Poetry For All

Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen
  • 4.9 (145)
  • ARTS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
Poetry For All

This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know very little about it. In this podcast, we read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it one more time. Introducing our brand new Poetry For All website: https://poetryforallpod.com! Please visit the new website to learn more about our guests, search for thematic episodes (ranging from Black History Month to the season of autumn), and subscribe to our newsletter.

  1. Episode 90: N. Scott Momaday, The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

    APR 16

    Episode 90: N. Scott Momaday, The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee

    This episode explores the incantation and mystic union of Momaday's famous delight poem, ending with a recorded recitation in his own rich voice. We explain anaphora and explore its power, and we trace the links and connections from one thought to the next throughout the poem. Special thanks to Universty of California Television (UCTV) for permission to share the audio of Momaday's reading. For the interview with Momaday from which this reading has been pulled, see "A Conversation with N. Scott Momaday -- Writer's Symposium by the Sea 2023" on Youtube. "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee" appears in In the Presence of the Sun by N. Scott Momaday. Copyright © 2009 University of New Mexico Press, 2009. For the text of the poem, see The Poetry Foundation here. For more on Momaday, see his biography at the Poetry Foundation.

    20 min
  2. Episode 89: Pádraig Ó Tuama, excerpts from Kitchen Hymns

    APR 3

    Episode 89: Pádraig Ó Tuama, excerpts from Kitchen Hymns

    This episode was recorded on March 2, 2025 at the Phillis Wheatley Heritage Center in St. Louis., Missouri. In this conversation, Pádraig Ó Tuama reads several poems from Kitchen Hymns (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), his newest collection. We discuss subversive speech, belief and doubt, lyrical poetry, the psychology of poetic forms, and the power of ancient myths. Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet with interests in conflict, language and religion. He presents Poetry Unbound from On Being Studios, and has published two anthologies (2022, 2025, both with WW Norton) from that podcast. A freelance artist, one of Ó Tuama’s projects is poet in residence with the Cooperation and Conflict Resolution Center at Columbia University. He splits his time between Belfast and New York City. To learn more about Ó Tuama, you can visit his website.

    55 min
  3. Episode 88: Oksana Maksymchuk, Tempo

    MAR 20

    Episode 88: Oksana Maksymchuk, Tempo

    Oksana Maksymchuk joins us for a reading and discussion of "Tempo," a poem that explores the how war causes us to "whirl with / planets and stars that coil / around our fragile core." Oksana Maksymchuk is a bilingual Ukrainian-American poet, scholar, and literary translator. Her debut English-language poetry collection Still City is the 2024 Pitt Poetry Series selection, published by University of Pittsburgh Press (US) and Carcanet Press (UK). And while Still City is Oksana’s first poem in English, she is an accomplished poet in the Ukrainian as well. She is also the co-editor of Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine, an anthology of contemporary poetry.

    29 min
  4. Episode 87: Monica Ong, Her Gaze

    MAR 6

    Episode 87: Monica Ong, Her Gaze

    In this episode, Monica Ong joins us to discuss "Her Gaze," a visual poem that celebrates the achievements of astronomer Caroline Herschel. "Her Gaze" appears in Planetaria, Ong's new collection that merges archival materials with striking lyric poems. Monica Ong is the author of two books: Silent Anatomies, which was the winner of the Kore Press First Book Award in 2015; and Planetaria, which will be released in May 2025. Last year, Ong was named a United States Artists Fellow. Ong’s visual poetry has been published in many literary magazines and exhibited in galleries and museums all over the world. To learn more about Ong's work, please visit her website. To purchase a copy of Planetaria, visit the Proxima Vera website.

    35 min
  5. Episode 86: Gwendolyn Bennett, I Build America

    FEB 20

    Episode 86: Gwendolyn Bennett, I Build America

    Gwendolyn Bennett was a poet, journalist, editor, and activist whose contributions helped to fuel the Harlem Renaissance. In this episode, we read "I Build America," a poem that exposes and critiques the exploitation and suffering of ordinary workers. To learn more about Gwendolyn Bennett, see Heroine of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Gwendolyn Bennett's Selected Writings, edited by Belinda Wheeler and Louis J. Parascandola (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018). Thanks to Pennsylvania State University Press for granting us permission to read this poem. You can also click here to read a brief biography of Bennett.

    25 min
  6. Episode 85: Jacob Stratman, To Momento Mori

    JAN 22

    Episode 85: Jacob Stratman, To Momento Mori

    In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that takes its inspiration from a painting by Andrew Wyeth. The poem provides a meditation on what we perceive and interpret when we look at a painting, and at one another.

    20 min
  7. Episode 84: Ted Kooser, excerpts from Winter Morning Walks

    12/12/2024

    Episode 84: Ted Kooser, excerpts from Winter Morning Walks

    In this episode, we offer close readings of poems from Ted Kooser's_ Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison_. Kooser's poems allow us to think about the poem as a social act, as a form of healing, and as a kind of meditation. To learn more about Ted Kooser, visit his website. If you like these poems that we discussed in this episode, please read Ted Kooser's Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2001). Thanks to Carnegie Mellon Press for granting us permission to read these poems aloud.

    21 min
  8. Episode 83: Emily Dickinson, "I went to thank Her–"

    11/27/2024

    Episode 83: Emily Dickinson, "I went to thank Her–"

    In this episode, we read and discuss Emily Dickinson's poem about the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. We discuss Dickinson's innovative syntax, her use of deep pauses, and her meditations on death and grief that create surprising effects in this short lyric. I went to thank Her I went to thank Her— But She Slept— Her Bed—a funneled Stone— With Nosegays at the Head and Foot— That Travellers—had thrown— Who went to thank Her— But She Slept— 'Twas Short—to cross the Sea— To look upon Her like—alive— But turning back—'twas slow—

    20 min
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    4.9
    out of 5
    145 Ratings

    About

    This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know very little about it. In this podcast, we read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it one more time. Introducing our brand new Poetry For All website: https://poetryforallpod.com! Please visit the new website to learn more about our guests, search for thematic episodes (ranging from Black History Month to the season of autumn), and subscribe to our newsletter.

    Information

    • Creator
      Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen
    • Years Active
      2020 - 2025
    • Episodes
      94
    • Rating
      Clean
    • Copyright
      © 2025 Poetry For All
    • Show Website
      Poetry For All

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