MPR has had a keen ear for capturing the words and meter of poetry. Minnesota is home to many nationally renowned poets, city and state poet laureates, spoken word artists, and individuals young and old that have simply created work for the sake of the form. The state is also a magnet for poets all throughout the world. Here is a wonderful breadth of those readings, speeches, thoughts, and histories of the poet.
October 26, 1995 - MPR’s John Rabe interviews Eugene McCarthy topics of national budget and on his political poetry, including one Lyndon Johnson.
November 4, 1995 - Poet Amy Nash comments on her definition of poetry. Nash also reads numerous short pieces of her work.
November 16, 1995 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder talks with beat poet and essayist Gary Snyder about imagination, the natural world, and his book “A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds.”
December 14, 1995 - An interview with Minneosta poet Robert Bly about his book “Soul Poems.” Bly reads various poets from book collection.
February 29, 1996 - MPR's Marianne Combs speaks with musician Georgia Ann Hunter, painter Patricia Canelake, and poet Louis Jenkins, as they gathered with other artists at the Lake Superior Center in Duluth to share their work and talk about how the lake has influenced their art.
March 6, 1996 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson presents profile of North Dakota Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode. Report includes interview with poet, who discusses faith.
March 15, 1996 - MPR’s John Rabe interviews Irish poet Ethna McKiernan about subjects of the ordinary world in poetry. McKiernan also performs reading of her work.
March 20, 1996 - MPR’s John Rabe presents the Second Annual Minnesota Public Radio Snowman Burning. Program celebrates winter’s demise and the coming of spring with poetry from listeners, music from the Cafe Accordion Orchestra, weather with Mark Seeley, ritual tales from Brandi Parisi, the humor of Kevin Kling, and the ritual burning of an eight foot snowman with color commentary from MPR’s Dan Olson.
April 13, 1996 - Award-winning poet C.K. Williams reads his poem titled “Love Beginnings.”
April 13, 1996 - For poetry month, MPR’s Great Cunningham talks with poet C.K. Williams about his experience with poetry.