rachelspoetrycorner

[rachelspoetrycorner]

For the Sake of Strangers (1994) Dorianne Laux

In Episode 379, Rachel shares her favourite donut-holer!

Rachel: Laux says, "As I get older, I become more and more sure that I know absolutely nothing. I thought I knew about love, about death, about motherhood, men. I know nothing. I can only guess how much less I'll know 10 years from now. But I do know my backyard, my street, the way light bounces off a car windshield in summer, how frost glazes the roses when they are fooled into buds in February. I don't know who we humans are, or why we're here, or where we're going, but I want to.

I think those eternal questions continue to be asked in spite of their mystery, because of their mystery. I explore those questions by looking deeply into the things I do know, the visible, touchable world. So often young poets try to speak to those mysteries directly, and unless they happen to be Rilke, they more often fail." [...]

"It seems to me that the world is a pathway, a conduit to the invisible, the unknowable, and helps us translate what we feel through the bodies we touch and that touch us." I feel like that was such a good reminder, because I—

Griffin: I do also love how she referred to the leaves as being glazed with dew, which made me think that she's still got a lot of that donut DNA kind of kicking around in there. 

Rachel: [chuckles] "How frost glazes the roses when they are fooled into buds in February."

Griffin: Yeah. I mean, that's great stuff, but I know where your head was at, and it was back in the donut mines.

I don't think I'm capable of adding anything new or interesting to say, so I'd like to simply shout out Griffin's short "poem" about Cherries that he lets Rachel read at the beginning of the episode. If you know, you know. If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Alterante Suite of Etiquette Expectations, from 7:50 - 17:10

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Fledgling (2017) by Traci Brimhall

In Episode 372, Rachel shares her favourite fledgling poet!

Rachel: She [Traci] gave an interview on 32poems.com. And she said, quote, "A great poem makes me feel less alone in the world, but it also pushes around the boxes in the attic and moves in, whether you like it or not." I also like Emily Dickinson's definition of how she defines poetry, "It makes my whole body so cold, no fire can ever warm me. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know it's poetry."

Griffin: Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ indeed! So -full disclosure here- I had to search the meaning of "fledgling" cause I sort of knew what it meant but I also kind of didn't. I know, I'm still growing. And that's what I love about this poem, what it has to say about growth, and also the enormity of even the smallest of things.

If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Spirit of the Fans is the Real Fifth Character, from 18:38 - 25:48

[rachelspoetrycorner]

The Thing Is (2002) & Lost Dog (2007) by Ellen Bass

In Episode 367, Rachel shares two poems that begin in a pretty dark place but don't end the way you think!

Rachel: There is an interview with her in The Adroit Journal, and they ask her about how you take specific memories and turn them into larger themes. And she says, “That's what I´m hoping will happen when I write a poem, and what I try to be alert to: that moment when the poem starts to veer towards something I didn´t anticipate, didn´t know before I started writing. Many times, the poem doesn´t open up, or I´m too dense to hear what it might be offering me, but sometimes I´m able to catch it.”

The only thing I'll add is the fact that (Rachel mentions) Ellen Bass used to live over her family's liquor store. That's a poem in itself, babey! If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Gun-Poppin' Think Pad Stretch, from 20:00 - 29:25

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Backwards (2014) by Warsan Shire

In Episode 348, Rachel shares an air-shifting poem!

Rachel: Warsan is a poet that was born to Somali parents in Kenya, and grew up in London. [...] I read this 2022 interview in Vogue where she said, “Long before (Beyonce's) Lemonade project, I had begun to feel really terrified about posting anything online. It had gone from my having a few hundred followers on Tumblr to suddenly having thousands. After a while I just felt like, 'Who am I? What am I doing here? Is there any intention behind what I'm posting? I'm a writer, yes, but why do I have to share my every other thought with the internet?' So I thought about the authors that I truly respected and how I discovered them. I mean, I found Toni Morrison in a library and she changed my life forever. She never had to post a selfie to remind me that she existed.” [chuckles]

This is the first poem that made me freeze completely, as if time itself had suddenly stopped. It felt like what Shire was proposing was actually about to come true. Just thinking about this poem gives me goosebumps. If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here:

Jeff the Dragon from Poetry School, from 18:50 - 33:15

[rachelspoetrycorner]

The Average Mother & There are these moments of permission (2017) by Camille Dungy

In Episode 344, Rachel shares two poems about the struggles and wonders of parenthood!

