A Blind Woman - Ted Kooser
November 15th, 2008 (1:12)
read by Ted Kooser. audio from poetryfoundation.org.
The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe
October 26th, 2008 (8:20)
read by Basil Rathbone.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more.”
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The Nightingale - Samuel Coleridge
October 21st, 2008A Conversation Poem. April, 1798.
No cloud, no relique of the sunken day
Distinguishes the West, no long thin slip
Of sullen light, no obscure trembling hues.
Come, we will rest on this old mossy bridge!
You see the glimmer of the stream beneath,
But hear no murmuring: it flows silently,
O’er its soft bed of verdure. All is still,
A balmy night! and though the stars be dim,
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find
A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
And hark! the Nightingale begins its song,
“Most musical, most melancholy” bird!
A melancholy bird! Oh! idle thought!
In nature there is nothing melancholy.
But some night-wandering man whose heart was pierced
With the remembrance of a grievous wrong,
Or slow distemper, or neglected love,
(And so, poor wretch! filled all things with himself,
And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale
Of his own sorrow) he, and such as he,
First named these notes a melancholy strain.
And many a poet echoes the conceit;
Poet who hath been building up the rhyme
When he had better far have stretched his limbs
Beside a brook in mossy forest-dell,
By sun or moon-light, to the influxes
Of shapes and sounds and shifting elements
Surrendering his whole spirit, of his song
And of his fame forgetful! so his fame
Should share in Nature’s immortality,
A venerable thing! and so his song
Should make all Nature lovelier, and itself
Be loved like Nature! But ’twill not be so;
And youths and maidens most poetical,
Who lose the deepening twilights of the spring
In ball-rooms and hot theatres, they still
Full of meek sympathy must heave their sighs
O’er Philomela’s pity-pleading strains.
We Real Cool - Gwendolyn Brooks
October 20th, 2008 (:20)
read by Gwendolyn Brooks. audio from poets.org. Recorded May 03, 1983
Not Waving but Drowning - Stevie Smith
October 13th, 2008Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
(1953)
What Kind of Times Are These - Adrienne Rich
October 7th, 2008 (1:24)
read by Adrienne Rich. audio from salon.com
excerpts from The Reproduction of Profiles - Rosmarie Waldrop
September 15th, 2008 (4:06)
read by Rosmarie Waldrop. audio from pennsound. recorded at Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY. December 16, 2006
Sunflower Sutra - Allen Ginsberg
September 9th, 2008 (6:23)
read by Allen Ginsberg. audio from the Allen Ginsberg Project. recorded at Town Hall Theater in Berkeley, CA. March 8, 1956
Recuerdo - Edna St. Vincent Millay
September 2nd, 2008 (1:35)
read by Edna St. Vincent Millay. audio from salon.com
Mushrooms - Sylvia Plath
August 25th, 2008 (1:01)
read by Sylvia Plath. audio from salon.com