC Radio Drama with brand new commissions - from writers Alex Riddle, Georgia Affonso. Tim Barrow, and the poet Michael Symmons Roberts. This is a homage to what Ian describes as a form which feels 'as new as cinema and as old as a whispered story in a dark cave in winter', with tales of mysterious islands and time travel, the intimacy of the optometrist's gaze, and the power of friendship. Michael Symmons Roberts's poem is a commission for our 'Something Old, Something New' series, and evokes a frozen Atlantic - its sound and its shiver.

The Verb is lured this week into seductive places: poet Luke Wright presents a show full of light, cool water, shadows on stone, and the over-reliance on place-names (by lyricists). His guests are the poet Helen Mort (who shares poems of swimming and Lincolnshire from her collection 'The Illustrated Woman'), by the cartoonist and writer Martin Rowson who tries to persuade Luke that his passion for the Evelyn Waugh novel 'Brideshead Revisited' is misplaced - by Kate Fox (Verb regular and stand-up poet) who discovers seduction nirvana in an unlikely popular song, and by Anita Sethi (author of 'I Belong Here' ) who shares her love of Manchester's Oxford Road, and Manchester Museum where she is writer-in-residence.

Our 'Something New' poem (celebrating 100 years of the BBC) is by Jean Sprackland, and our 'Something Old' poem is 'Sea Fever' by John Masefield.

Ian McMillan presents again next week - exploring the power and pleasure of last lines.

What do we remember about childhood? And how do we write about it, without feeling trapped in the past?

Ian McMillan and his guests explore writing and cityscapes - asking how does architecture make us think about the writing process, and how do language and cities refresh each other – or use each other?

Joining Ian are the novelist Jenny Colgan on the 'City of Invention' (which the late novelist Fay Weldon uses to describe literature in her book 'Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen'), by skateboarder and poet Olly Todd on his new collection 'Out for Air', by the writer and novelist Reinier de Graaf, who explores the corporate language of architecture (and the need for all new buildings to be 'officially amazing'), and the poet Geraldine Monk, who shares a brand new commission - part of our BBC centenary series 'Something Old, Something New'.

On The Verb this week join Ian McMillan for a celebration of remarkable poets and poetry as he presents readings from all the collections shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. The prize is awarded annually by the T.S. Eliot Foundation for the best collection of the year and the winner receives £25,000. Anthony Joseph was declared this year's winner by the judges for his 'luminous' collection Sonnets for Albert.

Alongside readings from the poets themselves, Ian reflects how their work reverberates with the here and now, refreshing the language and giving us maps and signposts for these turbulent times.

The shortlisted poets featured along with Anthony Joseph are Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Philip Gross, Denise Saul, Yomi Sode, Mark Pajak, Jemma Borg, James Conor Patterson, Zaffar Kunial and Fiona Benson.

Presenter: Ian McMillan