Rachel: There's this great interview she gave, and this is from 2021. By Amanda Jaros, a conversation with Camille T. Dungy. She talks about how she wrote a lot about her daughter (Callie) when she was young. And you know, and does she still do that, and is that something that's still interesting to her? And she said, quote, "I joke sometimes that four is around the age when children stop being sentient luggage."

Griffin: [chuckles]

Camille Dungy focuses mostly on writing about the environment; both her latest book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden (2023) and the collection from which Rachel read, Trophic Cascade (2017), are testaments to that. If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Sentient Luggage, from 16:19 - 26:30

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Sanity (2020) and Stick Parent (2024) by Caroline Bird

In Episode 339, Rachel shares two poems surrounding motherhood and childhood!

Rachel: [...] there's a lot for me to like kind of explore in that poem. Of like —because there's also for me, when she talks about those opportunities that she had to like put her ear to something magical and nothing happened. It like speaks to this kind of like —for me, it creates kind of like an anxiousness. [...] Like things don't make sense. Like things aren't happening —like I'm not getting any feedback. And then to have this lack of mystery in some ways is like, oh— Griffin: Kind of great. Rachel: It's gotten easier, I'm not as scared.

Instead of writing some of my thoughts, I'm gonna share the quote that Rachel reads about Bird's latest book: 'So this is like hot off the presses. It is a collection about quote, "Marriage, lesbian parenthood, addiction and recovery in which a recurring dream is playing out. A world where mums impale themselves on pogo-sticks, serial killers rattle around in basements, baby monitors are haunted by someone else's baby and, through it all, love stays and stays like a stationary rollercoaster that turns out to be the scariest, most thrilling ride in the amusement park."'

If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: A Meditative Grappling, from 7:15 - 12:56

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Domestic (1995) by Carl Phillips

In Episode 330, Rachel shares during a live show her favourite Washington University poet!

Rachel: [Carl Phillips] gave an interview in studentlife.com, and said “In the early days of writing poems, the story that was unbearable was my queerness, and my poems knew that, even if I didn't at the time. Closing each poem, I realize now that I was constructing a world within which, and a language with which, a crucial part of myself could find a voice and make space for itself.”

Just like Griffin, I was so amazed by the fact that this poem uses -and I quote- "poop as a framing device". It just speaks to the truly ridiculous and unfathomable power of poetry. If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: More of Our Favorite St Louis Stuff, Live! , from 26:45 - 31:53

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Ode to the White-Line-Swallowing Horizon (2016) by Jamaal May

In Episode 322, Rachel brings a poet to commemorate National Poetry Month (April)! 

Rachel: Jamaal said in an interview: "I've been thinking a lot about poetry being pretty much the only art form in which the practitioners are regularly called upon to explain if and how their art will solve society's ills. I've never seen an interview with Jack White that asks him how his guitar solo will cure cancer and stave off the zombie apocalypse. I once worried about the fairness of this paradigm, but I'm starting to see it as a show of respect that people keep wondering how poetry will change the world seems to start with the implicit assumption that it could.

Art via poetry, music, sculpture, puppetry, the whole of it inspires change on a personal level rather than a global one. This is important because the individual is the whole; the creation of art argues that people are connected, ideas are connected, the past and future are connected by this moment."

Griffin: Fuck yeah!  That's so good. I think I like that -the poem was great- I think I like that shit better than the poem even.

If you’d like to hear more about May's introduction and relationship with poetry, you can do so here: Unbuttoned to the Max, from 5:33 - 13:50

[rachelspoetrycorner]

The Two-Headed Calf (1977) and The Bath (1984) by Laura Gilpin

In Episode 318, Rachel brings shares two poems by a caregiving poet!

