Poetry Off the Shelf Poetry Foundation
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- Arts
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Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too.
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The Fire in Which We Burn
Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief.
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My Heart and Its Borders
Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine.
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My Awesome Stoma
April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother.
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Working-Class Superheroes
Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end.
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All the Shiny Knives
Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors.
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Customer Reviews
my favorite podcast currently
This podcast has inspired me to write more, and turned me on to so many great poets. The podcasters questions are so thoughtful and direct, it makes for such beautiful conversations. I recommend this podcast to everyone I know!
The Best
I am a poet and avid, voracious poetry “learner,” so poetry podcasts have become essential for me. Helena de Groot is simply the best podcaster and reader of poetry out here right now. I was reminded by this the other day as I tuned back in to another popular poetry podcast, immediately remembering why I had stopped listening to it: that podcast host is utterly self-absorbed and spends an inordinate amount of time talking about herself, whining on and on about the woes of her own life. Lots of whining and self-pity. It will take her at least five minutes to articulate the actual question to the poet, who then often forgets the question because it’s taken so long. We are tuning in to learn about The Poet, not the podcaster herself. Helena de Groot, on the other hand, converses with the poets in such a genuine, original manner. She asks intelligent, articulate, thoughtful questions about the poets and the poetry they are writing. She is a class act and podcasting at its finest. A real pleasure for all of us hungry for poetry…thank you!
The best podcast around poetry
de Groot is simply one of the great readers of American poetry. I recommend this podcast to all of my friends.