Explore Poetry
Not sure where to start? Who to listen to? What to read? The links below will help you - simply search below using names or key words to explore all our poetry recordings, texts, interviews and a huge range of other materials.
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Poet
Rodney Jones
B. 1950
...one of the best, most generous, and most brilliantly readable poets currently making poems in America. - David Baker, 'Poetry', on Rodney Jones
Poet
Carolyn Forché
B. 1950
The poem might be our only evidence that an event has occurred: it exists for us as the sole trace of an occurrence. - Carolyn Forche
Poet
Mark Strand
B. 1934 D. 2014
Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure. Mark Strand
Poet
Gerald Stern
B. 1925 D. 2022
I suppose as I'm explaining myself to others, I'm quintessentially explaining myself to myself. Gerald Stern
Poet
Hayden Carruth
B. 1921 D. 2008
My poems, I think, exist in a state of tension between the love of natural beauty and the fear of natural meaninglessness or absurdity. Hayden Carruth
Poet
Marilyn Hacker
B. 1942
Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about. But the fact that writers are dealing with essential issues...I think that's a necessary integration of literary writing with what's actually going on in our world. - Marilyn Hacker
Poet
Poet
Poet
Jane Hirshfield
B. 1953
Hirshfield's poems renew, reaffirm the power of language to move deeply, to articulate experience precisely. - The Antioch Review
Poet
Yusef Komunyakaa
B. 1947
My father could only sign/His name, but he'd look at blueprints/& say how many bricks/ Formed each wall - My Father's Letters, Yusef Komunyakaa
Poet
Ted Kooser
B. 1939
I try to honor my reader's patience and generosity by presenting what I have to say as clearly and succinctly as possible. - Ted Kooser
Poet
Robert Hass
B. 1941
Poetry is a way of living...a human activity like baking bread or playing basketball. - Robert Hass