Rachel: The Chicago Review described her as a confessional poet, but said, “without the frantic stripping of the soul that often constitutes confessional poetry.”

Griffin: That’s—Oh, that’s a fun distinction.

Rachel: They went on to say that though her poetry is plain and self-conscious and elegant, the endings leave the reader feeling “that there is more to be said, some conclusion to be drawn, some emotion to be underlined.” Which I think is a very like apt description of her poetry.

Shout out to the titles of Laura Gilpin's poetry books; The Hocus Pocus of the Universe, and The Weight of A Soul (printed posthumously). If you’d like to hear more about this wonderful poet, you can do so here: You Could Do a Choo-Choo, from 8:33 - 21:14

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Honorable mention! Huracán Sterrato: Beyond the Concrete (2022)

In Episode 255, Griffin shocked and delighted everyone with his unique poetry rec, which is —you guessed it— a Lamborghini commercial.

Griffin: The agency that wrote the ad is called DDB Group Italy is all about creating, quote, "unexpected works." This is from their mission statement. "It means that the best idea is the one you never see coming. The thing that catches you so off guard you can look away. Creativity is having the fresh perspective and raw energy to bring something into the world that no one's ever seen before. We're talking about the courage to shake things up and maybe even change them."

Rachel: [giggling] "The courage."

Griffin: I mean, in that sense, mission fucking accomplished, guys. Like, you crushed it on this one. [...] I'm imagining Don Draper standing in front of a small television and showing a room full of execs every other car commercial and being like, "What's wrong with all of these? That's right. Their coherence."

Rachel: [laughs]

Griffin: And then they make this incredible poem. Well, thank you for coming to my poetry corner. I know it's dusty and dirty. There's empty Fritos bags all over the place. 

Rachel: We'll see you again in three years.

What kind of blog would this be if it didn't include this unforgettable recommendation? A bad one. If you'd like to hear Griffin's entire segment on this dirty, dusty and wild piece of art, you can do so here: DAMN! I Feel Like a Frasier, from 8:20 - 19:30.

[rachelspoetrycorner]

All-American (2016) by David Hernandez

In Episode 315, Rachel brings an all-american poem!

Rachel: David Hernandez said, “My poems are partially autobiographical. To put a percentage on it, 57.4%.”

Griffin: [laughs]

Rachel: “Honestly, it depends from poem to poem. Some are more informed by events in my life, while others are less so. Here’s the thing. When I’m writing a poem, that’s based on an experience from memory, I don’t feel beholden to the facts. That’s the job of journalists. I’m more concerned about conveying an emotional truth, with making art through language. If the poem’s telling me ‘Look, I know you had bananas this morning in your cereal, but blueberries is sonically more interesting’, I’m going with blueberries.” [giggles]

If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Popcorn Plausible Deniability, from 20:24 - 29:04

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Survivor Guilt (2014) by Ron Padgett

In Episode 310, Rachel shares a poem guilty of being simply too good!

Rachel: The poet James Tate wrote: “Ron Padgett's poems sing with absolutely true pitch, and they are human-friendly. Their search for truths both small and large can be cause for laughter or at least a thoughtful sigh.” Which is exactly the kind of poet that I'm looking typically to bring to Wonderful. You know. Uh, a poet from a human.

Griffin: You did bring that dog poet one time—

Rachel: [laughs]

Griffin: —which I thought was... interesting?

Rachel: Bark... bark, bark, bark. Bark.

Griffin: I carry it in my bark.

I was gonna add a personal comment as usual, until I found this quote by Ron Padgett, that seems to have been made almost specifically for Rachel and Griffin: “Survivor Guilt is not about feeling bad about watching Survivor (the T.V. show). It’s about fickleness (a word we don’t hear much anymore). Plus ��a change…”

If you'd like to hear about Ron directly soliciting poems from well-known authors to publish in his literary magazine and succeeding to do so all while still being in highschool, you can do so here: Body Burn, from 5:23 - 12:43

[rachelspoetrycorner]

The Answer & Summertime (2019) by Carrie Fountain

In Episode 300, Rachel shares two poems by Carrie Fountain!

