Tagged: Poetry

Happy New Year, folks. On this "best of" edition of our show, we're listening back to an engaging chat from October, when we spoke with the noted poet, musician, and storyteller Joy Harjo.

On this installment of ST, we're pleased to welcome Joy Harjo, the prolific and widely acclaimed poet, musician, and author. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She's won a great many awards and accolades for her writing over the years, and has recorded five CDs thus far in her thriving musical career.

(Note: This program originally aired back in April.) We speak by phone with the noted performance poet, former middle-school teacher, and current teachers' advocate Taylor Mali. His new book --- "What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World" --- is based on a poem that he wrote several years ago, a spirited and encouraging defense of the teaching profession that has, by now, been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and elsewhere.

On this edition of ST, guest host Scott Gregory speaks with the widely acclaimed American poet, John Brehm, who grew up in Nebraska, lived for many years in New York City (and then Colorado), and is now based in Portland, Oregon. Brehm has just published his second book of poems, "Help Is On the Way," which won the 2012 Four Lakes Prize in Poetry; his first poetry collection, "Sea of Faith," won the 2004 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

On today's show, we speak by phone with the noted performance poet, former middle-school teacher, and current teachers' advocate Taylor Mali. His new book --- "What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World" --- is based on a poem that he wrote several years ago, a spirited and encouraging defense of the teaching profession that has, by now, been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and elsewhere. It's a poem that gave heart to an entire movement --- and in this book we get the story of what drove Mali to compose that poem in the first place.