Poetry Centered

Prageeta Sharma selects recordings by poets who shaped her as a writer, and who have also shaped the landscape of contemporary American poetry by blending a sense of intimacy with direct address. She shares Ai inhabiting a persona that mixes sass and ancient knowledge (“Twenty-Year Marriage”), Michael S. Harper offering a testament spoken to rather than about a historical figure (“Dear John, Dear Coltrane”), and C.D. Wright creating doubleness in a love poem that melds closeness and estrangement ("Floating Trees"). Sharma closes with “A One Won,” a poem from her most recent collection.Find the full recordings of Ai, Harper, and Wright reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (September 13, 1972)Michael S. Harper (April 4, 1973)C.D. Wright (September 14, 2000)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis curates poems that illuminate characteristics of refugee poetics. He introduces Mai Der Vang on the displacement of the self (“Dear Exile”), Monica Sok on the contradictions inherent in being a refugee in the nation that caused the initial wound (“Americans Dancing in the Heart of Darkness”), and Ocean Vuong on the desire for belonging that can never be fulfilled (“Of Thee I Sing”). Davis closes with an untitled poem from his novel-in-progress, expressing defiance against loss of agency.Watch the full recordings of Vang, Sok, and Vuong reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Mai Der Vang (August 11, 2022)Monica Sok (February 13, 2020)Ocean Vuong (April 6, 2017)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Philip Metres introduces poems that speak to the enduring work of poetry to carry us toward life. He shares W.S. Merwin reflecting on how we not only survive but live (“The River of Bees”), William Stafford invoking the inner journeys we each must take (“Peace Walk”), and Natalie Diaz demonstrating the way poetry can hold us amidst pain (“My Brother at 3 A.M.”). Metres closes with his poem “To Go On One’s Way,” after the Aramaic word “yazil.”Find the full recordings of Merwin, Stafford, and Diaz reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:W.S. Merwin (January 17, 1990)William Stafford (February 21, 1968)Natalie Diaz (September 5, 2013)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

July Westhale shares poems that unfold into moments of clarity and questioning. They introduce Carl Phillips’ reflection on truth (“Continuous Until We Stop”), Linda Gregg’s complex and hard-won simplicity (“What If the World Stays Far Off”), and Fanny Howe’s depiction of the human experience underscored by the natural world (“At Baron’s Court”). Westhale closes with a new poem, “I’m Fine, Thanks."Find the full recordings of Phillips, Gregg, and Howe reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Carl Phillips (November 1, 2012)Linda Gregg (April 22, 1981)Fanny Howe (April 26, 2012)You can also enjoy a recording of Westhale reading for the Poetry Center as our summer resident in 2018.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Radical Reversal is a program that installs performance and recording spaces in detention centers and correctional facilities where they conduct poetry workshops, seminars in music and music production, readings, and performances. Following up on a bonus episode from April 2023, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton introduces us to poetry and music from five youth writers and performers at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Samyak Shertok curates poems that shift between image and narrative, between sound, silence, and simile as they create something wholly new. He introduces Joy Harjo testing the line between being an eyewitness and witnessing to (“Deer Dancer”), Li-Young Lee looking for the beloved everywhere (“Echo and Shadow”), and John Murillo braiding a complex tapestry from memory and remembering (“Upon Reading That Eric Dolphy Transcribed Even the Calls of Certain Species of Birds,”). To close, Shertok invites us to walk through the portals of his poem “One Hundred and Eight Doors.”You can find the full recordings of Harjo, Lee, and Murillo on Voca:Joy Harjo (September 16, 1987)Li-Young Lee (September 10, 2003)John Murillo (March 14, 2024)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Dawn Lundy Martin selects poems of urgency, tension, and devotion. She shares Daniel Borzutzky responding to massacres with a poem that must be written (“Written after a Massacre in the Year 2018”), francine j. harris negotiating what can be contained and what cannot (“in case”), and Ada Limón choosing astounding devotion ("State Bird"). Martin closes with an excerpt from “A Fable of the Regime,” which engages with the present, long moment of American history.Watch the full recordings of Borzutzky, harris, and Limón on Voca:Daniel Borzutzky (January 10, 2019)francine j. harris (September 3, 2015)Ada Limón (April 5, 2018) You can also enjoy Lundy’s performance as part of Black Took Collective and her participation in a panel discussion at the Poetry Center, part of the Poetry Off the Page Symposium from 2012.