Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Nothing But The Poem - Billy Collins

Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the United States, is the latest subject of the Nothing But The Poem podcast. With our regular podcast host Sam Tongue on paternity leave this edition has Bloodaxe poet Aoife Lyall taking a deep dive into two of Billy Collins's poems, which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Billy Collins is one of the world's most loved poets, famed for his directness, accessibility and playful wit. Carol Ann Duffy could not have given higher praise when she said: "Billy Collins is one of my favourite poets in the world."
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune concurred: "Collins is absolutely charming. He deserves every rose he's flung these days... His poems are irresistible."
John Updike commented: "Billy Collins writes lovely poems... Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious that they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others beside."
The two poems discussed in this podcast are Introduction to Poetry from The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988) and Tension from Ballistics (2008).

Nothing But The Poem - Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland is the latest subject of the Nothing But The Poem podcast. With our regular podcast host Sam Tongue on paternity leave this edition has Bloodaxe poet Aoife Lyall taking an immersive look into two of Eavan Boland's poems, which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Eavan Boland is one of the central figures of modern Irish poetry, a poet who, according to her publishers Carcanet, "came to be known for her exquisite ability to weave myth, history, and the life of an ordinary woman into mesmerising poetry."
Elaine Feinstein, writing in the Poetry Review, said: "Boland is one of the finest and boldest poets of the last half-century."
Iain Crichton Smith wrote: "She has the equipment of the true poet, that is to say an image-making faculty, a true devoted eye and an ear for rhythm."
The two poems discussed in this podcast are The Poets from New Territory (Allen Figgis, 1967) and Moths from In A Time Of Violence (Carcanet, 1994).

Nothing But The Poem - Jane Clarke

Jane Clarke is the latest subject of the Nothing But The Poem podcast. Jane Clarke is an Irish poet; the author of three poetry collections and an illustrated poetry booklet. Our regular podcast host Sam Tongue is currently on paternity leave and this edition has Bloodaxe poet Aoife Llyall taking an immersive look into three of Jane Clarke's poems, which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Poet Carol Rumens wrote that Jane Clarke's poems were "rooted in the landscape of the west of Ireland and the farming context in which the lives of individual humans are played out asserts its own rhythm and narrative. In honouring this larger context Clarke enlarges her poetic field with an unobtrusive but important ecopoetic dimension."
The Irish novelist Anne Enright has praised her poems for their "clean, hard-earned simplicity and a lovely sense of line."
The three poems discussed in this podcast are When Winter Comes and Hers both from When The Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books, 2019) and Daily Bread from The River (Bloodaxe Books, 2015).

Bertony Louis Interviewed

On Wednesday 27th September 2023 the acclaimed Haitian poet Bertony Louis visited the Scottish Poetry Library to speak at an event where he discussed how his poetry intersects with the situation in Haiti.
 
Before the event Bertony recorded a podcast with the SPL; speaking about his life and work. Bertony spoke in French, which was translated simultaneously.

Nothing But The Poem - Kei Miller

Kei Miller is the latest subject of the Nothing But The Poem podcast. Kei Miller is a Forward Prize-winning Jamaican poet; a prolific author who has published 5 collections of poetry as well as many books of fiction and essays. Our regular podcast host Sam Tongue takes a deep dive into two of his poems, which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Jamaica Gleaner wrote: "Kei Miller is a poet who tells his stories in the haunting voices of Jamaica's underprivileged. His tales are stories that haven't been told; they call out from the pages to be heard by Caribbean readers and by the wider world."
In the PN Review, John Robert Lee wrote: "His prose – fiction and non-fiction – and his poetry... do not avoid the murky ‘corners’ of life in Jamaica, racism in the UK and wider world, personal encounters with religion and gender issues. In navigating ‘away from’ and through our contemporary world, he is redrawing our literary maps."
The two poems discussed in this podcast are Book of Genesis and Speaking in tongues. Both poems are from the 2007 collection, There Is an Anger that Moves, and both poems can also be found on the Poetry Archive website read by Kei Miller himself.

