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Join your podcast pals at a table at the Beachy Head pub. Enjoying a view of sloping fields down to the Belle Tout Lighthouse and the sea beyond and take a moment to reflect on another season of Planet Poetry podcasts. Over spent packets of crisps and peanuts we revisit conversations with Danez Smith, Isabel Galleymore, Richard Scott and Isabelle Baafi chosen from among the panoply of marvellous guests we've had this season.

As ever, thank you for lending us your ears. Look for us in the Autumn and for the time being, we wish you a splendid and memorable summer.

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It's a tag team episode! With Robin and Peter meeting poet Charles G Lauder, Jr and publisher poet Jo Colley of Blueprint Poetry Press - who have published his 2025 pamphlet Year of the Rat, a profound collection informed by long engagement with Daoism. Also we speak to Jo Colley, who with Julie Hogg, runs Blueprint Poetry Press. Jo tells us what moved her about Charles's work, and shares insights into the selection and editing process and the sheer pleasure that publishing fine poets brings - as well as the balance between her own poetry practice and publishing.

Robin discovers spare and lovely work by Ritchie McCaffery, whose pamphlet Skail just published by New Walk Editions. And Peter is shocked to find himself enjoying Frank O'Hara's poem Why I Am Not a Painter.

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What was that? A bat or swallow? Something flitted past, but we can't agree on what we've just seen ... Erica McAlpine reads from Small Pointed Things (just published by Carcanet) that makes that uncertain territory her own, with meticulously crafted poems that harbour hard questions.

And talking of things that flit past your window, Peter gets an early look at White Teeth, Red Blood, selected Vampire Verses published shortly by Pushkin Press. We'll listen to John Keats's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', and hear why the knight is alone and palely loitering... Meanwhile Robin discovers Hope Mirrlees, and a long Modernist poem 'Paris' - which predated Old Possum's 'The Waste Land' by two years. Plus we read an affectionate poem by Tim Relf, for Father's Day.

Support the show

Planet Poetry is a labour of love!
If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!