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Poems and Poetry on NPR: Reviews, Interviews, Readings Explore NPR's poetry reviews, readings, author interviews and recommendations.
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Poetry

Explore NPR's poetry reviews, readings, author interviews and recommendations.

Lyrical Alchemist Al Young Combining Poetry, Blues

In honor of National Poetry Month, Farai Chideya talks with Al Young, California's Poet Laureate, about the art and joys of poetry. His latest book, Something About the Blues, includes a CD of Young reading his works, often with jazz accompaniment.

Lyrical Alchemist Al Young Combining Poetry, Blues

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'Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters'

Fresh Air

Music critic Lloyd Schwartz first met poet Elizabeth Bishop when she moved to Cambridge in the early 1970s after living in Brazil for nearly 20 years. Now Schwartz has co-edited a new collection of work by the former U.S. Poet Laureate.

'Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters'

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Review

A Spring Bouquet of Poetry

As National Poetry Month draws to a close, we recognize five new volumes that celebrate the form, including verse probing the darkness at the edge of everyday life from U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic and hard questions posed in comic fashion from Jane Shore.

A Spring Bouquet of Poetry

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California Poet Laureate Al Young's 'Blues'

Al Young took to writing poetry, as he describes it in one poem, "to make out the sound of my own background music." Now California's poet laureate, he writes about the blues, jazz and life in the geographically and culturally diverse state.

California Poet Laureate Al Young's 'Blues'

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Poet's Intimate Stanzas Explore Grief and Salvation

In his new poetry collection, the acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee looks back on his extraordinary family history in meditations on suffering, prayer, death and love. Though his poetry is personal, Lee says it describes universal emotions and experiences.

Poet's Intimate Stanzas Explore Grief and Salvation

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Ted Kooser Shares the Poetry of Valentine's Day

Since 1986, Ted Kooser has written an annual Valentine's Day poem and sent it to an ever-growing list of women. It's a project the former U.S. poet laureate ended last year. But now, he's collected those poems in a new book, Valentines.

Ted Kooser Shares the Poetry of Valentine's Day

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Review

You Must Read This

'Leaves of Grass' Still Growing, Inspiring

Author Diane Ackerman writes that Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is an epic journey of self-discovery. He began with a microscopic eye focused on a leaf of grass, and then stretched his mental eye out to the beauty of the farthest nebulae.

'Leaves of Grass' Still Growing, Inspiring

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Poet Natasha Trethewey, Hymning the Native Guard

Fresh Air

Natasha Trethewey was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Native Guard. Trethewey grew up bi-racial in Mississippi, and her mother was murdered by her stepfather; these, along with the South, are recurring themes in her poetry.

Poet Natasha Trethewey, Hymning the Native Guard

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Dunya Mikhail: 'The War Works Hard'

War is a recurring theme for poet Dunya Mikhail, an Iraqi exile who fled her country after being placed on Saddam Hussein's enemies list. Her poem "The War Works Hard" offers an ironic take on the meaning and consequence of war.

Dunya Mikhail: 'The War Works Hard'

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Review

You Must Read This

Szymborska's 'View': Small Truths Sharply Etched

Adam Gopnik says the Nobel Prize winner isn't merely a poet: She's "a necessary writer, as necessary as toast," adept at delivering "a small truth articulated as a sharp ironic point" — and "an emotion given a shape neither all too familiar nor all too abstract."

Szymborska's 'View': Small Truths Sharply Etched

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A Pacifist's Plainspoken Poetry

All Things Considered ends its April poetry series with poet William Stafford, a pacifist who came of age between the two world wars. NPR contributor Henry Lyman, the longtime host of the public radio program Poems to a Listener, sat down with Stafford in 1990.

A Pacifist's Plainspoken Poetry

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