As Best I Could

FromPoetry Off the Shelf

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As Best I Could

FromPoetry Off the Shelf

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Length:

62 minutes

Released:

May 2, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Aaron Smith on shame, telling the truth, and his mother's last lipstick.

Released:

May 2, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (99)

Producer Helena de Groot explores the diverse world of contemporary poetry with readings by poets, interviews with critics, and short poetry documentaries. Nothing is off limits, and nobody is taken too seriously.

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A Practice of Care: EJ Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive. by Poetry Off the Shelf
49 min listen
Patterns of Memory: Natasha Trethewey on writing a memoir about her mother’s life and murder. by Poetry Off the Shelf
60 min listen
A Sea of Rhythm: Translator Emily Drumsta geeks out about the poetic patterns in the work of Iraqi modernist Nazik al Mala'ika. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
Poets We Lost in 2022: Remembering Richard Howard as a poet, mentor, and friend, plus a few words on money by Bernadette Mayer. by Poetry Off the Shelf
52 min listen
Words in the Attic: Joy Ladin on the failures of language, courage, and the trans parable of Jonah and the Whale. by Poetry Off the Shelf
54 min listen
Mad at the Right People: Hafizah Geter on shelves full of Black writers, forgiveness, and knowing your history. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
Heroes History Forgets: Remembering Irish poet Eavan Boland, with her friends Jody Allen Randolph and Paula Meehan. by Poetry Off the Shelf
38 min listen
Better Broken Than Whole: Will Harris on mixedness, intimacy, and the music of difficult poems. by Poetry Off the Shelf
63 min listen
Wild at the Root: Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison on Gmail poems, pot roast, and the legacy of pain. by Poetry Off the Shelf
57 min listen
Start with One Thread: Alexandria Hall on farm sounds, solo time, and the way into a difficult poem. by Poetry Off the Shelf
39 min listen
This Is a River: Poet and founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River Lewis MacAdams, in the words of his friend Kevin Opstedal. by Poetry Off the Shelf
49 min listen
Remember Every Ginseng Seed: Chelsea Harlan on knowledge, creaturehood, and the quest for her mother’s secret sadness. by Poetry Off the Shelf
60 min listen
No Place Like Home: Camille Dungy on words, home, and motherhood in times of climate collapse. by Poetry Off the Shelf
54 min listen
I Love You, Wanda: Terrance Hayes on Wanda Coleman. Note from Terrance Hayes: “I cancelled this interview about Wanda Coleman’s work after signing the Poetry Foundation Petition. When the Foundation President and Board chair resigned, I decided to resume the interview believing the actions an indication of the PF’s willingness to change. Though I’m not yet quite convinced I should resume submitting my own poems to the magazine, I hope this interview represents a willingness to remain in dialogue as PF rises to meet the other demands and challenges. Do check out the work of Wanda Coleman." To learn more: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/LetterOfCommittment by Poetry Off the Shelf
54 min listen
Save Everything: Kimiko Hahn on tie-dying on the stove, puns, and her father's things. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
The Final Girl: torrin a. greathouse on public transport, horror, and the love of a chosen family. by Poetry Off the Shelf
55 min listen
You Get Proud by Practicing: Meg Day on the poetry and activism of the late Laura Hershey, lip reading in a masked world, and the joy of connection. by Poetry Off the Shelf
61 min listen
Elegies for the Future: Lilly Rosenberg Fellowship winner Khaty Xiong on intergenerational trauma, a chicken's neck, and the long wave of grief. by Poetry Off the Shelf
50 min listen
Not My Face in the Mirror: Vievee Francis (part 2) on beauty in a racist world. by Poetry Off the Shelf
27 min listen
A Little Wrong: Bianca Stone on family trauma, wrinkled towels, and the case against self-improvement. by Poetry Off the Shelf
58 min listen
A Room of Our Own: Cornelius Eady on Sterling Brown’s South: his porch, banter, and barbershop. by Poetry Off the Shelf
44 min listen
Creatures of Giving: Lilly Rosenberg Fellowship winner Luther Hughes on crows, processing trauma, and the allure of the wind. by Poetry Off the Shelf
50 min listen
A History with Holes: Clint Smith on being human, healing on a plantation, and the difference between Jefferson and Grant. by Poetry Off the Shelf
42 min listen
The Landscape Within: C. Dale Young on sugar cane fields, his favorite saint, and the machinations of the mind. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
Poverty’s History, Episode 2: Let the People Speak: How two early 20th-century poets struggled with poverty and the publishing world—while facing racism and classism—to become widely read and legends to us. by Poetry Off the Shelf
77 min listen
Salvation in the Dark: Vievee Francis on dark corners, an encounter with a bear, and the promise of the north. by Poetry Off the Shelf
57 min listen
Keep Going: A look back at the early days of the pandemic—eight poets about Zoom calls, the egg shortage, and being stranded abroad. by Poetry Off the Shelf
33 min listen
Dante for Today: Mary Jo Bang on her 15-year long translation effort to remake Dante’s Divine Comedy for the modern ear. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
Parents in a Poem: Raymond Antrobus on forgiving his dad, becoming a father, and poetry dubs on late-night BBC by Poetry Off the Shelf
61 min listen
My Drowning Home: Isabel Duarte-Gray on town gossip, folk remedies, and the music of Kentucky. by Poetry Off the Shelf
54 min listen

