Category Archives: Other Poets

Aakriti Kuntal reads from God, Am I Your Eyelid?

… Aakriti Kuntal participated in my blog a few years ago, and I thought it was time to get Aakriti and her work back on again. What follows are some of her poems from her new chapbook, God, Am I … Continue reading →

The Wild Swans at Coole by William Butler Yeats

1 Nov ’22

… The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine-and-fifty swans. The nineteenth autumn has come upon … Continue reading →

John McCullough reads from Reckless Paper Birds

24 Oct ’20

Reckless Paper Birds, wow, when I saw that title, it immediately appealed to me, coming out of the ether as it did one day on the Internet. Even in a pandemic, we communicate. I got in touch with the … Continue reading →

Dylan Thomas reads Fern Hill

1 May ’18

… From a Caedmon recording Dylan Thomas reads Fern Hill, his poem of green and golden childhood. Enjoy. … .. … …Fern Hill … … …

Dame Edith Sitwell reads Still Falls the Rain

14 Apr ’17

… During the London Blitz in 1940, Edith Sitwell wrote Still Falls the Rain, perhaps her most famous poem, a Good Friday poem that ponders human suffering and the salvation of the soul, a harbinger of Dame Edith’s conversion to … Continue reading →

A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London by Dylan Thomas

16 Feb ’16

.. … Never until the mankind making Bird beast and flower Fathering and all humbling darkness Tells with silence the last light breaking And the still hour Is come of the sea tumbling in harness And I must enter again … Continue reading →

In Memory of W. B. Yeats

4 Feb ’16

… Last week, 77 years ago, William Butler Yeats died on January 28, 1939 at Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France. His later years remain controversial; he became more conservative as his anti-democratic sympathies grew, as well as his admiration … Continue reading →

Dylan Thomas reads Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

18 Jan ’16

… “Rage, rage against the dying of the light?” Or simply say as Emily Dickinson said, “I must go in; the fog is rising.” Or as Allen Ginsberg said to his friends, “I always thought I’d be terrified, but I … Continue reading →

Alfred Corn reads English Renaissance Poets

23 Apr ’15

… Today is April 23, the day Shakespeare was born and died. He’d be 453. In celebration here is the poet Alfred Corn reading poems of Renaissance English poets including Shakespeare that I recorded at the New York Botanical Garden … Continue reading →

I sing “Ah! Sunflower” by William Blake accompanied by 13 Paintings of Sunflowers by Charles Burchfield

7 Mar ’15

… ….. Ah Sunflower! weary of time, Who countest the steps of the Sun: Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller’s journey is done. Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in … Continue reading →

Corso, Keats and Shelley

21 Sep ’11

… One night after a poetry reading, Gregroy Corso and I argued about who was the better poet, Shelley or Keats. Gregory thought Shelley was better because according to him Shelley represented the Romantic ideal more perfectly than Keats did. … Continue reading →

Pomes Penyeach

17 Sep ’11

… I was looking for the little chapbook, Pomes Penyeach, by James Joyce that I bought in the seventies at Middle Earth Books in Philly, but I can’t find it. I really have had a hankering for the Pomes. This … Continue reading →