“You would’ve made a lousy nun.” The narrator of Diannely Antigua’s “Another Poem about God, but Really It’s about Me” overhears these words, and they jolt her into contrasting her life experience with the limited archetypes offered by her church — good daughter, good sister, holy woman, whore. Which of these has she been? Where does her devotion lie? And wh ... Show More
Feb 23
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha — Dukka
Loving in the face of violence, danger, and distress is an act of defiance, as demonstrated in Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s achingly beautiful poem “Dukka”. The Palestinian American writer spotlights seven aspects of love in action — between father and newborn, for example, a journalist ... Show More
15m 55s
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
Jul 2025
Siobhan Phillips on Marianne Moore ("Armor's Undermining Modesty")
"What is more precise than precision? Illusion." I talked with my friend, the scholar Siobhan Phillips, about Marianne Moore's poem "Armor's Undermining Modesty." Siobhan Phillips is a professor of English at Dickinson College, where she teaches courses on American literature of ... Show More
1h 47m
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
Apr 2025
Sunday Pick: How poetry builds teenagers' confidence (w/ Youth Poet Laureate Naisha Randhar) | How to Be a Better Human
In honor of National Poetry Month, Chris is speaking with Naisha Randhar. Naisha is the Youth Poet Laureate of Dallas, the author of Roses of Arma, and the youngest guest Chris has ever interviewed — she’s a high school sophomore. Chris and Naisha talk about the inspiring work of ... Show More
41m 12s
Feb 2025
Alcools, by Guillaume Apollinaire. Partie III.
Apollinaire is a pivotal figure in the history of French poetry. Friend of Picasso, albeit a sometimes volatile one, inventor of the term 'surrealism' and the poem without punctuation, he advocated a poetry that was direct and intuitive, free of any refined intellectualis ... Show More
46m 57s
Nov 2023
Festival indulges poets' most cringeworthy tendencies
This weekend, Wellington's Verb Festival hosts its annual worst poet wins event which rewards aspiring writers for indulging their most cliched, cringeworthy tendencies.
Harry Ricketts is a poet, essayist and a supervisor at Victoria University's International Institute of Modern ... Show More
20m 28s