Writer's Digest Presents: National Poetry Month (Podcast, Episode 4)
In this fourth episode of the Writer's Digest Presents podcast, Amy, Robert, Moriah, and Michael discuss their first experiences with writing poetry (and poetry teachers), finding poetry on social media, new poetic forms, favorite poets, and more.
Thoughts on Poetry From the WD Editors:
- "When I was working on art books, one of the poetry forms that was popular among artists I was working with was the blackout poetry where you transform a page of text into something else entirely by blacking it out." -Amy Jones
- "For me, poetry is almost the way that I journal." -Robert Lee Brewer
- "I am a really big fan of slam poetry and even just have an addiction to videos of poets reading their work. Because I think it's a totally different experience than when you're reading it to yourself privately." -Moriah Richard
- "It was the first time that I'd ever been asked to look at each line particularly closely and also the first time I really heard someone read poetry the right way. I ended up really loving that class when I thought I was going to struggle in it. It was not easy, because I do feel more naturally a fiction writer. But I learned a lot about fiction in that class of poetry." -Michael Woodson on taking a creative writing poetry class in college
Poetry Roundtable
After the opening discussion, Robert Lee Brewer invites poets Kelli Russell Agodon (Dialogues with Rising Tides), Kim Dower (I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom), Timothy Green (American Fractal), and Joseph Mills (Bodies in Motion) to read a poem each and then talk about a variety of poetic topics.
Kelli Russell Agodon quote: "I was interested in poetry in high school. I went to public school, so the poetry class I got was taught by an ex-DJ, and we looked at the lyrics from Pink Floyd and tried to write from that."
Kim Dower quote: "Freshman year of college, I took an elective called Introduction to Creative Writing, and I was the luckiest person in the world, because the teacher was Thomas Lux. It was his first class teaching ever. So I feel it's like growing up with The Beatles. The timing was just right."
Timothy Green quote: "I just loved writing a poem once a week. It's just like this meditative thing. It's like yoga for your brain or the Wordle or something, but you get to save what you made out of it."
Joseph Mills quote: "If I would've said I wanted to be a poet, I would've been supported, but it would've been like, 'I want to be an astronaut or a space alien or a waterfall.'"
