The Beat

Knox County Public Library

In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves. The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn. Rate and review The Beat: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-beat-1664614 read less

Our Editor's Take

The Beat podcast helps listeners discover the joy of poetry. Its host is librarian Alan May, who has a passion for reading and writing poetry. He's published several books, and his work has appeared in DIAGRAM and The New York Quarterly.

Podcast host May doesn't believe anyone must be an expert to understand and appreciate a poem. If someone has a connection to a poem, they will understand how to read it in time. He also acknowledges that only some may enjoy each poem. So, he welcomes both experts and beginners to hear a range of different styles and themes.

May introduces a new poet, from John Keats to GennaRose Nethercott, on his podcast every month. Either May or the poet will read aloud a selection of their poems. All listeners need to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the rhythm of the words.

In one podcast episode, poet and author Jenny Sadre-Orafai shares her poetry. She reads three poems from her book Dear Outsiders. The collection is about two siblings who must learn to survive in an unfamiliar landscape after their parent's deaths. Sadre-Orafai begins with "Occupation Interview," which explores "astronaut" as a potential career. The final poem, "Souvenirs for Locals," is a peculiar list of items. For example, it includes "a warped passport with no stamps," which conjures a feeling of possibility that has lessened with time.

Another poet on The Beat is Texas-raised Juan R. Palomo. For the podcast, he reads aloud "The Day They Do Not Show Up." This poem is about the experience of children like Palomo who have migrant parents. It describes a boy awaiting his parent's return from the potato fields. His sisters cook traditional Mexican food on the stove. When their parents don't return home, they expect the worst.

The Beat shares readings from various poets across history to the present day. Listening to the show is an ideal way to discover what poems one connects to the most. New episodes premiere every month.

read less
ArtsArts

Episodes

Mathias Svalina and Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nov 14 2024
Mathias Svalina and Gerard Manley Hopkins
Mathias Svalina is the author of seven books. His most recent, America at Play (published by Trident Press), is a collection of absurdist instructions for children's games. His poetry collection Thank You Terror was published earlier this year, and his first short story collection, Comedy, is forthcoming soon. Svalina was a founding editor of Octopus Books. He’s led writing workshops in universities, libraries, community spaces, and in prison. Since 2014, he has run a dream delivery service, traveling around the country to write and deliver dreams to subscribers. Through the Dream Delivery Service, Svalina has worked with the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, the Poetry Foundation, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson.   Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in the London suburb of Stratford Essex in 1844. He studied classics at Balliol College in Oxford and theology at St. Beuno’s College in North Wales. He was ordained in 1877 as a Jesuit priest, and he served in London, Oxford, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Stonyhurst. He also taught classics at Stonyhurst College and Greek literature at University College, Dublin. During his lifetime, most of Hopkins’ poems were read by only a few friends. In 1889, Hopkins died of typhoid fever, and he was buried in Dublin, Ireland. Hopkin’s first collection, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, was published in 1918.  Links: Read "Terrible Baby" by Mathias Svalina at The TinyRead "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection" by Gerard Manley Hopkins at Poets.orgMathias SvalinaMathias Svalina's websiteBio and poem at Poets.org"Mathias Svalina-Dream Delivery Service" video at by JustBuffaloLit Mathias Svalina reads from "Thank You Terror" at the Silo City Reading SeriesGerard Manley HopkinsBio and poems at Poets.orgInternational Hopkins Society's website (poems, bio, study guides, video, etc).Photo Credit: Dean Davis
Zachary Schomburg and Gertrude Stein
Jul 3 2024
Zachary Schomburg and Gertrude Stein
Zachary Schomburg is a poet, painter, and a publisher for Octopus Books, a small independent poetry press. He earned a BA from the College of the Ozarks and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Nebraska. He is the author of six books of poems including, most recently, Fjords vol. 2, published by Black Ocean in 2021 and a novel, Mammother, published by Featherproof Books in 2017.  Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1874. She attended Radcliffe College and Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1903, she moved to Paris where she eventually began writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She became an influential figure in the worlds of art and literature, and her home became a gathering place for artists and writers like Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Max Jacob. She died near Paris in July of 1946.Links:Read "The Cliff Floats Low" at Sixth FinchRead "Tender Buttons [Apple]" at Poets.orgZachary SchomburgZachary Schomburg's websiteBio and bio at Poetryfoundation.org"Moving a Plane Around a Living Room: In Conversation with Zachary Schomburg" in TimberTwo poems at JellyfishGertrude SteinBio and poems at Poetryfoundation.org"Gertrude Stein - Author & Poet: Mini Bio" from BiographyBio and poems at Poets.orgMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Iliana Rocha and Delmira Agustini
Apr 1 2024
Iliana Rocha and Delmira Agustini
Iliana Rocha earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. She is the 2019 winner of the Berkshire Prize for her book The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez (Tupelo Press). Her first book, Karankawa, won the 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Best New Poets anthology, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latin American Literature Today, and many others. She has won fellowships from CantoMundo and MacDowell. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Waxwing Literary Journal, and she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee.Delmira Agustini is considered one of the most important South American poets of the 20th century. She was born to upper-middle-class parents in Montevideo, Uruguay in October of 1886. She began writing poetry at the age of 10, and her first major work, El Libro Blanco, was published in 1907, when she was just 20 years old. She went on to publish several other books that were well-received by writers and critics. Links:Read "Still Life," "Houston," and "Landscape with Graceland Crumbling in My Hands"Read "Explosión" in Spanish and EnglishIliana RochaIliana Rocha's websiteBio and poems at the Poetry Foundation's website"The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez" in New York Times Magazine"Mexican American Sonnet" at Poets.org"Three Poems" in Latin American Literature Today“like the building that reflects his death in every window: A Conversation with Iliana Rocha about The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” — curated by Tiffany Troy in Tupelo QuarterlyDelmira AgustiniBio and "The Vampire" at Poets.orgSix Poems by Delmira Agustini (translated by Valerie Martinez) at Drunken Boat
Denton Loving and D.H. Lawrence
Dec 21 2023
Denton Loving and D.H. Lawrence
