It's the last episode of the season and the last episode of your life. PoeTRY is over! We reflect back on three seasons of something no one asked to, and finally answer the mysterious question: why did we give our podcast such a stupid name? We PoeTried and now we've PoeSucceeded. It's another, it's the last, episode of PoeTRY!

Poetry RATS

It's the final poem and penultimate episode of the season! This week we are existing in the context of all in which we have lived as we read Kamau Braithwaite's "Shepherd" from Islands (1969). Go find the gods that lurk within you, it's another episode of PoeTRY! .

Listen to and read the poem here.

Kamau Braithwaite's bio was compiled from:

• Poetry Foundation
• Poetry Archive
• The recorded 1995 interview series from the University of Memphis and River City Writers Series (youtube link)
• The essay “Nation Language” from History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Langauge in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry

It's penultimate poem of season 3! This week we read one of Koya's favorite poems, Franz Wright's "To Myself," from his 1998 collection, Ill Lit. Go buy yourself a nice sandwich and then don't eat it so you can instead take a bite of this week's PoeTRY!

Read the poem here.

Franz Wright's Bio was compiled from:

LA Times

Pleiades Magazine

NYT

NPR

Image Journal

'Tis the season! It's that time of the year again, the time we gather 'round the phone speaker to listen to poem from friend of the podcast in our wild imaginations, Li-Young Lee. This week, we're reading "To Hold" from Lee's 2007 stonecold classic, Behind My Eyes. Go tell someone you love about the dream you had last night, and when you do, tell them this week's PoeTRY sent you. Do it!

Read the poem here.

Our excerpt on Li-Young Lee was taken from:

Poetandwriters.org

Chrisricecooper.com

Phew! I thought this was the last judgment, but it's not. It's the one before that, or maybe none at all! We're reading Jorge Luis Borges' "Almost a Last Judgment" as translated for the 2010 volume Poems of the Night (originally published in Borges' second book of poetry, Luna de Frente, published in 1925). There's more oat-talk than you probably want, but it's still a new episode of PoeTRY!

Read the poem here.

Listen to a recitation of the original Spanish here.

Jorge Luis Borges biography was compiled from:

The New Yorker

Poetry Foundation

Los Angeles Review of Books

The Paris Review

Have you ever stopped to wonder, what if PoeTRY were hosted by someone who knew something about poetry? We're gonna find out! We're reading Ocean Vuong's "The Gift," from the 2016 collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. We are joined this week by the incomparable, Jodi, who shames Yuki and Koya with her ability to lead discussions on poetry. On earth we're briefly obsessed with Ocean Vuong because it's another episode of PoeTRY!

Read the poem here.

Ocean Vuong's biography was compiled from:

The Guardian

The Well and Often Reader

Poetry Foundation

Time Magazine

The Brooklyn College website

Do NOT let anyone touch your bones if they tell you they want to make every beautiful sound. It is a TRICK. We're dripping with decadent sarcasm this week and reading Simone Person's 2023 work "Awkwafina Clarifies That She’s Appreciating, Not Appropriating (in Black American Sentences)." If you want to appreciate something, appreciate THIS (new episode of PoeTRY)!

Read the poem here.

A version of the talk by Elizabeth Bukhar that Koya mentions is available here.

Simone Person’s biography was compiled from:

• The Honeysuckle Press
• Poets.org
• The Boston Review

Oh, DIP. Rubi's back! And this time, she didn't come alone. Rubi and Zain join us to talk about Mark Strand's "Eating Poetry" from his 1991 collection as we try to solve the eternal mystery: are we dogs, men, or librarians? I hope you like the bookish dark because we're romping all up in there on this week's PoeTRY!

Read the poem here.

Mark Strands bio was compiled from:

The New York Times

Poetry Foundation

The Antioch Review

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