Poetry Centered

Jack Jung shares poems in which he hears echoes of the themes, musicality, and imagery of Korean modernist poet Yi Sang. Shadow selves recur in each selection: Jung introduces early recordings of James Tate in 1968 on sparring with his shadow (“Shadowboxing”) and W.S. Merwin in 1969 reading a mythical poem about anti-creation (“The Last One”). He also discusses Sawako Nakayasu’s playful, desperate poem in which ants become a double of humans (“Battery”). Jung closes with his translation of Yi Sang’s “Crow’s Eye View, Poem No. 15,” which considers our shadow selves and provides what Jung calls a “much-needed lyrical recognition of our failures and suffering .”Listen to the full recordings of Tate, Nakayasu, and Merwin reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:James Tate (1968)Sawako Nakayasu (2007)W.S. Merwin (1969)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Michelle Whittaker presents recordings of poems that display their writers’ skill with both narrative and sound as they each consider the body as a site of conflict and grace. Whittaker considers the way Robert Hass employs sound to communicate strong emotion (“A Story About the Body”), connects with Ellen Bryant Voigt’s memories of seeing a family member’s scars (“Lesson”), and celebrates Michael S. Harper’s reflective pairing of narrative tension and cycling sounds (“The Borning Room”). To close, Whittaker reads her poem “In the Afterlight,” itself a complexly layered composition of sound and image. Listen to the full recordings of Hass, Voigt, and Harper reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (1984)Ellen Bryant Voigt (2003)Michael S. Harper (1973)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Oliver Baez Bendorf shares recordings of poets that encourage him to “show up in [his] own life” through both their poetry and the way they themselves move through the world as thinkers, activists, and people. He celebrates Trish Salah’s intelligence and generosity of mind (“Tiresias as Cuir (on the run)”), CAConrad’s expressiveness of voice and connection to the body (“I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead”), and Ching-In Chen’s call to reconsider histories (“dear story of a risk, 1878.”). Baez Bendorf closes by reading a poem written this summer, titled “Michigan,” inspired by the life and work of transgender activist Sylvia Rivera. Listen to the full recordings of Salah, CAConrad, and Chen reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Trish Salah (2017)CAConrad (2014)Ching-In Chen with the Thinking Its Presence Board (2017)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Randall Horton introduces poems that ask us to consider intensely difficult situations, seeing anew their complexity and the humanity of the people involved. He discusses Reginald Dwayne Betts’ exploration of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic and mass incarceration (“The Invention of Crack”), Brian Turner’s masterful use of point of view (“2000 lbs.”), and Patricia Smith as an example of the way that poets can be instruments for change (“Sitting in my dimly lit cell…”). Horton closes by sharing his poem “Dear Aesthetic Beauty,” paired with music in a collaboration with guitarist Brendan Regan.Listen to the full recordings of Betts, Turner, and Smith reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Reginald Dwayne Betts (2017)Brian Turner (2006)Patricia Smith (2019)You can also find a reading by Randall Horton on Voca, which was given as part of our Art for Justice series in 2018.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Teaching artists from the Poetry Center’s Writing the Community program offer ideas for using recordings from Voca to inspire K-12 students. Kristen E. Nelson discusses the benefits of using a simple, concrete parameter—such as writing about the moon—for younger students. She shares moon poems by Al Young (“Excerpt from ‘About the 22 Moon Poems’” and “Moon of No Return”) and a student at Miles Exploratory Learning Center. Lisa M. O’Neill discusses the power of using lists and other forms of everyday writing familiar to students as an entry point to help students feel comfortable with writing poetry. She introduces a list poem by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (“For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet”) and shares two list poems written by students at the CAPE School that came out of an assignment inspired by Wang Ping’s poem “Things We Carry on the Sea.”Listen to the full recordings of Young and Harjo reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Al Young (1997) Joy Harjo (2016) Learn more about the Poetry Center’s education programs by visiting the Poetry Center online and clicking on the “Education” tab.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

TC Tolbert shares recordings that express a willingness to be deeply present, including a poem by Akilah Oliver that records intimacy with grief (“Selections from the Putterer’s Notebook and ‘An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet’”), a poem by Rigoberto González that brings exquisite specificity to a migrant’s narrative (“The Bordercrosser’s Pillowbook”), and a Marie Howe poem that demonstrates the power of staying with a constraint for as long as you can (“Magdalene—The Seven Devils”). Tolbert closes by reading “Dear Melissa,” an epistolary poem to an earlier self.Listen to the full recordings of Oliver, González, and Howe reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Akilah Oliver (2010)Rigoberto González (2010)Marie Howe (2012)Listen to a 2011 reading by TC Tolbert on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Maggie Smith approaches poems as a poet’s best teacher in this episode, calling poems “a conversation we have with our own minds.” Smith shares a poem by Donald Hall that shaped her early days of writing (“Gold”), a Lynn Emanuel poem that she prizes for its perfection of word choice (“Stone Soup”), and a prose poem by Jenny Boully that engages the listener through its forward momentum (“Tether”). Smith closes by reading her poem “Ohio Cento.” Listen to the full recordings of Hall, Emanuel, and Boully reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Donald Hall (1972)Lynn Emanuel (1993)Jenny Boully (2013)Listen to a 2018 reading by Maggie Smith on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Urayoán Noel introduces recordings of Ai engaging with war through necessary fury (“The Root Eater”), Lehua M. Taitano composing a lifeline to communities living with the legacies of colonialism (“A Love Letter to the Chamoru People in the Twenty-first Century”), Ofelia Zepeda on the untranslatability of song (“Ñeñe'i Ha-ṣa:gid / In the Midst of Songs”), and a fable of radical imagination by Gloria E. Anzaldúa (“Nepantla”). Noel ends the episode with his poem “Molecular Modular,” built around open-ended questions considering virality and modes of community.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Taitano, Zepeda, and Anzaldúa reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lehua M. Taitano with the board of Thinking Its Presence (2017)Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1991)Listen to a performance by Urayoán Noel on Voca, presented as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Hanif Abdurraqib presents poems that offer listeners an invitation to reflection via rich details, repetition, and rhythm. He discusses his admiration for Ross Gay’s tenderness (“To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian”), shares a long poem by Juliana Spahr that creatively engages with the political (“Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache”), and praises Yona Harvey’s tenderness and nuanced understanding of violence (“Hurricane”). Abdurraqib closes by reading his poem “Someone Brought You into This World and Someone Can Take You.”Listen to the full recordings of Gay, Spahr, and Harvey reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ross Gay (2017)Juliana Spahr (2009)Yona Harvey (2014)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Ada Limón shares poems that speak to finding a way forward through moments of crisis and struggle. She discusses Lorna Dee Cervantes on being courageous enough to be alone (“Crow”), the enduring relevance of poems written in a particular moment, like Mark Wunderlich’s “Peonies,” and Lucille Clifton’s anthem on need, defiance, and making it up as we go (“won’t you celebrate with me”). Limón closes by reading her poem “The End of Poetry,” published this spring in the New Yorker.Listen to the full recordings of Cervantes, Wunderlich, and Clifton reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lorna Dee Cervantes (1991)Mark Wunderlich (1995)Lucille Clifton (1998)Listen to two readings by Ada Limón on Voca, including her most recent, which was given as part of our Art for Justice series in 2020.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode. Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.