Poetry Off the Shelf Poetry Foundation

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!

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!

de Groot is simply one of the great readers of American poetry. I recommend this podcast to all of my friends.