Episodes

32 minutes ago
(Archive) Episode 15: What Does a Six Year Old Love?
32 minutes ago
32 minutes ago
Another one I'm dusting off for young listeners. Enjoy!
Eleanor finally entered the Closet Of Poetry with me and shared a few of her favorites. All the poems she says in this episode are from memory, which helps explain the adorable botched limerick she busts out with at the end. Get the kids gathered 'round for this one!

5 days ago
5 days ago
I wanted to re-release this old episode for any new young listeners. It's one of my favorites. The nine-year-old interviewed here is now taller than I am. <3
My daughter Vivian shares some of her favorite funny poems from The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry, which is a favorite around our household.

Wednesday Jun 04, 2025
(Archive) Episode 1: Let Evening Come
Wednesday Jun 04, 2025
Wednesday Jun 04, 2025
How it all began. This is the first and most downloaded recording of TTP.
This pilot episode includes stories of how "Let Evening Come" by Jane Kenyon has been passed around like a gift in my life and how the poem derives its simplicity and rootedness from material nouns that have been in our language from the very beginning.
Collected Poems of Jane Kenyon

Sunday Jun 01, 2025
Episode 115: Hard Hopes for a Young Writer
Sunday Jun 01, 2025
Sunday Jun 01, 2025
As my end-of-school-year poem I bring you "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur

Friday Mar 07, 2025
Episode 114: Manual Labor
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
I have a thing for poems about work. Poets seem to have a thing for writing about work. I share that thing with you. In Episode 63, Episode 80, and today.
"Digging" by Seamus Heaney
"Labor" by Jericho Brown

Wednesday Mar 05, 2025
Episode 113: Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God, For You
Wednesday Mar 05, 2025
Wednesday Mar 05, 2025
A poem that peers into the wrestling of a conflicted human heart.
Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne.

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Episode 112: If Ever We See Those Gardens Again, The Summer Will Be Gone
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Nothing ends more endingly than a "summer" together.
"Lost Garden" by Dana Gioia

Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Episode 111: Rain Poems to Say to a Child
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Even if that child is just yourself.
"Rain" by Robert Lewis Stevenson
"Drippy Weather" by Aileen Fisher
"Spring Rain" by Marchette Chute
I first encountered these in Poems to Read to the Very Young edited by Josette Frank, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Bonus: "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes

Sunday Feb 23, 2025
Episode 110: Oregon Winter
Sunday Feb 23, 2025
Sunday Feb 23, 2025
I give you a poem I recently received: "Oregon Winter" by Jeanne McGahey. From the collection Winter Poems selected by Barbara Rogasky

Sunday Nov 10, 2024
Episode 109: Death, Be Not Proud
Sunday Nov 10, 2024
Sunday Nov 10, 2024
Take This Poem wakes up from a nap long enough to share "Holy Sonnet X" by John Donne. When despair and triumph live side by side in 14 lines, heat ensues, as well as iridescence.