Open Windows Podcast

"Remembering" and "memory" are major elements in the creation of poetry. There are essential focuses or common themes that poems that include memories often use.  I take a look today at another one of those focuses, memories of loss and especially the loss of home. I read poems by Nijolė Miliauskaitė, Elizabeth Bishop, Abraham Lincoln, Zeina Azzam, and Rainer Maria Rilke.  I end the program with one of my own poems.

I am happily spending time on the coast of Maine, and so read poems about Maine and about the ocean by Robert Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Pam Burr Smith, George Oppen, and Louise Bogan.  I end the program with three of my own poems.

My programs each week typically illustrate a theme or poetic focus. From time to time, however, I read some of my own poems that do not have such a defined focus but which have helped present my work as a poet over the years more generally.  Today, as part of such a presentation of my work, I read poems from my book Salt, which was published in 2007. The poems of Salt affirm my longstanding commitment to expanding the use of anonymous lyric narrators.  

In celebration of my 50th Yale College Reunion, and to affirm the literary bonds I forged then and have continued with other poets in my class, I read poems by my Yale classmates: William Logan, Timothy Murphy, Cal Nordt, James Stephenson, and Jamie Stern. I end my program with my own poems.  I include, too, a poem for Ukraine by Ihor Kalnyets.

 I continue my presentation of Australian poets today and read poems by Bronwyn Rodden and Les Wicks. I also read poems by New Zealand poet Lisa Samuels.  I begin with a poem for Ukraine by Volodymyr Sosiura.   

 I continue my presentation of Australian poets today and read poems by Cassandra Atherton, Peter Boyle, MTC Cronin, Philip Hammial, Dominique Hecq, and S.K. Kelen.  I begin with a poem for Ukraine by Ania Chromova.   

Poetry written in English thrives across the world. Those of us in the United States often forget that we are not the only voices of poetry in our native language.  And we forget, too, that the Northern Hemisphere is not the only locus for English language poetry. So today I read poems by three Australian poets who have been strong voices on the Australian poetic stage: Robert Drummond, Grant Fraser, and Edward Reilly. I begin with a poem for Ukraine by Halyna Kruk.

This week marks the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. It's an anniversary during which another European war is being fought. So today I read poems about World War II, in commemoration of the end of that war but also as a reminder that such a war can happen again.  I begin with a poem for Ukraine by Serhiy Zhadan and read poems by John Ciardi, Harry Rosolenko, John Frederick Nims, Randall Jarrell, Miklós Radnóti, and Ephim G. Fogel. 

I begin my program with a poem for Ukraine by Vasyl Holoborodko. I then read poems about spring, and particularly about dogwood trees and flowers, by George Marion McClellan, Roy Sheele, Martin Willitts, Jr., William Johnson, and David Baker.  I end the program with two of my own poems.

I begin my program with a poem for Ukraine by Taras Shevchenko. I then talk about the oneiric tradition in poetry -- poetry that is written about dreams -- and read poems from my book The Woman on the Bridge, which began as a dream.

I begin my program with a poem for Ukraine by Vasyl Stus. I then read poems about the moon by Sappho, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, Jean Toomer, e.e. cummings, Philip Larkin, and Larry D. Thomas. I end the program with one of my own poems.

The idea of new beginnings, of initiation after conclusion -- and in this program linked to the symbols and signs of Easter -- guides my selection of poems today. I read poems by Kim Stafford, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats, Claude McKay, Amy Clampitt, Charles Wright, and Anne Sexton. I end the program with one of my own poems.  

April is celebrated as “National Humor Month.” It is also the only month of the year that begins with a Fool's Day, a day celebrated in many countries with sanctioned frivolity and pranks ever since the 1500s. So today I want to lighten the moment and read some humorous poetry by Ogden Nash, Philip Larkin, Shel Silverstein, "Anonymous," Pamela Ayres, and Stuart McLean.

I am part of a small press called Black Spruce Press, which publishes collections of poetry by established poets and by young poets who have not yet had a full book. Today I read poems by four of the poets published by the Press: Kerry Shawn Keys, Michael Jennings, Alan Berecka, and  Susana Cuartas-Ordoñez.  

My programs each week typically illustrate a particular theme or poetic focus. From time to time, however, I have read some of my own poems that do not have such a defined focus but which have helped present my work as a poet over the years more generally.  So today, as part of such a presentation of my work, I read poems from my book White, which was published in 2004.  

My program today features poems by men Native American poets: Simon Ortiz, Orlando White, Sherman Alexie, Ray Young Bear, Mark Turcotte, Gordon Henry, Jr., and Adrian C. Louis.

Today I read poems about the beginning and ending of war. I focus on poets whose families and whose countries have been victims of various kinds of wars: Kornelijus Platelis, Wisława Szymborska, Yehuda Amichai, Mahoud Darwish, Seamus Heaney, and Lawson Fusao Inada. I end the program with one of my own poems about the beginning of war.

Today I read poems by Ukrainian poets, in support of the Ukrainian fight against brutal Russian invasion. The poets are Iya Kiva, Boris Khersonsky, Vasyl Makhno, Borys Humenyuk, and Natalka Bilotserkivets.

My program today features poems by women Native American poets:  Tacey Atsitty, Esther Belin, Diane Burns, Laura Da', Roberta Hill Whiteman, Linda Hogan, Lois Red Elk, and Ofelia Zepeda.

 I read poems in today's program, and in one or two programs to come, written by indigenous people of North and South America. I begin today with lyric poems written in the Mayan and the Aztec languages.