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Leila Chatti chooses poems illuminated by a heart left often to life here on Earth. She introduces us to Linda Gregg’s fierce and incandescent honesty (“There She Is”), Lucille Clifton’s embrace of lightness amidst struggle (“sorrows”), and Jane Hirshfield’s distillation of silence and attention (“The World Loved by Moonlight”). To close, Chatti reads her poem “I went out to hear”—an affirmation for choosing a life that includes both beauty and pain.Find the full recordings of Gregg, Clifton, and Hirshfield on Voca:Linda Gregg (April 22, 1981)Lucille Clifton (November 1, 2007)Jane Hirshfield (November 29, 1995)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Samuel Ace introduces poems that speak to today with raw honesty, truthfulness, and bravery. He shares Angel Dominguez wrestling with atrocity and empathy (“Dear Diego, Tell me what you know of stars”), Ilya Kaminsky braiding complicity with grief for the future (“In a Time of Peace”), and Layli Long Soldier drawing us into the meaning of apology (“WHEREAS I heard a noise I thought was a sneeze”). Ace closes with a sound rendering of his poem “These Nights,” which considers acts of beauty amidst institutional violence.Watch the full recordings by Dominguez, Kaminsky, and Long Soldier on Voca:Angel Dominguez (August 23, 2023)Ilya Kaminsky (January 23, 2025)Layli Long Soldier (November 2, 2017)You can also enjoy a recording of Ace reading for the Poetry Center in 2013.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Harmony Holiday selects poems that shed the skin of nostalgia, testing the boundaries of cruelty as they push toward clarity. She introduces Robert Hass accepting moments of error (“A Story About the Body”), Ai recognizing the humanity of the evil-doer (“Salome”), and Allen Ginsberg acknowledging his mother’s scars as he grieves (“Kaddish”). Holiday closes with her poem “Tale of the Sudden Sweetness of the Dictator,” which refuses sentimentality by telling a story in sharp detail.Listen to the full recordings of Hass, Ai, and Ginsberg reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (September 12, 1984)Ai (March 6, 1985)Allen Ginsberg (April 30, 1969)Check out Holiday’s Substack Black Music and Black Muses.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

In our fiftieth episode, Nicole Sealey chooses poems that speak to the lasting power of big ideas offered generously to one’s community. She shares Toi Derricotte forecasting the spirit of Cave Canem (“I say hello, oracle, kind mother...”), Cornelius Eady responding to racism with defiant love (“Gratitude”), and Patricia Smith reminding us that poetry is a life-affirming art (“Building Nicole’s Mama”). Sealey closes with her piece “The First Person Who Will Live to Be One Hundred and Fifty Years Old Has Already Been Born,” a poem that measures time in the span of open arms.Find the full recordings of Derricotte, Eady, and Smith reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Toi Derricotte (February 19, 1992)Cornelius Eady (November 6, 1991)Patricia Smith (November 10, 2004)You can also enjoy a recording of Sealey reading at the Poetry Center in 2023 and participating in a virtual reading in 2021.Participate in the 2025 #SealeyChallenge, a community challenge to read one book of poetry a day for the month of August. There's no official sign-up to participate and everyone is welcome to join in! Find reading ideas and other information here and use/find the hashtag #SealeyChallenge on your social channels to follow along and learn more.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Kwame Dawes introduces poems that interrogate loss and violence, transforming them in the flame of irony, elegy, and empathy. He discusses Lucille Clifton distilling “pure moments of tremendous poetry” (“lu 1958”), Michael S. Harper offering a haunting conclusion that serves as both memorial and gift (“We Assume: On the Death of our Son, Reuben Masai Harper”), and Terrance Hayes treading the line where outrage meets compassion (“Carolina Lullaby,” “A Poem That Does Nothing,” “The Poet Ai as Dylann Roof”). Dawes closes with an unpublished poem, “The House of Two Women,” which engages with the turbulent present of American life.Find the full recordings of Clifton, Harper, and Hayes reading from the Poetry Center on Voca:Lucille Clifton (November 1, 2007)Michael S. Harper (April 4, 1973)Terrance Hayes (February 4, 2016)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Mackenzie Polonyi selects poems that engender bell hooks’ idea of love as a verb—a mycorrhizal, persistent, and complicated act linking us to past and present, near and far. She discusses Lucille Clifton on the boundlessness of light (“i was born with twelve fingers”), Fady Joudah’s adaptation of Hussein Barghouthi on the music of what it means to be human (“I Dreamed You”), and Victoria Chang on questions for the generations we cannot meet (“Once you had to stand behind...”). Polonyi closes with her own “Grand Daughter’s Grief Logic,” where grieving ruptures time.Find the full recordings of Clifton, Joudah, and Chang reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lucille Clifton (October 12, 1983)Fady Joudah (February 19, 2015)Victoria Chang (October 6, 2022)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Abigail Chabitnoy curates poems that dwell in fields of searching, connecting, and being. She introduces Michael Wasson communing with those who are no longer breathing (“Aposiopesis [or, The Field between the Living & the Dead]”), Jean Valentine considering the moment and its boundaries (“To my soul”), and Saretta Morgan writing into love over many years (“Dearth-light”). To close, Chabitnoy reads her poem “Signs You Are Standing at the End,” which enters its own field of imagining across time.Find the full recordings of Wasson, Valentine, and Morgan reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Michael Wasson (April 27, 2023)Jean Valentine (September 25, 2008)Saretta Morgan (March 28, 2024)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Diego Báez introduces us to three Gabriels connected by themes of reclamation and new beginnings. He shares Gabriel Dozal approaching the US-Mexico border with humor (“You Look at Crossers, You Look Just Like Them”), Gabriel Palacios unpacking narratives of inheritance and race (“The Friar’s Daughter’s Mother”), and Jimmy Santiago Baca experiencing the birth of his son, Gabriel (“Child of the Sun—Gabriel’s Birth (Sun Prayer)”). Báez closes by reading “Neuropathy with Lamb,” which reflects on his role as a caregiver for his mother.Find the full recordings of Dozal, Palacios, and Baca reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Gabriel Dozal (May 2, 2024)Gabriel Palacios (May 2, 2024)Jimmy Santiago Baca (September 14, 1988)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Valerie Hsiung selects poems that disorient as they open us to the vital, visceral present. She introduces Roberto Tejada and the poem as a breaking fever (“Kill Time Objective”), Jennifer Elise Foerster as a channel for a multiplicity of lost voices (“Hokkolen: I become the canyon, its dreaming eye”), and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge narrowing the senses to expand what remains (“Slow Down Now”). To close, Hsiung reads from her sequence “a-begging,” her voice responding to the room where she’s recording.Watch the full recordings of Tejada, Foerster, and Berssenbrugge reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Roberto Tejada (January 12, 2023)Jennifer Elise Foerster (April 27, 2023)Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (March 13, 2010)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Geffrey Davis selects recordings that reveal the bold, risky, and relentless work of attention and connection that poetry undertakes. He shares Lisel Mueller pushing against the limits of human understanding (“What the Dog Perhaps Hears”), Carl Phillips exploring change as more than calamity (“Continuous Until We Stop”), and Ross Gay asserting that pain and grief live alongside gratitude (“Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude”). Davis closes by reading his poem “Inside the Charged Dark,” paying tribute to his mother as the model of inquiry in his life.Find the full recordings of Mueller, Phillips, and Gay reading from the Poetry Center on Voca:Lisel Mueller (October 28, 1981)Carl Phillips (November 1, 2012)Ross Gay (January 19, 2017)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Vickie Vértiz curates poems that chart a path to a collective future where we can survive crises, connect with others, and see life’s beauty. She introduces Khadijah Queen looking to words as weapons amidst grief (“bloodroot,” “Dear fear…”), Lehua M. Taitano moving through the luminous ocean of time (“Queer Check-Ins”), and Angel Dominguez breaking through the world’s isolation (“What Does the Future Sing to You in Dreams”). Vértiz closes with her poem “Disco,” a celebration of discovery and delight.Watch Suheir Hammad’s “Gaza Suite” from the 2009 Palestine Festival of Literature.Watch the full recordings of Queen, Taitano, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Khadijah Queen (February 18, 2016) Lehua M. Taitano (July 25, 2019) Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)You can also enjoy a recording of Vickie Vértiz reading for the Poetry Center in 2016.Read about the Voca captioning project here. Every recording on Voca now has transcripts and captions—dive in and enjoy!Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Eugenia Leigh introduces poems that speak from a particular moment into our own time, offering possibility amidst struggle. She shares John Murillo’s engagement with resistance and reality (“Enter the Dragon”), Monica Sok’s truth-telling about genocide (“Tuol Sleng”), and Angel Dominguez’s joyful protest against capitalism. Leigh closes with her poem “This City,” which ends with renewal.Watch the full recordings of Murillo, Sok, and Dominguez reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:John Murillo (April 22, 2021)Monica Sok (February 13, 2020)Angel Dominguez (August 3, 2023)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Mary Jo Bang brings together poems united by astonishment at the continuation of a world that seems utterly self-destructive. She shares Claudia Rankine on the illusions of American optimism (“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”), Srikanth Reddy on mortality and teaching literature (“Underworld Lit”), and Timothy Donnelly on the human experience of a polluted world (“In My Life”). She closes with her own “Cosmic Madonna,” an ekphrastic poem inspired by Salvador Dali.Watch the full recordings of Rankine, Reddy, and Donnelly reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Claudia Rankine (October 19, 2005)Srikanth Reddy (November 12, 2015)Timothy Donnelly (October 19, 2023)You can also enjoy a recording of Mary Jo Bang reading for the Poetry Center in 2011.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Olatunde Osinaike curates poems that meld comedy, cultural scrutiny, and self-imagination. He introduces Patricia Spears Jones clearing a path for desire (“Self-Portrait as Midnight Storm”), Morgan Parker pursuing feeling through description (“Magical Negro #217: Diana Ross Finishing a Rib in Alabama, 1990s”), and Ishmael Reed satirizing wealth and importance (“Sixth Street Corporate War”). Olatunde closes with his own self-identification, “Self-Portrait in Lieu of My EP.”Find the full recordings of Spears Jones, Parker, and Reed reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Patricia Spears Jones (October 21, 2017)Morgan Parker (September 6, 2018)Ishmael Reed (March 29, 1989)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sawako Nakayasu selects poems that confront griefs personal and national, told directly and obliquely. She introduces Timothy Liu documenting the atrocities of Japanese imperialism (“A Requiem for the Homeless Spirits”), Daniel Borzutzky’s translation of Raul Zurita witnessing to the brutal crimes of the Chilean dictatorship (“Song for His Disappeared Love”), and Keith Waldrop conjuring a grief-riddled dream landscape (“An Apparatus”). Nakayasu closes with her own “Ant in a silvery tide,” a poem linked to a time of personal grief.Find the full recordings of Liu, Borzutzky, and Waldrop reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Timothy Liu (February 20, 2014)Daniel Borzutzky (January 10, 2019)Keith Waldrop (with Rosmarie Waldrop, March 5, 2011)You can also enjoy three recordings of Nakayasu reading for the Poetry Center in 2007, 2018, and 2023.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Jake Skeets curates poems by Diné poets centering on translation and the way that the Diné language orients its speakers to the world, which exists before them. He shares Rex Lee Jim’s invocation of voice as what brings life (“Language”), Laura Tohe’s embodiment of meaning in rhythm and sound (“Niltsá Bi'áád, Female Rain” and “Niltsá Bika', Male Rain”), and Luci Tapahonso’s blending of Diné syntax with English (“Hills Brothers Coffee”). Skeets closes with his poem “Emerging,” which traces the act of translation between English and Diné.Watch the full recordings of Jim, Tohe, and Tapahonso readings for the Poetry Center on Voca:Rex Lee Jim (2001)Laura Tohe (2011)Luci Tapahonso (2011)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sally Wen Mao shares poems that trace her awakening as a poet, invoking teachers both in person and on the page. She introduces Claribel Alegría on how to express the unknowable and untraceable (“Savoir Faire”), Terrance Hayes on transformation as the role of poetry in the world (“The Deer”), and Bhanu Kapil on poetic language as a means of collapsing borders (“Humanimal”). Mao concludes with her poem “a dream or a fox,” written after Lucille Clifton’s “A Dream of Foxes.” Find the full recordings of Alegría, Hayes, and Kapil reading for the Poetry Center on Voca: Claribel Alegría (1997)Terrance Hayes (2016)Bhanu Kapil (2008)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Lauren Camp selects poems that each inhabit a place, a music, another person—shaping a cosmos large or small in language. She introduces Beckian Fritz Goldberg synchronizing past and present (“Black Fish Blues”), Olga Broumas moving through shadows toward individual lives (“The Moon of Mind Against the Wooden Louver”), and Lisel Mueller cherishing names as a beginning (“Naming the Animals”). Camp closes with her poem “Ode to Two,” where land, house, and lovers are celebrated by light.Listen to the full recordings of Goldberg, Broumas, and Mueller reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Beckian Fritz Goldberg (1994)Olga Broumas (1988)Lisel Mueller (1981) Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sophia Terazawa introduces poems that lead us to encounter both the beloved and the enemy, seeing them blurred and intertwined—seeing them as human. She shares Joy Harjo’s prayer of courage for the heart (“This Morning I Pray for My Enemies”), Khaled Mattawa’s recognition of the faceless dead (“Face: To the One Million Plus”), and Carolyn Forché’s liturgy for the last hour (“Prayer”). To close, Terazawa reads her poem “Gibbons Howling,” a prayer spoken from dreams into dust.    