Author: PoetrySays

Happiness was part of my life for years before I took the time to understand the poet who wrote it. Now it’s an even closer friend.

Definitely read the non-mangled text of The Clothes Pin, then make some tea and read Donald Hall’s essay on life with Jane, The Third Thing.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week I had the pleasure of chatting with Melbourne-based bibliotherapist Sonya Tsakalakis about Charlotte Mew’s poem The Call.

Describing Mew’s life as ‘tragic’ doesn’t quite cover it. She lost family members to physical and mental illness, struggled against Victorian values as an all but closeted lesbian, and ended her life alone. Yet this poem is anything but tragic – it’s stirring and strangely timeless.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Gertrude Stein still makes people feel angry, unsettled and scared. She’s powerful. But sometimes she can also be comforting. Today’s poem is Let Us Describe – hear Stein read the whole thing over at the Poetry Foundation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS