Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

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.

Nothing But The Poem - Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Anthony Vahni Capildeo 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 their poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
A Trinidadian-Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction, Anthony Vahni Capildeo has published eight books and eight pamphlets, including Measures of Expatriation which won the 2016 Forward Prize. Their most recent poetry collection is Like a Tree, Walking (Carcanet, 2021).
Beth Cochrane in The Skinny said of the collection: ‘ 'Vahni Capildeo has always been a remarkable and singular poet, and Like a Tree, Walking is yet another triumph of their warm wit, direct vision, and almost spiritual connection to the page....The collection is welcoming, disarming, and - as its blurb commands - 'defined by how it writes about love.' The poetry within is to be celebrated, read, and reread by poets and not-poets alike.'’
Jen Campbell wrote: 'I would follow Vahni Capildeo's poetry to the ends of the Earth, I just think that they're amazing...I love this book very much.' 
High praise indeed!
The two poems discussed in this podcast are To London and Migraine Improv.

Nothing But The Poem - Helen Mort

Helen Mort 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 Helen Mort’s poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Helen Mort is an award winning poet from Sheffield who's had 3 collections of poetry published. Her most recent collection, The Illustrated Woman (2022), was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize.
The book's blurb at HelenMort.com reads: 'The Illustrated Woman is a tender and incisive collection about what it means to live in a female body - from the joys and struggles of new motherhood to the trauma of deepfakes.
Andrew McMillan said of the collection: 'These are poems that will leave their indelible mark'
Kate Kellaway, reviewing the book in the Guardian, wrote: The Illustrated Woman explores tattoos through history and, lucid though these poems are, you need to reread them often to acquire the deepest sense of what is being said. Mort presents tattoos variously: as painful and cherished keepsakes, exposure and concealment combined, flirtations with indelibility.
The two poems discussed in this podcast – Ablation and The Tattooed Lady – can be found in No Map Could Show Them (Chatto) and The Illustrated Woman (Penguin).
 

Hai-Aidh! Pod-chraolaidh #3 - Meg Bateman agus Pàdraig MacAoidh

Am mìos-sa tha Meg Bateman agus Pàdraig MacAoidh a’ còmhradh air ‘Aig an Fhaing’ le Anna Frater agus ‘Duan an Dannsair’ le Flòraidh NicPhàil. Tha an còmhradh a’ dannsa eadar cuspairean a’ leithid dùthchas, treubhan, mic-talla, bròn agus cruthachadh. Stiall oirbh agus èistibh.
Mo chasan dubh, mo chasan dubh..
This month Meg Bateman and Peter Mackay chat about 'At the Fank' by Anne Frater and 'Duan an Dannsair' by Flora MacPhail. The conversation dances between topics like dùthchas, tribes, echoes, sadness and creativity. Have a go and listen.

Nothing But The Poem - Jorie Graham

Jorie Graham 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 Jorie Graham’s poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
Jorie Graham and her poetry are difficult to classify. To get some idea of her thinking and poetic process this illuminating interview should help: Jorie Graham Takes The Long View
Among many things she’s an eco-poet of tremendous power. She’s the author of 15 poetry collections, four of which were collected together as [To] The Last [Be] Human. The poems in these 4 books address the ongoing tragedy of humanity’s destruction of the natural world and, potentially, our own species.
The two poems discussed in this podcast – Full Fathom and Prayer – can both be found in [To] The Last [Be] Humananthology or can be read here on the Poetry Foundation website.

Hai-Aidh! Pod-chraolaidh #2 - Rona Dhòmhnallach agus Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir

Air Hai-àidh! #2 tha Rona Dhòmhnallach agus Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir a’ còmhradh air seanachas agus nòsan ùra de bhàrdachd. Tha Rona a toirt thugainn ‘A’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail ort’ le Meg Bateman agus Martàin Mac an t-Saoir a taghadh an seann òran ‘’S ann a’ bhruadair mi raoir’. Cuspairean: ealachan, gaol, booty calls.
 
On Hai-àidh! #2 Rona MacDonald and Martin MacIntyre chat about the traditional and the modern in Gaelic poetry. Rona brings us ‘A’ chionn ’s gu robh mi measail ort’ by Meg Bateman and Martin chooses the old song ‘’S ann a Bhruadair Mi Raoir’. Topics included: swans, love, booty calls.

Nothing But The Poem - Hagiwara Sakutaro & Japanese Poetry in Translation

The SPL's regular podcast host Sam Tongue chats with translator Norman Angus, a long time resident of Japan, about the unique challenges of translating Japanese poetry into English and Scots.
Hagiwara Sakutaro is a poet Norman is passionate about bringing to the attention of the English-speaking world. Sakutaro wrote free verse, which, at the time, was revolutionary and liberatory, in a Japan where poetry followed strict rules. In an introduction to his Early Poems, Norman summed up Sakutaro's influence:
'Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942) more than any other individual determined the direction which modern Japanese poetry was to take... Such was the depth of his influence that today it would be hard to name a Japanese poet whose own work has not felt that influence'. 
Sakutaro, who led a Bohemian life, and whose work was initially banned, is often called the Japanese Baudelaire, and is widely considered 'the father of modern colloquial poetry in Japan'.
In this extended Nothing But The Poem podcast Norman Angus introduces, reads, and discusses with Sam Tongue a selection of work by Sakutaro.