Denton Loving is the author of Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level: an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks). He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. His work has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf.  D.H. Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire in England, and he died in 1930 at Vence in the south of France. Though Lawrence is best known for his novels—he’s the author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and nearly a dozen others—he also published short stories, plays, essays, criticism, and more than a dozen collections of poetry. Links:Read "Copperhead," "Foundation," and "Hurtling"Read "Humming-Bird"Denton LovingDenton Loving's website"Five Poems by Denton Loving" at Salvation South"Three Poems by Denton Loving" at Harvard Divinity Bulletin"Under the Chestnut Tree" at EcotoneVideo: WANA (Writers Association of Northern Appalachia) Live! Reading Series featuring Denton LovingReview of Tamp at Southern Review of BooksD.H. LawrenceBio, Poems, and Prose at The Poetry FoundationBio and Poems at Poetry.orgMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Anna Laura Reeve and William Shakespeare
Sep 28 2023
Anna Laura Reeve and William Shakespeare
Anna Laure Reeve was born and raised in Knoxville, and she earned a Master of Arts in Literature & Poetry Writing from the University of Tennessee. Her poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Jet Fuel Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and many others. She recently won Beloit Poetry Journal’s Adrienne Rich Award, and she was a finalist for the Heartwood Poetry Prize and the Ron Rash Award in Poetry. Her book Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility was recently published by Belle Point Press. She is an assistant editor of Juke Joint, a literary magazine based in Jackson, Mississippi.   William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, most likely in April of 1564. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children. Shakespeare made his living as an actor and playwright, and his works include 38 plays in addition to 154 sonnets and various other types of poetry. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.Links:Read an early version of "Tennessee Red Cobb" at Appalachia BareRead "Méniére's Disease" at The RacketRead "Look at Everything" and "Children of Asylum Seekers" at The RacketRead "That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)" at Poets.orgRead "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29)" at Poets.orgAnna Laura ReeveAnna Laura Reeve's website"Poets in Conversation: Anna Laura Reeve" at Beloit Poetry JournalTwo Poems from Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility by Anna Laura Reeve at ACM"Motherhood Unshorn: A Review of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility" at Literary MamaWilliam ShakespeareBio and poems at Poets.org"Shakespeare's Life" at Folger Shakespeare Library's siteThe Complete Works of William ShakespeareMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Pauletta Hansel and Edna St. Vincent Millay
Aug 29 2023
Pauletta Hansel and Edna St. Vincent Millay
Pauletta Hansel is the author of nine collections of poetry, including her latest book Heartbreak Tree. Her work has been featured in Oxford American, Rattle, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, among others. Hansel was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate, and she was the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine in 1892. Along with her many books of poetry, Millay published plays, a libretto called The King’s Henchman, and she wrote short stories for popular fiction magazines under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.Links:Read "I Take My Mother with Me Everywhere" and "After"Read "Postcard from Age 60" at Braided WayRead "Recuerdo" at The Poetry FoundationPauletta HanselPauletta Hansel's website"The Road" at Poetry Daily"The City" at Appalachian Review"May 1, 2020" in The Oxford American"Palindrome" at Still: The JournalVideo: "Meet our 2022 Writer-In-Residence" Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public LibraryEdna St. Vincent MillayBio and poems at The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.orgThe Millay Society's Audio ArchivesMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Gary Metras and Simon Perchik
Jul 31 2023
Gary Metras and Simon Perchik
Gary Metras is a retired high school English teacher and college writing instructor. His poems have appeared in America, The Common, Poetry, and many others. Metras has published eight books, including his latest called Vanishing Points. His book Marble Dust is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. Metras was the founder, editor, and letterpress printer of Adastra Press, a venture that for forty years specialized in limited editions of poetry chapbooks. In 2018, Metras was appointed the inaugural Poet Laureate of Easthampton, Massachusetts.  Simon Perchik's poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry, The New Yorker, and many others. He was born in 1923 in Paterson, New Jersey. During World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps, flew 35 missions overseas, and reached the rank of first lieutenant. Thanks to the GI Bill, Perchik attended New York University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree. He practiced law for 25 years before becoming an assistant DA for Suffolk County and its first environmental prosecutor. He was a prolific writer, and he published more than thirty books of poetry. A November 2000 issue of Library Journal called Simon Perchik “the most widely published unknown poet in America.” Perchik died on June 14, 2022, in New York City. Links:Read "The Engagement" and "Lint" at The Poetry Foundation Read "Another Winter"Read "3" and "482"Gary Metras"April 6, 2022" at One Art"Two Poems by Gary Metras" at Flyfishing and Tying Journal"Art Maker: Gary Metras, Poet" at Daily Hampshire Gazette"In Studio: Gary Metras" by Easthampton Media (via YouTube)Simon Perchik"Simon Perchik, Poet" in The Easthampton Star"Five Poems" at the Poetry FoundationPoems at Poetry NorthwestPoems at Plume"Two Untitled Poems" at The Inflectionist ReviewMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Sara Moore Wagner and H.D.