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A Stone Worth Addressing: Merlin Sheldrake on fungi, creativity, and the queerness of nature. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Habitual Sins: Elisa Gonzalez on bisexuality, humor, and working in finance. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Style All the Way Down: Joyelle McSweeney on sound, style icons, and the Ovidian landscape of her ear canal. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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The Fire in Which We Burn: Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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My Heart and Its Borders: Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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My Awesome Stoma: April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Working-Class Superheroes: Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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All the Shiny Knives: Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Let Light Form: Nam Le on commerce, irony vs. sincerity, and being in the Arctic. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Stay in Character: Gregory Pardlo on improv, therapy, and driving around with his father's ashes. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Instructions for Divorce: Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Make Art for Me: Blake Butler on complex mourning, the suicide of his wife Molly Brodak, and finding his way back. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Poets We Lost in 2023: Remembering the lesbian poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt, as well as the Palestinian poet and symbol of the resistance, Refaat Alareer. by Poetry Off the Shelf
45 min listen
The Utopian Business: Steve Zeitlin and Bob Holman on the healing act of writing, small frogs, and politics at the fiddle festival. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Cease and Desist: Laura Mullen on academia, death threats, and doing the next brave thing. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Falling Off the Stairs: Daniel Brock Johnson on risk, a T-shirt mantra, and life after the death of his friend James Foley. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Ghost Sister: Sebastian Merrill on the voice of his former self, the underworld, and laughing during yoga. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Living in And Times: Sahar Muradi on cyclical time, leather butterflies, and saying goodbye to her father. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Pen Pals: Sean Cole on loneliness, fear of aging, and what poems can do. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Notes From the Bathhouse: Eric Sneathen on queer utopia, bad writing, and San Francisco in the ’70s. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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The Magic Section: Irène Mathieu on pediatrics, suburbs without a TV, and our body's unknown terrain. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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My Totally Normal Crisis: Natalie Shapero on Wheel of Fortune, babysitting for her landlord, and pretending not to grieve. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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The Eldest Daughter: Rosanna Young Oh on her parents’ grocery store, leaving poetry, and the duties of the firstborn. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Invisible Hands: Airea D. Matthews on self-interest, starry skies, and her parents’ fateful wedding day. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Chaos Reigns: Sophus Helle on empire, Calvin and Hobbes, and the world's first author. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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The Fact of a Suitcase: Leslie Sainz on Bill O’Reilly, glassblowing, and the lure of praise. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Good Old Sonnet: Diane Seuss on New York in the ’70s, virtue, and her father’s early death. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Add Me to the Forest Floor: Katie Farris on cancer, desire, and her early-menopause care package. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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Let the Record Hide: Paisley Rekdal on maps, Sisyphus, and the dangers of beauty. by Poetry Off the Shelf
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As Best I Could

As Best I Could

Description

Titles in the series (99)

More Episodes from Poetry Off the Shelf