poetry resources

These are just resources I have found, based on your poems and some of the questions you are exploring. Please remember they are not smarter than you. Just consider the ideas - do they help or not?

Here is a podcast series about the rise of women in poetry: There are five parts to the series (scroll down for the first episode).

Beats:

Here's an iconic reading by the Beats - it's worth watching pieces of it just to understand how they performed and how popular they were. Ferlinghetti and Corso read, among others.

Ginsberg:

Reading "A Supermarket in California" and a podcast that discusses the poem.

A discussion about "Homework"

Reading "America"

Plath:

John Green's Crash Course about Sylvia Plath

Plath reading "Daddy"

A terrific podcast looking back at Plath's book Ariel

Some critical analysis of "Daddy: (they truly are no smarter than you are - don't substitute their ideas for yours).

Clifton:

Here's a resource that includes Clifton reading, some thoughts about her use of lower case letters and a roundtable discussion with Clifton.

A remembrance of Clifton along with audio of several of her poems.

Clifton reads "blessing the boats."

Kumin:

This is a terrific interview with Maxine Kumin - she reads three or four poems and talks about her ideas about poetry, about her life, etc.

Corso:

Here's Gregory Corso reading "The Whole Mess...Almost"

Sexton:

Here's archival recordings of Sexton reading.

Here's a podcast about Sexton's poems.

Lorde:

Here's a podcast aboutAudra Lorde (it's called "The Uses of Anger" - she reads "Power" among other poems)

Levertov:

Here's a podcast about Levertov's poem "Life at War" and the reaction to it.

Here are sound recordings of Levertov reading several poems

Baraka:

Here's a podcast that discusses Baraka and the controversies swirling around him

Paley:

A reading of stories and poems (she begins at the 18:00 mark - this is the video of the reading I went to! This is where I met her and she said that it would be lovely to have tea with me)

Ferlinghetti

Here's a video of Ferlinghetti reading his "Constantly Risking Absurdity"

Here's video of a class lecture about the Beats and about Ferlinghetti (discussion of "Constantly Risking Absurdity" starts at 8:20)

Walker:

Here's an interview with Alice Walker about writing (she reads three poems).