Read Me a Poem - “Winter Creek” by Jim Harrison

Amanda Holmes reads Jim Harrison’s “Winter Creek.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8nforbyn370ml4wk51um5/264-harrison-winter-creek.mp3?rlkey=vk7joeqryhodt0qcd2aefif11&dl=0

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.

 



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Read Me a Poem - “My Story in a Late Style of Fire” by Larry Levis

Amanda Holmes reads Larry Levis’s “My Story in a Late Style of Fire.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.




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Read Me a Poem - “I Explain a Few Things” by Pablo Neruda

Amanda Holmes reads Pablo Neruda’s “I Explain a Few Things,” translated from the Spanish by Galway Kinnell. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Read Me a Poem - “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton

Amanda Holmes reads Anne Sexton’s “Her Kind.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Read Me a Poem - “Consolation” by Wislawa Szymborska

Amanda Holmes reads Wislawa Szymborska’s “Consolation,” translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Read Me a Poem - “The Bean Eaters” by Gwendolyn Brooks

Amanda Holmes reads Gwendolyn Brooks’s “The Bean Eaters.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Read Me a Poem - “The Watcher” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Amanda Holmes reads Rainer Maria Rilke’s “The Watcher,” translated from the German by Stephanie Bastek. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.


This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.

 

The Watcher

by Rainer Maria Rilke


I see the storms coming in the trees

that on swollen, balmy days

beat at my anxious window,

and hear the Distance saying things

that I can’t bear without a friend,

can’t love without a sister.


There goes the storm, a rearranger,

goes through forest and through time,

and everything is as though ageless:

the landscape, like a verse in a psalm book,

is truth and might and eternity.


How small it is, what we wrestle with,

what wrestles with us, how great;

if we could let ourselves be more like things,

be subdued by great storms—

we would become vast and nameless.


What we defeat is the Small,

and the victory itself makes us small.

The Eternal and Enormous

will not be bent by us.

This is the Angel that appeared

to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:

when its adversary’s sinews

strained like metal in the struggle,

it felt them under its fingers

like the strings of deep melodies.


Whoever was bested by this Angel—

who so often renounced struggle—

he goes righteous and upright

and great from that harsh hand,

which embraced him like a sculptor.

Victories do not entice him.

This is how he grows: deep defeat

by ever greater forces.


Translated by Stephanie Bastek



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Read Me a Poem - “In My Desire to Be Nude” by José Garcia Villa

Amanda Holmes reads José Garcia Villa’s “In My Desire to Be Nude.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.


This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.




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Read Me a Poem - “Lullaby” by May Sarton

Amanda Holmes reads May Sarton’s “Lullaby.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.


This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Read Me a Poem - A Selection from “Station Island” by Seamus Heaney

Amanda Holmes reads Part XI of Seamus Heaney’s Station Island. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.


This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.