Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Moon Tell Me Truth: audio accompaniment

A short audio recording to accompany the Moon Tell Me Truth exhibition at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Hai-Aidh! Pod-chraolaidh #5 - Joy Dunlop agus Peigi Nic a’ Phiocair

Ann an Hai-Àidh #5, thagh Peigi Nic a’ Phiocair ‘Oidhche Na' Mo Chadal Dhomh’ le Nellie Ruadh, dàn a chaidh lorg o chionn ghoirid ann an tasglann, agus Joy Dunlop ‘An Roghainn’, aon de Dàin do Eimhir le Somhairle MacGill-Eain, mar òran le fonn ùr a rinn Dòmhnall Seathach. Tha Peigi agus Joy a’ leughadh, a’ seinn, agus a’ còmhradh air briathran blasta agus faireachdainnean làidir.
 
For Hai-Àidh #5, Peigi MacVicar picks Nellie Ruadh’s song ‘Oidhche Na' Mo Chadal Dhomh’, a recent archival discovery, and Joy Dunlop brings in ‘An Roghainn’, one of Sorley MacLean’s Dàin do Eimhir, set to music by Donald Shaw. Peigi and Joy read, sing, and chat about tasty words and strong feelings.

Nothing But The Poem - Nuala Watt

Our usual host, Sam Tongue, is back from paternity leave, and between feeds and nappy changes has recorded the latest episode of our regular Nothing But The Poem poetry podcast. Special thank you to Aoife Lyall for stepping in and producing 3 wonderful NBTP podcasts on Jane Clarke, Eavan Boland and Billy Collins. Much appreciated.
Sam's subject this month is Nuala Watt, an emerging poet, whose work is increasingly recognised for its unique voice, formal daring, and fierce authenticity. Nuala Watt is partially sighted and her poems lead us through "the bureaucratic labyrinth of government assessment, the anxious joy of expecting a child and, with verve and originality, the realities of being a disabled parent".
Fellow poet Alyson Hallett commented: "Sit down before you read these poems. Open the window. Open the door. There's a bolt of pure electric coming for you."
My thoughts have arrived in the post.I don't know which ones.I think they may be cyclists in the dark.
Sam took a deep dive into two poems from Nuala's debut poetry collection, The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish, which has just been published by Blue Diode  Press. Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - got from these poems in our Nothing But The Poem podcast.

Hai-Aidh! Pod-chraolaidh #4 - Meg Bateman agus Joy Dunlop

Ann an Hai-Àidh #4, thagh Meg Bateman ‘Cànan na Deighe’ le Beth Frieden agus Joy Dunlop ‘Nam Aonar le Mo Smaointean’ le Iain MacLeòid. Tha Meg agus Joy a’ leughadh nan dàin agus a’ bruidhinn orra, a’ lorg ceanglaichean eadar dàn a tha cho ùr ’sa ghabhas agus òran tradaiseanta. Cuspairean a’ mhìos: dàimh ri àite, fuaimean fuachd, agus bàrdachd mar tùs-ùrachaidh agus mar chomas-iongantais.
 
In Hai-Àidh #4, Meg Bateman chose ‘Cànan na Deighe’ by Beth Frieden, and Joy Dunlop brought in ‘Nam Aonar le Mo Smaointean’ by John MacLeod. Meg and Joy read the poems and have a chat about them, bringing together a very recent Gaelic poem with a traditional song. This month’s themes include relationship to place, the sound of ice, and the power of poetry to make us look anew.

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.