Take this poem

(Archive) Episode 6: "If it ain't a pleasure it ain't a poem" Animal Poetry

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. 

(Archive) Episode 1: Let Evening Come

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

 

Episode 115: Hard Hopes for a Young Writer

As my end-of-school-year poem I bring you "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur 

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.