A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

POETRY INSTEAD

Program 08-11-09-A

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Plato argued that poets would be banished from the ideal republic. He said poets are only good for promoting petty emotions, such as anger and lust and love. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, poetry. We'll talk with four-time Slam Poet champion Patricia Smith about how powerful words are when spoken out loud. And, a man many regard as the greatest writer in the English language, Australian poet Les Murray.

SEGMENT 1:

Patricia Smith is an African American who's the four-time champion of the National Poetry Slam. Her book "Blood Dazzler" was nominated for the 2008 National Book Award. She talks about her work with Steve Paulson and performs several poems.

***Language Advisory***

Smith uses provocative language and imagery and often writes poetry from the point of view of another persona. In this piece, her use of profanity has been electronically covered, but there are still instances of potentially sensitive language - generally racial slurs.

SEGMENT 2:

Jay Parini teaches poetry at Middlebury College, and is the author of "Why Poetry Matters." He talks with Jim Fleming about the power of poetry and how it especially empowers young people in troubled times. Also, Gioia Timpanelli uses her poetic sensibility to write prose novels. She talks with Anne Strainchamps about the two kinds of writing, and her story "What Makes a Child Lucky." And we hear selections from the story.

SEGMENT 3:

Australian Les Murray is considered by many literary critics to be the greatest living poet in English today. He rarely gives interviews, but spoke with Steve Paulson and read several of his poems. His latest book of poetry is called "The Bi-Plane Houses.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-11-09-A.

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Books & CDs:

Jay Parini Why Poetry Matters (Yale Press)
Les Murray The Biplane Houses (FSG Books)
Patricia Smith Blood Dazzler (Coffeehouse Press)
Patricia Smith Teahouse of the Almighty. (Coffeehouse Press)
Gioia Timpanell. What Makes a Child Lucky. (Norton)
Gioia Timpanelli Sometimes the Soul (Vintage Books)

Websites:

• The most complete and amazing website for poetry comes from the Poetry Foundation. Search engines, audio, and more…

  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

• The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor has a great search engine and you can stream the audio of Garrison reading any poem you find. You can also sign up for a poem of the day:

  http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
  

Music:

• All music from today’s show was from American composer Harry Partch from his album “The Instruments of Harry Partch ” (conducted by Danlee Mitchell on Columbia Masterworks).

  To hear more of his work, or to read more about the life of Harry Partch:

  http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html

  To see some of Partch’s many instruments:

  http://www.corporeal.com/instbro/inst01.html

Distribution dates: week of 09/09/2009 - hour 1 week of 11/09/2008 - hour 1 click HERE for timings and cues

Listen!

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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