Take this poem

Another one I'm dusting off for young listeners. Enjoy! 

Eleanor finally entered the Closet Of Poetry with me and shared a few of her favorites.  All the poems she says in this episode are from memory, which helps explain the adorable botched limerick she busts out with at the end. Get the kids gathered 'round for this one!

I wanted to re-release this old episode for any new young listeners. It's one of my favorites. The nine-year-old interviewed here is now taller than I am. <3

My daughter Vivian shares some of her favorite funny poems from The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry, which is a favorite around our household. 

How it all began. This is the first and most downloaded recording of TTP. 

This pilot episode includes stories of how "Let Evening Come" by Jane Kenyon has been passed around like a gift in my life and how the poem derives its simplicity and rootedness from material nouns that have been in our language from the very beginning.

Collected Poems of Jane Kenyon

As my end-of-school-year poem I bring you "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur 

I have a thing for poems about work.  Poets seem to have a thing for writing about work. I share that thing with you. In Episode 63, Episode 80, and today. 

"Digging" by Seamus Heaney

"Labor" by Jericho Brown 

A poem that peers into the wrestling of a conflicted human heart. 

Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne. 

Nothing ends more endingly than a "summer" together.

"Lost Garden" by Dana Gioia 

Even if that child is just yourself. 

"Rain" by Robert Lewis Stevenson

"Drippy Weather" by Aileen Fisher

"Spring Rain" by Marchette Chute

I first encountered these in Poems to Read to the Very Young edited by Josette Frank, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

Bonus: "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes 

I give you a poem I recently received: "Oregon Winter" by Jeanne McGahey. From the collection Winter Poems selected by Barbara Rogasky 

Take This Poem wakes up from a nap long enough to share "Holy Sonnet X" by John Donne. When despair and triumph live side by side in 14 lines, heat ensues, as well as iridescence. 

This one is not just read but also written by Keith Hansen...a reflection on a fraternal tussle that has now come to an end. 

I hope you'll listen to Muriel Rukeyser read her own poem! It's weird, funny, scary, true. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-NaxSRN4E

In this episode I read three poems from The Art of Losing, an anthology edited by Kevin Young. 

"The Wake" by Rita Dove

"The Shout" by Simon Armitage

"Remember Me" by Hal Sirowitz

Keith Hansen brings us five poems from Michael Chitwood, whose work explores the Appalachian landscape of his youth. 

"Want"

"Catalytic Converter"

"Chicken" 

"Lakeside"

"Search and Rescue"  

Happy New Year! I'm re-gifting this poem. 

Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Anna! 

"The Risk of Birth, Christmas 1973" by Madeline L'Engle 

Keith Hansen brings us poems by two Polish poets who lived upfront with human suffering and political upheaval. What will their poetic "stare" find to praise?

Adam Zagajewski's "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" and "Boogie-Woogie"

Czeslaw Milosz's "The Blacksmith Shop" 

I haven't finished part one to my satisfaction, but I'll serve you part two anyway. Rather like having dessert first, which I hear is possible if you're feeling unruly. 

"In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII:54" 

"In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII:55"

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson