To the Brink
Four poets on old stories, cultural memory, and minority languages.
Mar 04, 2025•55 min•Ep. 546
Poetry Off the Shelf
Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too.
Episodes
Hope Rustles in My Leaves
Rebecca Lindenberg on diabetes, a final phone call, and letting yourself fall in love.
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 544
Our Life Force
Catherine Barnett on improv, misfit details, and the humor in elegy.
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 545
The Age of Fire
Mike Sonksen on the Los Angeles fires and what it means to love a city in danger.
Jan 22, 2025•33 min•Ep. 545
Poets We Lost in 2024
Helen Vendler and Marjorie Perloff in the words of people who loved them.
Jan 07, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 543
Merchant of Joy
Caleb Femi on parties, golden pavements, and the downside of self-awareness.
Dec 17, 2024•55 min•Ep. 544
You Are Beautiful
Cass Donish on grief rituals, putting on makeup, and letting in joy.
Dec 03, 2024•53 min•Ep. 541
Our Marvelous Existence
Elisa Díaz Castelo on vertigo, breaking a chicken, and her grandmother's advice for a good life.
Nov 25, 2024•33 min•Ep. 541
Spirit Times
Violeta Orozco on the US presidential election, leaving Mexico, and her connection to deep time.
Nov 19, 2024•43 min•Ep. 541
Misclassified
Tyler Mills on the truth, how to love a cockroach, and her grandfather's silence about the bomb.
Oct 22, 2024•51 min•Ep. 541
Where I Live
A.B. Spellman on Jim Crow, alligator suede shoes, and shaking up the art of the castle.
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 540
Painting From Life
Garth Greenwell on shame, small acts of love, and the patch of snow inside us.
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 538
Fool’s Errand
Idra Novey on exile, stereotypes, and making art the center of your life.
Sep 04, 2024•47 min•Ep. 538
Trial and Error
Helena and Nicholson Baker on drawing your loved ones, the horrors of the world, and finding your way back to beauty.
Aug 27, 2024•55 min•Ep. 537
Rise Together
Perry Janes on Hollywood, ego, and trying not to break his NDA.
Aug 13, 2024•58 min•Ep. 536
The Magical Element
E.J. Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive.
Jul 30, 2024•50 min•Ep. 530
Ecology of Love
Camille Dungy on her garden, writing from the provinces, and the poetry of Anne Spencer.
Jul 16, 2024•53 min•Ep. 534
Good For the World
Dorothea Lasky on The Shining , writing what you fear, and the ferocity of color.
Jul 02, 2024•46 min•Ep. 531
A Stone Worth Addressing
Merlin Sheldrake on fungi, creativity, and the queerness of nature.
Jun 18, 2024•53 min•Ep. 531
Habitual Sins
Elisa Gonzalez on bisexuality, humor, and working in finance.
Jun 04, 2024•58 min•Ep. 531
Style All the Way Down
Joyelle McSweeney on sound, style icons, and the Ovidian landscape of her ear canal.
May 21, 2024•53 min•Ep. 525
The Fire in Which We Burn
Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief.
May 07, 2024•53 min•Ep. 524
My Heart and Its Borders
Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine.
Apr 23, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 523
My Awesome Stoma
April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother.
Apr 09, 2024•45 min•Ep. 522
Working-Class Superheroes
Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end.
Mar 26, 2024•47 min•Ep. 521
All the Shiny Knives
Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors.
Mar 12, 2024•55 min•Ep. 520
Let Light Form
Nam Le on commerce, irony vs. sincerity, and being in the Arctic.
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 519
Stay in Character
Gregory Pardlo on improv, therapy, and driving around with his father’s ashes.
Feb 13, 2024•46 min•Ep. 518
Instructions for Divorce
Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self.
Jan 30, 2024•50 min•Ep. 517
Make Art for Me
Blake Butler on complex mourning, the suicide of his wife Molly Brodak, and finding his way back.
Jan 16, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 516