Reading and Writing Podcast
1) Adam Zagajewski
We talk about the life-affirming poems of Adam Zagajewski. Check out my new book of poems here. And listen to Claire's new album here.
2) Frank Norris, McTeague
Check out Claire's music, art, and writing here: www.claireakebrandart.com Claire and I have one of my favorite discussions about a very under-read book. We talk about the relationship between Ameri...Show More
3) Robert Frost, ”Home Burial”
Check out Claire's music, art, and writing here: www.claireakebrandart.com In this episode, I present a recording from a class in which students and I discuss Frost's masterpiece, "Home Burial."
4) Don Quixote
Claire and I talk about the strange wonderful pleasure of this book, focusing on the first 250 pages. More Cervantes discussions to come!
5) James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
"Everything that is is holy." Translation: CLAIRE IS BACK!!!!!!
6) ”As Kingfishers Catch Fire...”, a poem by GM Hopkins
Some students and I walk through Hopkins' poem, celebrating its particular pleasures and insights, as well as talking in general about how easy it is to access the strange mysterious power of a poem.
7) Hamlet
Who's there? Who are you? Why are you here? What is it all for? Are these the right questions? Can we even know?
8) How to Enjoy Poetry, and Why
I yammer on for a while about how inadequate any theory of poetry is, and then I think I end up outlining a tentative theory of poetry. Oops.
9) The Upanishads
I aim for a brief glimpse of the grandeur of these ancient scriptures, and think out loud about their central message: all is one. Along the way I ramble about death, unity, grief, the Self, the trans...Show More
10) The Book of Chuang Tzu
In this episode, I talk for an entire hour as if I know something. I make many statements that have the cadence of "understanding," but mostly I'm just rambling about a very beautiful and fascinating ...Show More