Jun 30 2023
Sara Moore Wagner and H.D.
Sara Moore Wagner is the winner of the 2021 Cider Press Review Editors Prize for her book Swan Wife and the 2020 Driftwood Press Manuscript Prize for Hillbilly Madonna. She has published two chapbooks, Tumbling After (Red Bird Chapbooks) and Hooked Through (Five Oaks Press). She won the 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award, and she was a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist. Her work has appeared in Sixth Finch, Beloit Poetry Journal, Waxwing, The Cincinnati Review, Nimrod, Rhino, and others. Wagner's book Lady Wingshot, based on the life of Annie Oakley, won the Blue Lynx Prize and is forthcoming in 2024. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) was born in 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and she grew up in Upper Darby near Philadelphia. She attended Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania. H.D. published numerous books, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, essays, and translations. The publication of her collected and selected poetry helped to establish her as a major poet of the 20th century. H.D.’s work is revered by countless writers and critics, and she’s often thought of as a poet's poet and one of the key figures of the Imagist movement. She died in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1961. Links:Read "Purity Test"Read "Captivity Narrative"Read "Legend Says"Read "Leda"Sara Moore WagnerSara Moore Wagner's website"Anti-Pastoral" at Sixth Finch"Passing It On" at Waxwing"Girl as a Deer Shedding the Velvet" at The Inflectionist Review"Embracing the Half-Wild Creature: A Conversation with Sara Moore Wagner" at The Rumpus "Sara Moore Wagner on 'Getting My Body Back'" at Poetry Society of AmericaH.D. Bio and poems at The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.org"H.D.: American Poet" in Britannica"Radical Freedom: Poets on the Life and Work of H.D." Live from the IceHouse Tonight (YouTube)Mentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.
Derek N. Otsuji and George Herbert
May 30 2023
Derek N. Otsuji and George Herbert
Derek N. Otsuji is the author of the book The Kitchen of Small Hours, which won the Crab Orchard Review Poetry Series Open Competition. He was also awarded the 2019 Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His poems have appeared in The Southern Poetry Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Threepenny Review, The Bennington Review, Harpur Palate, Missouri Review Online, and many others. He is an associate professor of English at Honolulu Community College.      George Herbert was born in 1593 in Montgomery Castle, Wales. He attended Westminster School and then Trinity College, Cambridge. He was ordained as a priest and became the rector at Bemerton. He died in 1633 of consumption at the age of forty. Links: Read "Among the More Innocent Touristic Amusements of the Old Waikiki"Read "Two Boys One Fish Two Eyes" in RhinoRead "Virtue" by George Herbert" at The Poetry FoundationDerek N. OtsujiDerek N. Otsuji's website"How She Loves Music" in Pleiades.Two Poems at Terrain.orgVideo: "Interview with Derek Otsuji, Author of The Kitchen of Small Hours""Theatre of Shadows" at The Poetry FoundationGeorge HerbertBio and poems at the The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.org"George Herbert: British Poet" in BritannicaVideo: George Herbert - a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priestMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
Lyn Hejinian: Four Poems from The Book of a Thousand Eyes
Mar 29 2023
Lyn Hejinian: Four Poems from The Book of a Thousand Eyes
In this episode, Lyn Hejinian reads four untitled poems from The Book of A Thousand Eyes.Lyn Hejinian is a poet, translator, editor, and scholar whose literary career has been long associated with Language writing. Hejinian is the author of over twenty-five volumes of poetry and critical prose, the most recent of which are Tribunal (Omnidawn Books, 2019), Positions of the Sun (Belladonna, 2019), and a revised edition of Oxota: A Short Russian Novel (Wesleyan University Press, 2019.) Fall Creek, her latest long poem, is forthcoming from Litmus Press. A book of critical essays titled Allegorical Moments: Call to the Everyday will  come out in Fall 2023 (Wesleyan University Press), and The Proposition, a critical edition of Hejinian’s uncollected early work, is forthcoming from the University of Edinburgh Press (spring 2024). She is the editor of Tuumba Press, the co-director (with Travis Ortiz) of Atelos, a literary project commissioning and publishing cross-genre work by poets, and co-editor (with Jane Gregory and Claire Marie Stancek) of Nion Editions, a chapbook press. She lives in Berkeley, California.(Photo by Doug Hall)Links:Read four poems from The Book of a Thousand EyesBrief Interview and more at Omnidawn Press Bio and poems at Poets.orgBio and poems at the Poetry FoundationReadings, Talks, Q&As, and Lectures at PennSoundHejinian's books reviewed by Publishers WeeklyMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser