There's a Poem in That

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For those lucky enough to guest on the show, there's more than a poem in There's a Poem in That. 

"A revelation from an oracle," says Phillip. 

"The answer to a prayer," says Holly. 

Alexa says, "It changed my life."

Todd personally circles back, sometimes weeks later, sometimes years later, to check on the subjects of his poems, and to find out whether their experience on TAPIT had any lingering effects. 

Any beloved poem will evolve its meanings as it ages with you, as your relationship with it matures. A great poem, valued in youth, can appreciate to richer rewards at the end of life. A poem custom-written for you at a poignant moment of personal growth vests unforeseeable treasure.  

TAPIT enacts personal transformation, and Todd feels your listenership isn't complete without an insider's perspective on this aspect of it. 

So, in rather raw formats, depending on how our guests prepare them for us--whether as letters, meditations, or conversations--we present the most salient of guest reflections for further appreciation. 

If you're a listener supporter whose contributions (however small) help make TAPIT free for guests, these BONUS reflections serve as sincerest thanks. 

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

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The image of an adult on a tricycle — precarious and uncertain — became the driving force behind the poem Ken needed for his wife Sue's memorial service. 

Chapters in this episode:

1. Introduction at the cabin
2. A couple of loons on tricycles
3. Ken and Sue take on the world together
4. Swiss miss, cuckoo clocks, and finding a home in one another
5. Sue’s diagnosis, surgery, complications, and passing
6. Lost time and post-life letters
7. The poem: “It Was a Lark”

Support the show

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.

Send us Fan Mail

For those lucky enough to guest on the show, there's more than a poem in There's a Poem in That. 

"A revelation from an oracle," says Phillip. 

"The answer to a prayer," says Holly. 

Alexa says, "It changed my life."

Todd personally circles back, sometimes weeks later, sometimes years later, to check on the subjects of his poems, and to find out whether their experience on TAPIT had any lingering effects. 

Any beloved poem will evolve its meanings as it ages with you, as your relationship with it matures. A great poem, valued in youth, can appreciate to richer rewards at the end of life. A poem custom-written for you at a poignant moment of personal growth vests unforeseeable treasure.  

TAPIT enacts personal transformation, and Todd feels your listenership isn't complete without an insider's perspective on this aspect of it. 

So, in rather raw formats, depending on how our guests prepare them for us--whether as letters, meditations, or conversations--we present the most salient of guest reflections for further appreciation. 

If you're a listener supporter whose contributions (however small) help make TAPIT free for guests, these BONUS reflections serve as sincerest thanks. 

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.

Send us Fan Mail

Jon's wife Christy got pancreatic cancer ten years ago, but Jon still carries the fear of losing her. It's a long hallway from diagnostics to recovery, but Jon's found the right doctor: Todd helps him stop over-intellectualizing, cutting through the voices in his head, until only sweet remission (from the Latin "to relax,") colors the horizon. Revealed to Jon on the eve of Thanksgiving, 2022, Todd's tongue-in-cheek poem is written in the talky après-dinner-party style of Tony Hoagland, and features candid, ad-libbed cameos by Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Czesław Miłosz, and Raymond Carver, who, like all of us, just wants to be loved. From sorrow to joy and back again, this story lets Christy have the final word, and has Jon breathing a sigh of relief.

Todd's poem for Jon, "Thanksgiving," quotes a stanza of Tony Hoagland's "Among the Intellectuals," from his posthumous collection, Turn Up The Ocean (Graywolf Press). Used with permission.

Chapters in this episode:

1. I contain multitudes
2. Cancer for Christmas
3. Trying to figure things out
4. Deconstructing prayer
5. Recovery: "She really is okay."
6. Humility is an honest self-assessment
7. The poem: "Thanksgiving."

Support the show

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.

Send us Fan Mail

For those lucky enough to guest on the show, there's more than a poem in There's a Poem in That. 

"A revelation from an oracle," says Phillip. 

"The answer to a prayer," says Holly. 

Alexa says, "It changed my life."

Todd personally circles back, sometimes weeks later, sometimes years later, to check on the subjects of his poems, and to find out whether their experience on TAPIT had any lingering effects. 

Any beloved poem will evolve its meanings as it ages with you, as your relationship with it matures. A great poem, valued in youth, can appreciate to richer rewards at the end of life. A poem custom-written for you at a poignant moment of personal growth vests unforeseeable treasure.  

TAPIT enacts personal transformation, and Todd feels your listenership isn't complete without an insider's perspective on this aspect of it. 

So, in rather raw formats, depending on how our guests prepare them for us--whether as letters, meditations, or conversations--we present the most salient of guest reflections for further appreciation. 

If you're a listener supporter whose contributions (however small) help make TAPIT free for guests, these BONUS reflections serve as sincerest thanks. 

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.

Send us Fan Mail

Todd helps Joan, a vocalist, make connections between the loss of her singing voice, three miscarriages, and her survival of a historic Amtrak train wreck. Along the way, we meet her daughters, learn how Indian ashrams and silent meditation retreats have been as important to Joan as her music, and discover the redeeming power of laughter. Todd's (three!) poems for Joan support her in her grief, affirm her choice to evolve her career as a composer, and present her with a surprising award. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you might even break out in song.

Chapters in this episode: 

1. Amtrak, Conrail, and Joan's fifth-car "wall"
2. Three boys lost in the second trimester
3. A dream choir and an expiration date
4. Daughters, mothers, and a lineage of strong women
5. Voice, meditation, and silence
6. The poem: "A Trophy"

Audio clip: 1987 Amtrak 20/20 Newsreel
Guest Joan Johnson Drewes website

Support the show

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.

Send us Fan Mail

New in March 2023! There's a Poem in That is a podcast in which award-winning poet Todd Boss helps strangers discover the poetry in their most intimate stories.  Each episode ends with the reveal of a custom poem written expressly for a guest stranger. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll  want a poem of your very own.

Support the show

TAPIT is listener supported. Listeners like you help make TAPIT's services available FREE to anyone who calls the listener line. Join the movement and get bonus content available nowhere else, by contributing as little as $1 a month, here.

Some contributors support the show at $5,000 a year, assuring TAPIT's continued growth as nonprofit arts organization with vision. To join these visionaries, visit us here, or send a message to [email protected]. 

Read the poems and access more bonus content at poeminthat.com. Or shop our merch!

Is there an unwritten poem in your story? Leave Todd a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line, and tell him why: 808-300-0449.

Follow TAPIT on Facebook.