Episodes

4 days ago
(Archive) Episode 1: Let Evening Come
4 days ago
4 days ago
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

7 days ago
7 days ago
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.

Tuesday Jul 16, 2024
Episode 108: "Brother" by Keith Hansen
Tuesday Jul 16, 2024
Tuesday Jul 16, 2024
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.

Thursday Jul 11, 2024
Episode 107: The Ballad of Orange and Grape
Thursday Jul 11, 2024
Thursday Jul 11, 2024
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