Take this poem

Episode 114: Manual Labor

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 

Episode 113: Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God, For You

A poem that peers into the wrestling of a conflicted human heart. 

Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne. 

Episode 112: If Ever We See Those Gardens Again, The Summer Will Be Gone

Nothing ends more endingly than a "summer" together.

"Lost Garden" by Dana Gioia 

Episode 111: Rain Poems to Say to a Child

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 

Episode 110: Oregon Winter

I give you a poem I recently received: "Oregon Winter" by Jeanne McGahey. From the collection Winter Poems selected by Barbara Rogasky 

Episode 109: Death, Be Not Proud

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. 

Episode 108: "Brother" by Keith Hansen

This one is not just read but also written by Keith Hansen...a reflection on a fraternal tussle that has now come to an end. 

Episode 107: The Ballad of Orange and Grape

I hope you'll listen to Muriel Rukeyser read her own poem! It's weird, funny, scary, true. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-NaxSRN4E

 

 

Episode 106: Bearing Witness, Making Confession

In this episode I read three poems from The Art of Losing, an anthology edited by Kevin Young. 

"The Wake" by Rita Dove

"The Shout" by Simon Armitage

"Remember Me" by Hal Sirowitz

Episode 105: Michael Chitwood "Search and Rescue"

Keith Hansen brings us five poems from Michael Chitwood, whose work explores the Appalachian landscape of his youth. 

"Want"

"Catalytic Converter"

"Chicken" 

"Lakeside"

"Search and Rescue"