Watch the full recordings of Harjo, Mattawa, and Forché reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Joy Harjo (2017)Khaled Mattawa (2018)Carolyn Forché (2007)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Radical Reversal highlights the reformative abilities of the arts by bringing poetry, music, and music production workshops—along with performance and recordings spaces—to detention centers and correctional facilities. In this bonus episode, Radical Reversal co-founder Randall Horton shares recordings from three youth writers and performers who worked with Radical Reversal at Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Poet Patrick Rosal makes a guest appearance on flute for the track "Aint No Love in the Streets."To watch readings by poets whose work engages with the crisis of mass incarceration in the US, check out Voca for recordings from the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Manuel Paul López curates poems that draw us into the nourishing mysteries of water. He shares Ofelia Zepeda’s evocation of moisture’s deep ties to people and land ("The Place Where Clouds Are Formed"), Li-Young Lee’s meditation on weeping and the gifts given by those we’ve lost ("'Why are you crying,' my father asked…"), and Quincy Troupe’s precise, tender visions of sunlight and sea ("The Point Loma Series of Haikus and Tankas"). López closes with "Green Water," his own meditation on "the wild taste of self-preservation."You can watch the full recordings of Zepeda, Lee, and Troupe reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ofelia Zepeda (2015)Li-Young Lee (2020)Quincy Troupe (2001)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Poet and professor Evie Shockley introduces poems woven together by a subtle thread of committed attention to place and what happens there—the places of language, self, ancestry, and tragedy. She introduces Mónica de la Torre engaging with languages as wild topography ("Is to Travel Getting to or Being in a Destination"), Marilyn Chin uncovering the political territory of the self ("A Portrait of Self as Nation: 1990-1991"), and Nikky Finney channeling the ancestors into the present ("The Girlfriend's Train"). Shockley closes with poem that sits with the terrible resonances of place names turned into a catalog of violence ("les milles").Find the full recordings of de la Torre, Chin, and Finney reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Mónica de la Torre (2008)Marilyn Chin (1996)Nikky Finney (2019)You can also watch a 2019 recording of Evie Shockley reading work commissioned as part of the Poetry Center’s Art for Justice series.Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It’s easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Undisciplinary writer and translator JD Pluecker curates recordings that circle around themes of return, transformation, history, and the future. Pluecker introduces Joy Harjo finding what remains in the wreckage (“New Orleans”), Andrea Lawlor considering how one thing turns into another (excerpt from “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl”), and C.D. Wright turning herself into an ancestor (“Our Dust”). Pluecker closes by reading “Return Unsettlement,” which asks whether anything is ever quite gone or has ever quite arrived.Enjoy the full recordings of Harjo, Lawlor, and Wright reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Joy Harjo (1987)Andrea Lawlor (2019)C.D. Wright (2000)You can also watch a recording of JD Pluecker reading in 2019 as part of the language experimentation collective Antena Aire, in collaboration with Myriam Moscona. Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It’s easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera shares poems that consider the questions, what exactly is poetry? What does it do? Herrera crafts an expansive answer to these questions through Marvin Bell’s reflection on poetry as philosophy (“The Poem”), Denise Levertov’s engagement with truth in sacred spaces (“The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why”), and Lorna Dee Cervantes’s assertion that poetry is the force and form of resistance (“From the Bus to E.L. at Atascadero State Hospital”). To close, Herrera shares his poem “For George Floyd, Who Was a Great Man,” a work that encapsulates humanity, compassion, action, and protest.  You can listen to the full recordings of Bell, Levertov, and Cervantes reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Marvin Bell (1977)Denise Levertov (1973) Lorna Dee Cervantes (1991)You can also enjoy two recordings of Juan Felipe Herrera on Voca, from 1993 and 2009.Have you checked out the new Voca interface? It’s easier than ever to browse readings, and individual tracks can be shared. Many readings now include captions and transcripts, and we're working hard to make sure every reading will have these soon.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Matthew Zapruder selects poems that employ the powers of song, memory, and imagination as points of reflection and comfort amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He shares Adam Zagajewski conjuring a life lost to his family (“To Go to Lvov”), Gerald Stern recognizing the fortunate circumstances of his domestic and writing lives (“Lucky Life”), and Li-Young Lee traversing his own psychic landscape (“I Loved You Before I Was Born”). Zapruder closes by reading his “Poem for Passengers,” which celebrates public spaces and the momentary relief from differences they can afford.You can find the full recordings of Zagajewski, Stern, and Lee reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Adam Zagajewski (1989)Gerald Stern (1983)Li-Young Lee (2020)You can also watch a reading by Zapruder for the Poetry Center from 2019.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Khadijah Queen homes in on her selections by following three keywords through the archive: disobedience, Detroit, and joy. She introduces Rachel Zucker’s lecture on the confessional mode in poetry (“What We Talk About When We Talk About the Confessional and What We Should Be Talking About”), francine j. harris’s lyric dense with complicated emotions (“katherine with the lazy eye. short. and not a good poet.”), and Monica Sok’s poem of gentle power in the face of trauma (“The Woman Who Was Small, Not Because the World Expanded”). Queen closes by reading “Declination,” which approaches her chosen keywords through the lens of making art. Watch the full recordings of Zucker, harris, and Sok reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Rachel Zucker, lecture (2016)francine j. harris (2015)Monica Sok (2020)You can also find a reading by Khadijah Queen on Voca, which was given in 2016.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sara Borjas introduces poems that focus on the connections between a particular, collective ‘us’—people connected by lineage or language, by place, or by the acts of writing and reading. She shares Layli Long Soldier’s exploration of wholeness and mother-daughter relationships (“WHEREAS her birth signaled…”), Juan Felipe Herrera’s centering of people and complexity (“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way”), and Richard Siken’s breaking of the fourth wall to implicate the reader (“Planet of Love”). To close, Borjas reads her poem “Narcissus Complicates an Old Plot,” a celebration of mothers and daughters, language, and community rooted in place.Watch the full recordings of Long Soldier, Herrera, and Siken reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Layli Long Soldier (2017)Juan Felipe Herrera (2009)Richard Siken (2002)Transcripts for each episode are available here. Click on the episode title, then click on the transcript tab at the bottom of the player. Poems are transcribed as read and do not represent the published work.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Chet’la Sebree leads us to acknowledge liminal spaces, those places that are not quite one thing or another, moments of transition and not-yet that have become so familiar to us throughout the pandemic. Sebree introduces Camille T. Dungy’s recognition that grief relentlessly intrudes on joy (“Notes on What Is Always with Us”), Brenda Shaughnessy’s reflection on the difficulties of understanding time (“Three Summers Mark Only Two Years”), and Ada Limón’s transformative rendering of relationships (“What I Didn’t Know Before”). Sebree closes with a new poem of her own on liminality, “Blue Opening.”  Watch the full recordings of Dungy, Shaughnessy, and Limón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Camille T. Dungy (2016)Brenda Shaughnessy (2005)Ada Limón (2018)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Anthony Cody selects poems that ask hard questions about war, borders, gender, power, US history, and ourselves—questions asked in order to remind us of the discomfort necessary for change on individual and collective levels. Cody shares Pat Mora’s inversion of relationships between speaker and audience, pursuer and pursued (“La Migra”), Michael S. Harper’s use of staccato repetition to sear atrocity into memory (“A White Friend Flies in from the Coast”), and Diana García’s revelation of truths that span generations (Excerpts from “Serpentine Voices”). Cody closes with his translation of Juan Felipe Herrera’s “Dudo las Luces / I Question the Lights,” which draws attention to the forgotten in our political landscape.You can find the full recordings of Mora, Harper, and García reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Pat Mora (1996)Michael S. Harper (1973)Diana García (2002)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Wendy Xu curates poems that underscore the necessity of attention for the writing of poems, reminding us that to write is to think, to look, and to be present. She introduces James Tate on bending reality through attention to everything (“Rescue”), Mei-mei Berssenbrugge on the connection between the spiritual and the somatic (“Hello, the Roses”), and Joyelle McSweeney on being unafraid of excess (“Percussion Grenade”). Xu closes with her poem “Why Write,” which engages with the past as a living, risky force.You can find the full recordings of Tate, Berssenbrugge, and McSweeney reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:James Tate (1968)Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (2010)Joyelle McSweeney (2012)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Eduardo C. Corral introduces recordings by poets who create and encourage possibilities for others through their inquisitive teaching, their artistic commitment to mystery, or by being fully themselves. He celebrates Beckian Fritz Goldberg’s dedication to delight and surprise (“The Possibilities”), Bei Dao’s inscrutability for the way it affirms the human condition (“Landscape Over Zero”), and Francisco X. Alarcón’s generous spirit and embodiment of what a poet can look like (“Ode to Tomatoes”). To close, Corral reads his poem “To Francisco X. Alarcón,” delving into the impact this elder poet has had on his own writing life. You can find the full recordings of Goldberg, Dao, and Alarcón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Beckian Fritz Goldberg (1994)Bei Dao with Dennis Evans (1999)Francisco X. Alarcón (2008) Watch a 2013 reading by Corral on Voca, as well as a reading given with Natalie Diaz at Tucson High Magnet School, which includes an extensive Q&A with students.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Sumita Chakraborty curates poems that draw our attention to the overlooked: to the body’s cycles, to cruelty, to deep attention, to trauma and what comes after. She introduces Lucille Clifton on accepting change and growth (“to my last period”), Ai on the link between violence and loss (“Cruelty”), and Nora Naranjo Morse on vulnerability as potential blessing (“Sometimes I Am a Sponge”). Chakraborty closes by reading her own exploration of the complexities of PTSD, written to an extraterrestrial audience: “The B-Sides of the Golden Records, Track Five: ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.’”You can find the full recordings of Clifton, Ai, and Naranjo Morse reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Lucille Clifton (2007)Ai (1972)Nora Naranjo Morse (1992)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Silvina López Medin introduces poems that reflect on the writing process and the openings we encounter therein when boundaries blur between speaker and listener, creator and creation. She shares Robert Hass on going to the movies and Greek rhetorical devices (“Heroic Simile”), Adélia Prado on the earthy charms of poetry (“Seduction,” read by Prado’s translator Ellen Doré Watson), and Anne Carson on making marks (“Short Talk On Homo Sapiens”). López Medin concludes with her poem “I Am Writing This in My Head, My Hands Inside Gloves That Don’t Match,” which considers how the lost lingers in what remains.You can find the full recordings of Hass, Prado as read by Watson, and Carson reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Robert Hass (1979)Adélia Prado, read by her translator Ellen Doré Watson (1992)Anne Carson (2001)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Adam O. Davis selects and shares poems that engage with journeys—across time, through mystery, into the past, or to shape a future. He introduces Nathaniel Mackey meditating on eternal questions (“Glenn on Monk’s Mountain”), Maurya Simon reminding us that the dead surround and sustain us (“El Día de los Muertos”), and Robert Creeley poignantly speaking across time (“I Know a Man”). Davis closes by reading his poem “Interstate Highway System,” his own plea for living sparked by a 2015 road trip across America.You can find the full recordings of Nathaniel Mackey, Maurya Simon, and Robert Creeley reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Nathaniel Mackey with jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell (2013)Maurya Simon (2019)Robert Creeley (1963)Check out Davis’s Index of Haunted Houses Hotline by calling 619-329-5757.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Adrian Matejka reflects on cruelty as manifested in American institutions, history, private lives, and the public realm of the past year. He opens with Ai’s invocation of the human hunger for violence (“Cruelty”), Lucille Clifton’s deft blending of imagery and wisdom (“cruelty. don’t talk to me about cruelty”), and Al Young’s meditation on American cruelty as it begins with slavery (“The Slave Ship Desire”). To close, Matejka reads his poem “Somebody Else Sold the World,” which considers the complexities of cruelty in the context of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.Listen to the full recordings of Ai, Clifton, and Young reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Ai (1972)Lucille Clifton (1983)Al Young (1997) You can also watch a 2016 reading by Adrian Matejka on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Joanna Klink curates poems that blend dream and waking, sparking ordinary life with visionary fire. She shares Jon Anderson wrestling with the desire to walk away (“In Autumn”), Sherwin Bitsui’s haunting epic of water (“Flood Song”), and Linda Gregg’s dreamscape of life without loneliness (“Alma to Her Sister”). Klink closes by reading her poem “On Diminishment,” an intimate, interior landscape of silences and withheld speech.You can find the full recordings of Anderson, Bitsui, and Gregg reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Jon Anderson (1984)Sherwin Bitsui, as part of “Multilingual Poetry of the Southwest” (2010)Linda Gregg (1981)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Rosa Alcalá curates poems in which the body plays a central role as a performing presence. She selects and shares Roberto Tejada’s exploration of control and surrender (“Sun bursting as in water beads”), Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop’s stereophonic collaborative poem (“Light Travels”), and Black Took Collective’s daring, experimental performance piece on race and racism (“Betraying Blackness”). Alcalá concludes by reading her poem “You in Cutoffs,” which looks back at the self in the past, a body lifted above a crowd.Watch the full recordings of Roberto Tejada, Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, and Black Took Collective on Voca:Roberto Tejada (2013)Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop (2011)Black Took Collective (2012)You can also watch several readings by Rosa Alcalá on Voca, including her most recent from 2020. Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Bojan Louis shares poems that embody deep listening and engagement with particular realities. He introduces Alan Dugan’s grasp of each moment’s truth (“Love Song: I and Thou”); Layli Long Soldier’s poetry of image, witness, and ways of being (“WHEREAS her birth signaled…”); and Angel Nafis’s critical song that speaks to community (“Ghazal to Open Cages”). Louis closes with a recently published ghazal (“Ghazal VI”) of his own.Listen to the full recordings of Dugan, Long Soldier, and Nafis reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Alan Dugan (1966)Layli Long Solider (2017)Angel Nafis (2019) Listen to a 2019 reading by Bojan Louis on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Peggy Robles-Alvarado introduces poems that embody complex identities with honesty, exuberance, and strength. She shares Toi Derricotte’s frank look at the experience of shifting from woman to mother (“Delivery”), Judith Ortiz Cofer’s reckoning with leaving childhood behind (“Quinceañera”), and Ada Limón’s celebration of self-worth and self-pride (“How to Triumph Like a Girl”). Robles-Alvarado concludes with her own poem “Stunting,” a piece sparked by exploring the archive and reflecting on the restorative power of poetry.Listen to the full recordings of Derricotte, Ortiz Cofer, and Limón reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Toi Derricotte (1992)Judith Ortiz Cofer (1991) Ada Limón (2018) Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke curates poems by writers who have influenced her own writing through their creative leadership, mentoring, or poetics of belonging. She introduces Juan Felipe Herrera’s invitation to a spirit of generosity and care (“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way”), Quincy Troupe’s musically attuned tribute to his father (“Poem for My Father”), and Arthur Sze’s transformative vision that unites intelligence with grace (“Adamant”). To close, Hedge Coke reads her poem “Ghost,” acknowledging the role voices from the past can play as educators for the living.Watch the full recordings of Herrera, Troupe, and Sze reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Juan Felipe Herrera (2009)Quincy Troupe (2001)Arthur Sze (2019)You can also watch a celebration of Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas (2011), an anthology edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Francisco Aragón shares poems alive with the vibrancy of a particular voice addressed to a particular audience. He introduces Francisco X. Alarcón’s bittersweet homage to a poetic ancestor (“Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón”), Thom Gunn’s farewell address to a beloved fellow writer (“To Isherwood Dying”), and Denise Levertov’s mythic, ecstatic monologue on transformation (“A Tree Telling of Orpheus”). Aragón concludes the episode with a direct address of his own that challenges Arizona’s SB 1070 (“Poem with a Phrase of Isherwood”). Listen to the full recordings of Alarcón, Gunn, and Levertov reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Francisco X. Alarcón (2008)Thom Gunn (1986)Denise Levertov (1973)Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Jane Hirshfield curates poems that look into the abyss with brave clarity and complex humility. Hirshfield shares Eavan Boland’s probing into the place of shadows that history passes by (“Quarantine”), Miroslav Holub’s reminder that there is life and meaning beyond human precision (“Brief Thoughts on Exactness”), and Tomas Tranströmer’s marrying of the visionary and the vernacular (“Vermeer”). Hirshfield closes by reading her poem “Day Beginning with Seeing the International Space Station and a Full Moon Over the Gulf of Mexico and All Its Invisible Fishes.”Listen to the full recordings of Boland, Holub, and Tranströmer reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Eavan Boland (2003)Miroslav Holub (1988)Tomas Tranströmer (1988)Listen to a 1995 reading by Jane Hirshfield on Voca.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Douglas Kearney discusses recordings that give rise to reflections on human interaction and the potential for both connection and violence held there. Kearney introduces Rosa Alcalá as she uses found text to chart the shape of violence (“Are You Okay?"), Martín Espada as he encounters “reeling hyper-reality” in the courtroom (“City of Coughing and Dead Radiators”), and Ai as she pushes the limits between understanding and sympathizing with cruel narrators (“Abortion”). Kearney ends by reading a poem sparked by Fred Moten’s essay “Black Kant.”Listen to the full recordings of Alcalá, Espada, and Ai reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:Rosa Alcalá (2020)Martín Espada (1992)Ai (1972)You can also find readings by Douglas Kearney on Voca, including his most recent with percussionist/electronic musician Val Jeanty, which was given as part of the Thinking Its Presence conference in 2017.Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.