2 More Poetry Podcasts Reviewed

Continuing on my journey of exploring poetry podcasts, I've caught up with two more programs.

To catch a poetry podcast, you can either visit iTunes and download episodes that appeal to you or you can subscribe to a podcast on iTunes and have the latest episodes (audio programs similar to NPR interviews), download automatically to your mobile listening device (iPod or iPhone or other brand) whenever you do updates. You can also listen to these downloaded audio files from your computer if you don't have a mobile thingamajig. Just visit iTunes (or podcast homepage if one exists).
  

Poets for Tomorrow – Recommended with Caveat

There are only five podcasts here and they stopped producing more in 2010 so these are a bit outdated. I listened to two podcasts on the topic of "The Self," both  interviewing or showcasing a New York City performance poet.  I felt the podcasts did not stay true to the Self topic and in one episode the sound quality was a bit raw. One episode interviewed a poet who grew up struggling to define himself in a land of NYC gangs and he was very much a new poet working his way through the world of performance poetry. For this reason, this podcast is not for the self-serious poet listener. If you have a hard time suffering newbies, go elsewhere for your fix. I liked that about this podcast, how democratic it was in interviewing experiences of poets on many levels.

The second podcast on The Self, blew me away. It was a 14-minute performance of a poem about the Philippines called "Colt 45" by Daniel Darwin, an autobiographical rant with heavy refrains. The poem covered a lot of territory both physically and intellectually describing American-Philippines conflicts, Asian sexuality, homosexuality and finally going meta by breaking the 4th wall. It was definitely a performance you had to hang in there for…but I was glad I did.

Depending on your poetic temperament, there may be finds in here for you.

Scottish Poetry Library – Highly Recommended

I listened to their 45-minute interview of Robert Pinsky. Best sound quality of all the podcasts I've heard so far. Very professional sign-ons and sign-offs. Pinksy had somewhat funny things to say like, "My voice is my instrument…I write with my voice." He talked about his love of jazz and his www.favoritepoem.org readers-reading-poems project which he stared when he was US Poet Laureate. I was intrigued by Pinksy's claim that he "doesn't advocate for poetry," meaning Why does poetry need an advocate? It's great! If people love it they'll come to it. I appreciated that kind of attitude, coming from a position of power as it does, very Riot Grrrl 3rd-wave feminist thinking-like.He said poetry does not need an ambassador, a defender, commercials. "It's like advocating singing."

I also appreciated how Pinsky threw love to pop culture icons like Sid Caesar as influences. He also talked about studying with Francis Fergusson and his ideas of art imitating actions, about Pinksy's idea of pitch in poems, musicality, and his Poem Jazz CD project.

This is definltely a podcast worth following.

See more reviews of poetry podcasts.