Planet Poetry

Send us a textWhat's that? The airy caper of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and their mates? No it's Planet Poetry bringing you Matthew Stewart, who - by some uncanny podcast magic - is sheltering from the sweltering heat of the Spanish sun. His collection The Knives of Villalejo provides clues to what could have coaxed a poet from the cul-de-sacs of suburban Surrey to the vineyards of Extremadura.Amid the festive banter, you'll find your podcast pals discussing a Writer's Advent Calendar from Jo Bell  and seasonal favourites Snow by Louis McNeice and [little tree] by e. e. cummings. Thank you very much for listening to us in 2022. Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and an absolutely splendiferous New Year! See you in January.   Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textWhat's that popping and blazing from your favourite podcast device? A plethora of lightbulb moments, that's what.  This episode features an in depth conversation with Sarah Barnsley whose bravura first collection The Thoughts has been published by Smith | Doorstop.  With immense originality she deals with the intrusive thoughts that are a hallmark of  obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)  as well as recovery, love and White Bears.    Meanwhile Robin tries to unfold the mysteries of Black Fens viral  a poem sequence full of musicality by Frances Presley. Peter tells us how he has fallen under the siren spell of Stigmata a collection of essays by Hélèn Cixous published by Routledge. Plus there's the usual poetry based banter, and a delicate whiff of roasted coffee beans.Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textHere we go again, blazing through the vast firmaments... We go all starry and stripy this week as we meet Shane McCrae - one of the US's most celebrated new poets - to be awed by the Miltonic vastness of an imagination that electrifies his collections  Cain Named The Animal and Sometimes I Never Suffered.Meanwhile Robin continues the epic theme in St Lucia, by embarking on Omeros by Derek Walcott, and Peter, enervated after a house move  is re-enthused about poetry as a whole thanks to On Poetry: Reading, Writing & Working with Poems by Jackie Wills. Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textForging manfully through cyberspace just to be with you... Robin and Peter are back with another cracking episode featuring  Peter Raynard, who guides us through his elegiac, furious and moving book Manland from Nine Arches Press. We'll hear how Peter Raynard's experiences of growing up working class in Coventry has stimulated this bracing poetic reappraisal of what it means to be a man -- from toxic masculinity to little kisses. Plus your poddy pals find out what Jacques Prévert was scribbling on the tablecloths, and catch up with the latest editions of The Frogmore Papers, and Prole.   Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textA tantalising twinkle on your favourite device? Relax! It’s Planet Poetry surging back with Season Three! Onboard for Episode 1 is  Kim Moore, talking about All The Men I Never Married, from Seren — a powerful work... Compelling, complex and empathetic. No wonder it is currently Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Plus your favourite podcasters discuss their holiday reading — Robin touches on Helen Dunmore's Inside The Wave,  England's Green by Zaffar Kunial, and Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar. Peter mentions The Axion Esti  by Odysseus Elytis and then talks sheer nonsense — unapologetically  galumphing into Lewis Caroll’s Jabberwocky. It's great to be back! Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textWhew. What a scorcher! And the weather's hot too. Slip on your shades, and listen to our interview with the incredibly talented Fiona Sampson, about her subtly structured collection Come Down, and wander with her into organic and resonant evocations of nature infused with memories and undermined by loss.   And instead of hunching over their computer screens, Robin and Peter venture off to Beachy Head to gaze down at the English Channel and the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast.  There, in the heatwave heat, they muse on some of the highlights of the second season and sip cold beer as a bazillion flying ants issue from the cracked earth. Fiona's new book, Starlight Wood - Walking Back to the Romantic Countryside, is due out in September.Photo of Fiona Sampson by Ekaterina Voskresenskaya. Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textFasten your safety belt and jet with us over to New York where we try to get a grip on the elusive eel of postmodernism. Who better to talk to than Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino? He edits the outstanding postmodern magazine eratio and is author of an impressive body of postmodern work, which takes poetry, novels and critical theory into its ambit. A selection is available in The Wet Motorcycle  and other work available here.  Gregory's rigour is unquestionable.  Baffling or spellbinding? You decide. Next Peter lopes back  into Romanticism escaping into the opening lines of The Prelude by William Wordsworth while Robin examines the much pored over facsimile and transcript of that  familiar Modernist classic He Do The Police In Different Voices by T.S.Eliot.  Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textThis episode of Planet Poetry sees us striding forth with our seriousness only outdone by the luminosity of our socks...   Caleb Parkin entices us with his seriously playful take on eco poetry with readings from his vibrant collection This Fruiting Body.  Meanwhile Peter wanders into the Roman ruins of Bath as we look at one of the earliest English poems The Ruin  (in its translation by Michael Alexander) while Robin contemplates John Donne's Woman's Constancy . Plus, prompted by a thoughtful piece in The Dark Horse by Maitreyabandhu we reflect on the rigour of criticism in contemporary poetry, and indeed on our own podcast itself. Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textStrap in! We're going boldly into interplanetary space -- and returning to see our own planet through alien eyes.  J.O. Morgan tells us about his lates poetry collection The Martian’s Regress from Cape Poetry -- an epic, gripping sequence about a martian and his pale companion investigating a dead and sterile earth. Next... Time travel. We'll whisk you back to those passionate Victorians, with Robin sampling the obsessive melancholy of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s long poem In Memoriam A.H.H.  And Peter continues his quest into American poetry, and finds huge amounts to admire in the poem 'Prayer' from Jorie Graham’s vibrant collection Never published by Carcanet in 2002.Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!

Send us a textThen what angelic vision is this? It's Sasha Dugdale sharing poetry from her award-garlanded Carcanet collection Joy  including an excerpt from the title poem in the voice of William Blake's wife Catherine. And in her latest work Deformations Sasha tackles, among other things, the conflicted legacy of Eric Gill. Plus Robin pines for more work by Sam Willetts, reflecting on his collection New Light for the Old Dark while Peter manages a complete U-turn about Mary Oliver and we dip back into Twitter for another thorny issue.Support the showPlanet Poetry is a labour of love!If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!