A Cup of Poetry

In honor of Columbus Day, we look at poems from the century he set out for new shores from four colonial powers. While 15th century Renaissance writers have been somewhat outshone by their 16th century counterparts, these poets demonstrate a rich grasp on man's inner life and dedicated to celebrating that life while the world around them grasped riches. We've suggested some titles where you can embark on your own exploration of Renaissance Literature. Today's poems come from www.poets.org and www.webexhibits.org/poetry.

It's fall, a season in which the cold winds of change bring as much poetic inspiration as the warm days of summer. The weather is unpredictable from one day to the next. Three poets give voice the bluster and rain and gray that each descend in turn.

As we bid goodbye to summer, Jill Newman reads a favorite poem by John Masefield that encapsulates what we'll be feeling in the months to come.

Carrie Fountain speaks about her debut collection Burn Lake, a book in which focused self-awareness burnishes her observations of her childhood and adolesence in New Mexico. Fountain's poetry attempts to recapture the infinite hope and inescapable loss that accompany growing up, a time before "the unseen, unwished for present" got in the way.

Terrence Hayes's most recent collection, Lighthead, has been called "genius at work" by Yousef Komunyakaa. With one foot firmly grounded in the everyday and the other hovering in the air, Hayes braids dream and reality into poetry that is both dark and buoyant. Here, he discusses three poems from Lighthead that depict the mind rendered lightheaded by gravity and time, the true self attempting to surface through the weight of culture and ancestry.

An exploration of the beloved poem by Lewis Carroll—both baffling and beloved, its fascination hasn't diminished a bit over time.

April is one of our favorite months of the year, for two very important reasons: it brings both National Poetry Month and spring to New York! This episode celebrates both events with selections from some of our favorite New York poets. Walt Whitman, Dorothy Parker, and John Ashbery capture the spirit of a city that has been inspiring artists for generations. Music and poetry share many commonalities.

Music and poetry share many commonalities. Most prevalent is the ability of both art forms to cut through outer layers of experience and touch the very soul of the listener or reader. Both music and poetry awaken our senses, renew our passions, enlighten us and help us encapsulate feelings from the most mundane to the ethereal.

If great poems were gold coins, this episode of A Cup of Poetry would be hidden in a pot at the end of the rainbow, surrounded by gloriously green shamrocks! With an introduction to the Irish Literary Renaissance written by Clinton Wilson, this episode features the classic Irish poets Yeats, Wilde, Joyce and Lear.

Great poems and poets can move you to tears, or make you laugh out loud. Listen to four of the most popular episodes from the archives of A Cup of Poetry and connect (or reconnect) with Penguin's wonderful poets and readers. Elda Rotor reads "Mannahatta" by Walt Whitman, Christina Castro reads "The Morning is Full" by Pablo Neruda in both English and Spanish, Sarah Christensen Fu reads "Cheer Up, Cheer Up" by Don Marquis, Tom Roberge reads "The Clod and the Pebble" by William Blake, and Jeff Gomez reads "The Duck and the Kangaroo" by Edward Lear.

Throughout history and all over the world, young men and women have been seduced by poets' verses. In this episode, Clinton Wilson reads the poet Rumi, Lauren Lickus reads Pablo Neruda, Elda Rotor reads John Keats, Nicole Erazo reads Dorothy Parker, and Beena Kamlani reflects on the traditions of love poetry in different global cultures.

This show features four poets' reflections on childhood, and explores nostalgia and hindsight. Steven Meltzer reads "Disobedience" by A.A. Milne, Clinton Wilson reads "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe, Matt Boyd reads "Birches" by Robert Frost, and Sarah Christensen Fu reads "When I Was One-and-Twenty" by A.E. Housman.

Great American poet Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry in his lifetime for his body of accessible, realistic work which often referenced scenes of the rural northeast. Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening is among his most famous poems.

"Lies" is a sharp and commanding poem written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the great Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, actor, editor, and director.

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1971. In accepting the award, he said that the poet must achieve a balance "between solitude and solidarity, between feeling and action, between intimacy of mankind and the revelation of nature." When Neruda's most popular work, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation.