Essential American Poets

Though I do enjoy this, I have to wonder where a lot of poets are. There are some pretty glaring omissions. Notably, Langston Hughes.

"Essential American Poets" offers one of the better poetry podcasts available, offering a range of major American poets free of charge. At first the list of poets was too narrow and mostly male, but over the last year the Poetry Foundation has offered a much richer slice of poets former Poet Laureate Donald Hall deemed "essential." Some podcasts are better than others: clearer, longer, with a range of the poet's work. Some are too brief. But you get a very good sampling nevertheless. I wish the Poetry Foundation would leave up all the podcasts, though, becomes some of the initial ones are no longer available. Having only 25 available means that if someone happens upon these podcasts at a certain point, they may miss some of the amazing poets (Lucille Clifton, John Ashbery, etc.) who have already posted. Also, given the foundation's resources it would be great if it would update the poets a bit more. Nevertheless, it's a great resource for lovers of poetry. If you never got to hear the great Adrienne Rich, who recently passed away, read her poetry live, you can hear it here.

15 minutes of contemplation and joy with every episode. A pause that refreshes!

I listen to these shows like lullabies, like lilting lectures from a friend. I love the narrator’s voice, and the structure of the episodes: short bio of the poet followed by archival recordings of the poet reading their own work. My favorite podcast ever