Nothing But The Poem - Douglas Dunn

Douglas Dunn is one of Scotland's most decorated poets - he has an OBE and a Queen's Medal - as well as one of Scotland's most loved poets. He is undoubtedly a major Scottish poet, editor and critic, whose Elegies (1985), is a moving account of his first wife’s death. The book became a critical and popular success.
His books – including 10 collections of poetry and 2 of short stories, and a translation of Racine’s Andromache – are consistently well reviewed in the national press, while his work has been the object of much academic attention and has been extensively translated (there are editions in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Slovak, Armenian and Japanese, at least).
In this Nothing But The Poem podcast, regular host Sam Tongue and the NBTP group appraise 3 of Dunn's poems. The poems span almost 5 decades: from Terry Street in 1969 to his most recent collection in 2017. 
Dunn himself "once observed that much of poetry ‘depends on the exposure of the heart’, and that ‘there should be no holding back’. This is true of his work, for all its formal restraint. Whether writing of civic society, mourning, or domestic contentment, Douglas Dunn gives us heart-felt witness that ‘life is the best thing that can happen to us’." - Dr Jules Smith
The poems discussed in the podcast are TAY BRIDGE (1'10) and SECOND OPINION (7'35). Sam also reads a third poem THURSDAY (14'15). The texts for all 3 poems can be found here on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

Nothing But The Poem - Dionne Brand

In a fair and equal world Toronto-based poet Dionne Brand would be widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost practitioners of poetry. Yet, in the UK for instance, her work hasn’t always been easy to find. Until, that is, Penguin Modern Classics published Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems in 2023.
 
Nomenclature is a huge tome – 623 pages long – which collects together 8 of Brand’s previous poetry collections as well as a new long form poem which gives the book its title. This is the essential Dionne Brand all gathered together in one place.
 
Brand’s work has a clear-eyed politically-conscious intensity, underpinning her textual experiments and linguistic adventures. She is immersed in the unflinching world of testimony, while looking forward, dreaming of a less hostile tomorrow. She chooses not to wrap human struggles or the human condition in a transcendent glow nor to swaddle in cotton wool memories. In Inventory she writes:
 
I have nothing soothing to tell you
that’s not my job
my job is to revise and revise this bristling list
hourly.
 
In Lux magazine Brand was described by Sarah Matthews as “resolutely Black, decolonial, internationalist, lesbian, and staunchly, unswervingly leftist. Both her poetry and her activism take that fateful youthful epiphany of realizing the tear in the world, then make it a portal of observance and imagining.”
 
Dionne Brand was the subject of the SPL’s Nothing But The Poem podcast. Our usual host, Sam Tongue, took a deep dive into two of her poems. Both can be found online at the Griffin Poetry Prize website.
 
THIRSTY
FROM VERSO 4
 
Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - got from the two poems in our Nothing But The Poem podcast.
 
(KW)

Nothing But The Poem - Jonathan Edwards

Welsh poet Jonathan Edwards is the latest subject of the Nothing But The Poem podcast. As always our host Sam Tongue takes a deep dive into two of his poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Jonathan Edwards is a multi-award winning poet - including the Costa Book Prize for Poetry (2014) and the Troubadour Poetry Prize in 2022 - and has had two full collections of poetry published: My Family And Other Superheroes (2014) and Gen (2018).
Edwards' poems draw lovingly from pop culture and sport, as well as from his family, community and a sense of Welshness. His first collection was described by critic Alice Vincent as having poems "in which celebrities and fictional characters such as Sophia Loren and Evel Knievel collide with reflections on the social architecture of working class Welsh valleys."
The two poems discussed in this podcast are Evel Knievel Jumps Over My Family and Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in Crumlin for the Filming of Arabesque, June 1965

Nothing But The Poem - Ross Gay

American poet Ross Gay is the subject of the new Nothing But The Poem podcast. The SPL’s regular podcast host, Sam Tongue, takes a deep dive into two of his poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Ross Gay was born in Ohio and now teaches at Indiana University. He's the author of 4 poetry collections and 3 books of essays. His specialist subject is joy! On his website intro it states:
Ross Gay is interested in joy.
Ross Gay wants to understand joy.
Ross Gay is curious about joy.
Ross Gay studies joy.
Something like that.
Robert Eric Shoemaker wrote on the Poetry Foundation website:
Poet Ross Gay takes his office hours in his garden and is often unreachable by technology. Imagine the delight (little delights, perhaps, in his Book of Delights) of being unreachable among the dirt and the plants, or of smiling in discussion with a friend, student, or colleague among the smell of apples trees. Go try it!
The two poems discussed in this podcast are Poem To My Child If Ever You Should Be and Sorrow Is Not My Name

Nothing But The Poem - Neurodiversity Special with Julie McNeil, Victoria McNulty, Beth McDonough and Craig Houston

As part of our Poetry Unravelled project, we invited three poets – Victoria McNulty, Beth McDonough and Craig Houston - to join project-lead Julie McNeil for conversation and readings around their experiences of dyslexia and neurodiversity. We discussed how they first engaged with poetry and the challenges raised by educational settings, especially around identifying a lack of dyslexia-friendly poetry resources available for individuals and schools. We also recorded poems reflecting on these themes, showcasing the transformative power of poetry, whether listening, reading, or creating. The resources from the project will be made available on our website soon. For more information, please contact project and learning coordinator Samuel Tongue.