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 from the Poetry Center on Voca: Gabriel Dozal (May 2, 2024) Gabriel Palacios (May 2, 2024) Jimmy Santiago Baca (September 14, 1988) 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) 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) 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!

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)

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.