Episodios

  • Poems for Company - November 24th, 2025

    Poems for Company - November 24th, 2025
    Nov 24 2025
    “Narrative Poems”: These poems offer at least an outline of a story, with a plot and some time references. Like many successful stories, substantial relevant questions may remain unanswered, requiring some speculation on our part. John Greenleaf Whittier, “Telling the Bees.” Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Mr. Flood’s Party.” Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - October 27th, 2025

    Poems for Company - October 27th, 2025
    Oct 27 2025
    “Remembering the First World War”: Our first poem details the life of a veteran who managed to survive the carnage and reflects on–or tries not to reflect on–his specific experiences during the war. The next two poems depict civilians beginning to come to terms with their memories of the suffering shared throughout England. Edmund Blunden, “The Veteran.” Ursula Roberts, “The Cenotaph.” Philip Johnstone, “High Wood.” Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from his CD Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - September 22nd, 2025

    Poems for Company - September 22nd, 2025
    Sep 22 2025
    “Unrequited Love (Part Two)”: A previous episode in March ’23 dealt with this same theme and featured poems by both men and women. This episode considers unrequited love primarily from the woman’s point of view. Guys in my audience may need to listen in. Ellen Bass, “Can’t Get Over Her,” from Mules of Love (BOA Editions, 2002). Sappho, “Fragment # 31 (Ode to Anactoria),” translator Michael R. Burch (thehypertexts.com/Sappho Longer Poems in Translations by Michael R. Burch.htm), and read with the kind permission of the translator. Sharon Olds, “Crazy,” from Stag’s Leap (Knopf 2012), and read with the kind permission of the author. The show’s theme...
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - August 25th, 2025

    Poems for Company - August 25th, 2025
    Aug 25 2025
    “Wandering and Roving”: When you wander in the woods, how do you decide which way to go when you arrive at a fork in your path? The first of today’s poems offers a playful response to that question, and the other poems also reflect in various ways on the act of wandering. Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken.” John Clare, “The Moors.” Lord Byron, “So We’ll Go No More a Roving.” Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Recuerdo.” The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. If you have...
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - July 28th, 2025

    Poems for Company - July 28th, 2025
    Jul 28 2025
    “Exile and Return”: What is it like to try to enter and exit Middle Eastern countries, especially Palestine? Today’s poems offer glimpses, even before the most recent spasm of violence that ripped it apart in October 2023. Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, “Upon Arrival” and “Immigrant,” from Water and Salt (Red Hen Press, 2017). Mosab Abu Toha, “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear” and “Forever Homeless,” from Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights Books, 2022). The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. If you have any...
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - June 23rd, 2025

    Poems for Company - June 23rd, 2025
    Jun 23 2025
    “One Word”: The poems on today’s show implicitly urge us to consider how strange language is when we examine it up close. Each of today’s poems puzzle over an individual word. Billy Collins, “Tension,” from Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (Random House, 2013). Shakespeare, “Sonnet 135.” Robert Wrigley, “Lovely,” from The True Account of Myself as a Bird (Penguin Books, 2022), used by kind permission of the author. The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. If you have any suggestions, corrections, questions regarding the show, please contact me, Brian...
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - May 26th, 2025

    Poems for Company - May 26th, 2025
    May 26 2025
    “Three Controversial Musicians”: Today’s three poems spotlight three individuals known for their musical talents, as well as the controversy they provoked. Naomi Shihab Nye, “Cross That Line,” from You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2011), used by kind permission of the author. Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died,” from Lunch Poems (City Lights Books, 1964). William Matthews, “Mingus at the Half Note,” from Search Party: Collected Poems, Sebastian Matthews and Stanley Plumly, eds. (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), read with kind permission of the William Matthews estate. The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. ...
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    29 m
  • Poems for Company - April 28th, 2025

    Poems for Company - April 28th, 2025
    Apr 28 2025
    “Gifts”: One poet recalls her complex strategies as a teen gift-giver, a second recalls the gift his parents bestowed on him when he was eleven and about to move away from home, and the third imagines the circumstances in which her father gave a gift to her mother before they were married, before they became her parents. Brenda Shaughnessy, “A Mix Tape: ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me),'” from So Much Synth (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). Seamus Heaney, “The Conway Stewart,” from Selected Poems 1988-2013 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). Eavan Boland, “The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me,” from Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (W, W....
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    29 m