Close Talking: A Poetry Podcast

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. In this episode, they explore sonnets from the United States and discuss how the sonnet traveled around the world. They dig into Claude McKay's "America" and Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for Cousin Vit." America By: Claude McKay A...

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. In episode five they travel forward hundreds of years and explore sonnets that go beyond the bounds of love to describe war, internment, and much more. Poems featured include "The Road to Corbie" by American war poet John Allan Wy...

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. In episode four they travel to 1500s England to discuss the next major development of the sonnet, the Shakespearean sonnet. They discuss its differences from the Petrarchan, carpe diem, as well as one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets....

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. In episode three they travel back to cusp-of-the-Renaissance-Italy to discuss Petrarch, one of the earliest and best known masters of the sonnet. They discuss his infatuation with a woman named Laura, dig into one of his works, an...

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. Episode 2 explores one of the most fundamental features of the sonnet: the volta. They discuss the voltas of a canonical if problematic sonnet, "Leda and the Swan" by W.B. Yeats, as well as the first sonnet in Eduardo Corral's "Bo...

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. To start off they travel back almost 800 years to the birth of the sonnet, discuss "Sonetto 26" by Giacomo da Lentini, and then zoom back to the present and dive into Terrance Hayes American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin....

Revisit our conversation about the poem "Could We Please Give the Police Departments to the Grandmothers?" by Junauda Petrus. This episode originally aired almost a year ago, but the events of the last few weeks had both Connor and Jack thinking about this poem's urgent message. More about Junauda Petrus here: junauda.com/ Could we please give the police departments to the grandmothers? By: Junaud...

Connor and Jack discuss the newly resonant poem "[By the road to the contagious hospital]" by the great William Carlos Williams, which is the first poem in Williams' iconic Spring and All. They explore the now-emergent "pandemic in spring" sub-genre, which this poem is surely canon. They also talk about the poem's modernist context, its grounded attention to detail and nature, and its striking fir...

Connor and Jack are joined by special guest (and Close Talking social media manager) Corey China for this discussion of Marilyn Chin's devastating poem "Blues on Yellow." In the conversation they discuss the history of anti-Asian hatred and violence in the United States, the struggles for cross-community solidarity, and the resonances of the poem's use of the blues form. Blues on Yellow By: Marily...

Connor and Jack discuss Zaffar Kunial's elegant sonnet, "The Word." They marvel at the poem's seemingly effortless meditation on being between two cultures—particularly in a postcolonial context—and how it evokes so much through one simple word: "the." Check out Kunial's latest collection, here: https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571337651-us.html. You can hear Kunial read "The Word", here: https://www.y...

Connor and Jack explore the poem "In Youngsville" by Tyree Daye. They discuss the way the poem creates a sense of place, its connections to the blues form, and even dive deep into how it plays with using stressed and unstressed syllables. You can buy Daye's latest book, Cardinal, here: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/cardinal-by-tyree-daye/ You can find the poem, here: http://www.boaatpres...

Content Warning: Suicidality Connor and Jack think through Diana Khoi Nguyen's remarkable poem "Family Ties," part of her haunting debut collection Ghost Of. They discuss the complex emotional textures Nguyen evokes in the poem, the challenges of representations of suicide, and ideas of family, self, and metaphorical webs. More on Nguyen here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diana-khoi-nguy...

Connor and Jack discuss a deceptively simple poem full of interwoven contradictions - Humberto Ak'abal's "The Altar." They discuss the multiple layers of linguistic conquest implicit in a poem that has moved from K'iche' to Spanish to English, the history of Guatemala and US involvement in the country's political affairs, and ponder the big questions posed by the poems little candles. More on Ak'a...

Recorded before the attempted coup at the US Capitol, Jack and Connor discuss the poem "Fuck Your Lecture On Craft, My People Are Dying" by Noor Hindi. They discuss the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the way the poem engages with the tensions of being both Palestinian and American, and how to do craft without talking about craft. Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying By:...

The first ever Close Talking episode to drop on Christmas day is a fittingly wintery pick - Connor and Jack contemplate the many layers of meaning in the classic poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. They cover everything from the five love languages, to the lifelong impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the limits of the sonnet. More on Robert Hayden, here: https://www.poetryfounda...

Connor and Jack get meta and lose both the forest and the trees while dancing with Robert Hass' poem, "The Problem of Describing Trees." They discuss the poem's use of self-reflexivity, scientific language, and tango with a Yeats allusion. More on Robert Hass here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-hass The Problem of Describing Trees By: Robert Hass The aspen glitters in the wind. And...

Connor and Jack amble through the enchantingly twisting Richard Siken poem "Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors." They discuss the responsibility of artists, the ways that culture both creates and is created, and how the poem flows to the logical extremes of its subject. Get "War of the Foxes" here: https://bookshop.org/books/war-of-the-foxes/9781556594779 Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors By: R...

Connor and Jack go back to the roots of Close Talking for a literary reflection on a consequential election. The first episode of Close Talking, which came out just over four years ago, was a reckoning with the 2016 election. Now, with references to Adrienne Rich, James Baldwin, Shakira and more, Connor and Jack offer a significantly more uplifting look at American elections. Find us at our websit...

Connor and Jack revisit Louise Glück after she won the Nobel Prize in Literature, discussing Part 2 of the poem "October." They explore the poem's haunting and brilliant use of repetition, its idea of "balm after violence," and the poem's connection with the myth of Persephone, 9/11, and the current American moment. October By: Louise Glück 2. Summer after summer has ended, balm after violence: it...

Connor and Jack dive into the briny depths of one of Herman Melville's non-aquatic poetic works, "The Apparition." They talk about its contemporary applicability, their love of Brian Jacques' Redwall books, and share some thoughts on how many avenues there are into the poem. It's a spooky episode for the Halloween season! The Apparition (A Retrospect) By: Herman Melville Convulsions came; and, whe...

In this episode, Connor and Jack dive into the beautiful and challenging poem "Snake White, Owl White" by Tacey Atsitty. They discuss finding poem's powerful sound and rhythm, its complex and contradictory expression of self, and finding other anchors as readers in the absence of clear narrative. Snake White, Owl White By: Tacey M. Atsitty When I say that my cheek fell, I mean the bone, the glidin...

In the third part of a three-part series on poetic responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Connor and Jack look at the ways that 9/11 has continued to reverberate through political and cultural life in the United States and globally. Listen to Part 1 of the Poetry and 9/11 mini-series, here: https://soundcloud.com/close-talking/episode-107-poetry-and-911-part-1-responding-to-trau...

In the second episode of a three-part series on poetic responses to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Connor and Jack explore international perspectives on the attacks. They discuss how de-centering can be a powerful and important act when contemplating the impact of 9/11 and the wars started in its aftermath. Listen to Part 1 of the Poetry and 9/11 mini-series, here: https://soundcloud.com/close-tal...

In the first of a three-part series on poetic responses to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Connor and Jack dig into how poetry responded to the trauma of the September 11 attacks. They also discuss how, after 19 years, the attacks are passing from memory into history. They also talk about how the United States' response to the attacks can be contextualized and how efforts at contextualizing 9/11 ha...

In this all-new episode, Connor and Jack explore the incredible poem "A Stranger" by Saeed Jones. They discuss the poem's grappling with the loss of a mother, the use of distance and restraint, and the many strangers populating this short lyric. A Stranger By: Saeed Jones I wonder if my dead mother still thinks of me. I know I don’t know her new name. I don’t know her, not now. I don’t know if “he...