Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, a past, present, and future starring the same child shift ceaselessly in a parent’s mind, like photos flipped through in an album, dots placed on a timeline, moments that one wishes they could build monuments for.
May 29
Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Fady Joudah
From a young age, says Palestinian American poet and physician Fady Joudah, “I had such a fascination with the way the alphabet makes music in the mind.” We are thrilled to offer this thoughtful conversation between Pádraig and Fady, recorded when Fady received the 2024 Jackson P ... Show More
46m 30s
Nov 2024
Craig Arnold's "Meditation on a Grapefruit"
<p>Craig Arnold, born November 16, 1967 was an American poet and professor. His first book of poems, <em>Shells</em> (1999), was selected by W.S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His many honors include the 2005 Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize Fellowship in literature, the ... Show More
9m 13s
Mar 2021
[Unedited] Naomi Shihab Nye with Krista Tippett
It’s pretty intriguing to follow poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s idea that most of us actually “think in poems” whether we know it or not. Rarely, as she points out, do you hear anyone say they feel worse after writing things down. That, she says, can be a tool to survive in hard times l ... Show More
1h 34m
Oct 2024
Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"
<p>Though its author remained otherwise undistinguished, today's poem–with all its ecstasy, agony, and irony–has become almost as essential to the American experience as baseball itself. Happy reading!</p><p>Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born on August 14, 1863, in Lawrence, Massach ... Show More
7m 15s
<p>Garrett Hongo joins Kevin Young to read “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1983/03/21/tang-notebook"><strong>T’ang Notebook</strong></a><strong>,</strong>” by Charles Wright, and his own poem “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/on-emptiness-garret ... Show More
<p><strong>John Keats</strong> (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet prominent in the second generation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Romantic</a> poets, with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w ... Show More
<p><strong>Today’s poems are by Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde</strong><a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#cite_note-3">[a]</a> (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900), an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout th ... Show More