The Poetry Exchange

The Poetry Exchange
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The Poetry Exchange talks to people about the poem that has been a friend to them. In each episode you will hear our guest talking about their chosen poem and the part it has played in their life, as well as a recording of the poem that we make as a gift for them. Our podcast features conversations with people from all walks of life, as well as a range of special guests. Join us to discover the power of poetry in people’s lives. Silver Award Winner for Most Original Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2018. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 100. Having a Coke with You by Frank O'Hara - A Friend to Michael Shaeffer

    5 JUN

    100. Having a Coke with You by Frank O'Hara - A Friend to Michael Shaeffer

    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 hello@thepoetryexchange.co.uk. 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min
  2. 99. On Wenlock Edge by A. E. Housman - A Friend to Serena Trowbridge

    18 APR

    99. On Wenlock Edge by A. E. Housman - A Friend to Serena Trowbridge

    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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    24 min
  3. 98. White Egrets (I) by Derek Walcott - A Friend to Nick Makoha

    6 FEB

    98. White Egrets (I) by Derek Walcott - A Friend to Nick Makoha

    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. ********* 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 min
  4. 97. Morning by Frank O'Hara - A Friend to Tamar Yoseloff

    18/12/2024

    97. Morning by Frank O'Hara - A Friend to Tamar Yoseloff

    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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    33 min
  5. 96. A Kite for Aibhín by Seamus Heaney - A Friend to Fiona

    06/10/2024

    96. A Kite for Aibhín by Seamus Heaney - A Friend to Fiona

    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 hello@thepoetryexchange.co.uk. 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 ********* 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. Excerpted from Human Chain by Seamus Heaney. Published in September 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2010 by Seamus Heaney. All rights reserved. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  6. 95. The World as Meditation by Wallace Stevens - A Friend to David

    20/08/2024

    95. The World as Meditation by Wallace Stevens - A Friend to David

    READ TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE - Dearest friends, We are so sorry to have to share the hardest news with you - something we could never imagine having to say... Our beautiful friend and the founder, co-host and guiding light of The Poetry Exchange, Fiona Bennett, has died after a short illness. We are so sorry this will come as a huge shock to you all. It is hard to begin to express the enormous sense of loss, grief and endless love we are feeling for our most beloved Fiona. We know so many of you will be feeling this with us. FIona touched so many people's lives in such a profound way....whether through you listening in to her voice every month on the podcast, or through meeting and knowing Fiona in person. As Michael puts it in the introduction to this episode: "Fiona was a real one off. She really was one of the very best." This episode is a converastion Fiona really wanted us to share. It is an exchange with the wondrous David Lewsey about the poem that has been a friend to him: 'The World as Meditation' by Wallace Stevens. We recorded the conversation just a few months ago, and it is wonderful to hear David share all his passion for this poem and for poetry with Fiona and Michael. We would love to hear from you with any messages, feelings and reflections about Fiona, and you can get in touch with us on hello@thepoetryexchange.co.uk. We are going to be taking some time to process and face the loss of our beautiful friend, and to think about ways of lifting up and honouring her extraordinary life and legacy. For now, we are incredibly grateful for all your friendship, and we are sending so much love to you all. Michael, John and The Poetry Exchange xx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    43 min
  7. 94. Poems as Friends at Norfolk & Norwich Festival

