Present Poetry

Aristotle was born in 384 BC in the town of Stagira, located in the Macedonian region of Greece.  He was sent to Athens at 17 to learn under Plato at Plato's Academy, one of the most prominent schools in the ancient world. HE stayed there until Plato's death in 347 before traveling to Assos, a village on the northwest coast of present-day Turkey. He then moved to Lesbos, where he married Pyth...

Tamiko Dooley is a Poet, songwriter, lawyer, and mother of two. She learned to play the piano as a child, and music quickly became the dominant hobby throughout her life. She also Read Latin and French at New College, Oxford, and won the BBC Radio 3 carol competition in 2021. Since the lockdown, she’s also started writing poetry, and various online journals have published her works. She also has a...

Stephen Carbon is a debut author, lifelong musician, writer, photographer, and business entrepreneur from Lewes, Delaware. Performing live music with his band, Carbon 14 , for over 25 years has allowed him to entertain the musical spirit of many people from all walks of life. He witnesses the enjoyment that music and lyrics bring to people and the happiness it brings from the creative realm. The e...

Amos Cotter was born and raised in upstate New York and is one of 7 children, all from the same parents. Even from a young age, Amos was drawn to the power of the written word. He wrote his first story at age 7 and has written more poems and rhymes than he can count. At 23, he wrote his first book-A Grandmaster's Tale-and has been writing ever since. That diligence has earned Amos the nicknames of...

Carla Sarett is a poet and fiction writer based in San Francisco. She has a Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has written two novels - A Closet Feminist, published through Unsolicited Press, and The Looking Glass, published through Propertius Press. However, her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Blue Unicorn, Prole, The Naugatuck River Review, Hamilton Stone...

Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print.  She has a Bachelor's in English Literature from the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and published eleven chapbooks- the latest being: fat & pretty from Dancing Girl Press in June of 2022. She also has a few poetry...

Walter "Walt" Whitman was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Virginia to Walter Sr and Louisa Van Velsor and was one of several children. Because of his father's poor investments and the family's constant moving from house to house, Walt had a restless and difficult childhood. At 11, he dropped out of school and began working to help the family. His first job taught him about the printing press, an...

William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where he lived with his father, John Shakespeare, and his mother, Mary Arden. William was the third of eight children and the only surviving son.  We don't know much about his early years, but at 18, he married Anne Hathaway (a woman eight years his senior) and had three children- Eldest daughte...

Kristine Carrerow was born in 1954 in San Jose, California, and she didn't have any experience with poetry until the third grade.   In the 8th grade, she had a teacher enter one of her poems in a contest, which she did not win. However, in her senior year in high school, Kristine had a teacher that was such a force in her writing that she knew she would always write.  Over the years, she...

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater , was Born August 6, 1809, in Lincolnshire, England, to George Clayton Tennyson, an Anglican clergyman, and Elizabeth Fytche. Tennyson was the fourth of 12 children and had a rather difficult childhood. His father was often cruel and had known mental issues, and several of Alfred's siblings were committed to mental institutions for...

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, to English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe and Baltimore Actor David Poe Jr. but he was taken in by his alleged godfather, John Allen, after his parents' deaths around 1811. From 1815-1820, Poe went to Scotland and England to begin his classical education, which he continued upon his return and acceptance into the University of Virginia at Charlo...

Erynn Crittenden was born in August of 1989 to Dr. James Campbell and Ramona Owens and grew up in the small town of Vian, Oklahoma. Homeschooled for most of her education, Erynn soon developed a love of reading and writing, and she used journals and poems to pass the time and record the events around her.  In 2007, she began studying at Northeastern State University and switched majors between jou...

Walter John De La Mare was born April 25, 1873, in London to James Edward de la Mare, a principal at the Bank of England, and Lucy Sophia, James' second wife and the daughter of Scottish naval surgeon and author Dr. Colin Arrott Browning. He was educated at the St. Paul Cathedral School before getting a job in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil, where he worked from...

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) Was the youngest of four children born to Italian poet Gabriele Rossetti and his wife, Frances Polidori- the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician John William Polidori. Her siblings were Maria Francesca, a writer and a Nun with the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor; Gabriel Charles Dante (known as Dante Gabriel), a...

TRIGGER WARNING! These poems reference sex, self-harm, and suicide.  Colin Pope grew up in the Adirondacks of New York and has a long list of writing accomplishments. His poetry, essays, and criticism have appeared in journals such as Slate, Best New Poets, Los Angeles Review, Rattle, Willow Springs, and Denver Quarterly. His manuscript Prayer Book for an American God was named a finalist for the...

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830–1886) is a staple of American literature and culture. However, her life was one of seclusion and eccentricities that prevented her from being recognized in her lifetime.  Her work didn't become public until 1809- four years after Dickinson’s death, when her sister, Lavinia, discovered forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems in Dickinson's room. Now, Em...

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was arguably France's most acclaimed author and playwright. He enjoyed writing about France, the working people, and the underlying politics that ran the country. He is the author of Les Miserables , one of the greatest historical novels of the 19th century, as well as The Hunchback of Notre Dame , Toilers of the Sea , and many others.  However, life wasn't always s...

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) was an American writer and aviator who flew around the world with her husband (famous aviator Charles Lindbergh) and wrote books and poems about their adventures. Throughout her life, she received numerous awards for her contributions to literature and aviation, several honorary degrees, and landed a spot in three different halls of fame. However, their life wasn&...

New episodes every Wednesday!  If you'd like your work featured on the podcast, email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with: A short bio for Erynn to read on air 5 poems for Erynn to read on air (in order, if it matters) Any links you want in the show notes And don't forget to like and subscribe!