Rachel: She said "The way I think about motherhood poems now is that it's not writing about children. It's writing about the self, and children enter the poem. I hope it's not reductive to say children in poems are employed for metaphorical purpose, but I think you use what you experience with them, those bits of life, the true life, and then shape it to create an image to observe yourself."

The way I had to physically restrain myself from highlighting the entirety of Summertime should be studied by psychonalists or fellow mommy-issues dwellers. If you’d like to hear more about the author and her process, you can do so here: Exponentially Increased Clenching, from 25:54 - 36:44

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Hi Rachel! My wife and I are fans of yours (as well as Griffin&co.), and I have been meaning to reach out to ask if you have read poems by Carolina Ebeid? If not, she's a lovely & brilliant person, which resonates into her poetry. She is of Palestinian & Cuban descent and she also lived in TX & MO. Highly recommended! Also, unrelated, but I just learned that you & I got the same undergrad degree. There's a good chance you might have landed in one of my dad's poetry/lit classes. Small world! :P

Hii, I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding! Rachel McElroy doesn't run this blog sadly :( It's just a fan blog I began last year as a way to chronicle all the poems Rachel brings to the podcast! But even though I'm not Rachel (omg I WISH) I'm super thankful for your recommendation, and I'll definetly check her out, she sounds amazing :D That's crazy about your dad's classes! It truly is such a small (and wonderful) world <3 Wish you the best!

[rachelspoetrycorner]

The Patience of Ordinary Things (2005) by Pat Schneider

In Episode 293, Rachel shares a patient and spectacularly ordinary poem!

Rachel: [...] And I think she really became aware of the challenges of... What she called “traditionally silenced populations.” So she founded Amhurst Artists and Writers, which was a non-profit that focused on low-income women and children. Sponsoring writers workshops and retreats. Because I think, and I read an interview with her where she talked about the fact that just even putting content on a page is a barrier in itself.

Rachel mentions that this poem reminds her of a previous rec she'd brought to the Corner, and that is Naomi Shihab Nye's Famous. Both the similarities and the differences between them are fascinating; this idea of an assigned purpose that objects/things are destined to follow, and they do (they commit to the bit)!

If you’d like to hear more, you can do so here: Towels Drink the Wet from the Skin of the Back, from 3:30 - 11:48

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Unrequited Love Song for the Panopticon (2020) by Franny Choi

In Episode 291, Rachel shares a panoptical poem!

Rachel: Anyway, she writes a lot about tech. Her first book of poetry was called Soft Science, it came out in 2019. She said the book came out of writing a series of poems that were inspired by and in the voice of a character from the film Ex Machina, Kyoko.

Griffin: Oh, cool!

Rachel: "When I watched that film, I had a particular combination of emotional responses that provoked a desire to write, a mix of love, confusion, and outrage. I started writing to try and understand what I was feeling about her and quickly realized that the poems are speaking to other poems about my own experience as an Asian-American woman, as a queer Asian-American woman, about moving through the world in a body that had been made an object of desire, fantasy, and power, living as a soft, fleshy, objectified human of the world."

This is one of the few poems that make me feel electrified after reading it -as if, when I touched the page, I got quickly shocked by the static it possesses. If you’d like to hear more about Choi's writing and work, you can do so here: Porous as a Spreadsheet, from 5:45 - 16:04

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Poem for the Women Who Help You Go to the Bathroom Hours After You’ve Given Birth and In the Field of the Dead (2022) by Luisa Muradyan

In Episode 285, Rachel shares two poems that are (maybe not so) funny!

Rachel: When she started writing, she thought she was just going to do just kind of funny poems. And so she turned in all these poems that she thought was funny to her writing mentor, and her mentor said “Well these poems are actually incredibly sad.” [laughs]

Griffin: [laughs]

Rachel: She said “It took someone else to read these poems and say ‘these poems are incredibly sad’ for me to really see how much the humor was operating as a vehicle for sadness.”

I think Luisa takes the cake for Most Relatable Poet, cause she's just like me for real. If you’d like to hear about her life experience, you can do so here: A Sad Jerry Seinfeld, from 6:29 - 15:10