    27/06/2024

    94. Poems as Friends at Norfolk & Norwich Festival

    In this special episode, we share a recording of our live event at Norfolk and Norwich Festival in June 2024, celebrating our new anthology: Poems as Friends. Michael Shaeffer is joined by contributors to the anthology Roy McFarlane and Hannah Jane Walker, to read a selection of the poems found within its pages, alongside the stories of the readers who have known them as friends. We are incredibly grateful to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and the National Centre for Writing for hosting us for this very special event - part of the City of Literature programme - and for all their passion and support for our work with poems as friends. City of Literature is a Norfolk & Norwich Festival and National Centre for Writing presentation, programmed by the National Centre for Writing. We hope you enjoy listening in! Poems as Friends: The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology is available now from all good bookshops in the UK and online. It is co-authored by Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer and published by Quercus Editions. Hannah Jane Walker is an award-winning writer, performer and poet with a socially engaged practice. Her work deals with emotion, vulnerability and the human experience and has been praised for its humour, sincerity and poetic ambition. She published her first book Sensitive with Octopus Hachette and her poetry has been published by Nasty Little Press, Nine Arches Press and in anthologies with Penned in the Margins and Forest Fringe. Her plays are published by Oberon. Roy McFarlane was born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage and has spent most of his years living in Wolverhampton - and more recently in Brighton. He has held the role of Birmingham’s Poet Laureate, Birmingham & Midland Institute’s Poet in Residence, and is currently the UK Canal Poet Laureate. He has three collections published by Nine Arches Press: Beginning With Your Last Breath (2016); The Healing Next Time (2018), which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, and Living By Troubled Waters (2022). In 2023, Roy McFarlane was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    38 min
  8. 93. The Envoy of Mr. Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert - A Friend to Nick Laird

    30/05/2024

    93. The Envoy of Mr. Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert - A Friend to Nick Laird

    In this episode of our podcast, acclaimed writer Nick Laird talks about the poem that has been a friend to him: 'The Envoy of Mr. Cogito' by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Bogdana Carpenter. Nick Laird was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He writes poetry, fiction, screenplays, and criticism, and lives in London and New York. His poetry collections (from Faber and Faber) are: To a Fault (2005); On Purpose (2007); Go Giants (2015); Feel Free (2018). We are so grateful to Nick for joining us for this utterly extrarordinary converastion, and to Oxford University Press Ltd for their permission to share Zbigniew Herbert's poem with you in this way. You can find out more about our upcoming events with our anthology, Poems as Friends, on our website. 'The Envoy of Mr. Cogito' by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Bogdana Carpenter, is read by Fiona Bennett. ********* The Envoy of Mr. Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Bogdana Carpenter Go where those others went to the dark boundary for the golden fleece of nothingness your last prize go upright among those who are on their knees among those with their backs turned and those toppled in the dust you were saved not in order to live you have little time you must give testimony be courageous when the mind deceives you be courageous in the final account only this is important and let your helpless Anger be like the sea whenever you hear the voice of the insulted and beaten let your sister Scorn not leave you for the informers executioners cowards—they will win they will go to your funeral and with relief will throw a lump of earth the woodborer will write your smoothed-over biography and do not forgive truly it is not in your power to forgive in the name of those betrayed at dawn beware however of unnecessary pride keep looking at your clown’s face in the mirror repeat: I was called—weren’t there better ones than I beware of dryness of heart love the morning spring the bird with an unknown name the winter oak light on a wall the splendour of the sky they don’t need your warm breath they are there to say: no one will console you be vigilant—when the light on the mountains gives the sign—arise and go as long as blood turns in the breast your dark star repeat old incantations of humanity fables and legends because this is how you will attain the good you will not attain repeat great words repeat them stubbornly like those crossing the desert who perished in the sand and they will reward you with what they have at hand with the whip of laughter with murder on a garbage heap go because only in this way will you be admitted to the company of cold skulls to the company of your ancestors: Gilgamesh Hector Roland the defenders of the kingdom without limit and the city of ashes Be faithful Go Zbigniew Herbert, 'The Envoy of Mr. Cogito' translated by Bogdana and John Carpenter, from Selected Poems of Zbigniew Herbert. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Ltd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min
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About

The Poetry Exchange talks to people about the poem that has been a friend to them. In each episode you will hear our guest talking about their chosen poem and the part it has played in their life, as well as a recording of the poem that we make as a gift for them. Our podcast features conversations with people from all walks of life, as well as a range of special guests. Join us to discover the power of poetry in people’s lives. Silver Award Winner for Most Original Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2018. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    The Poetry Exchange
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2025
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Poetry Exchange

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