The poet Percy Shelly once wrote "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Often poetry is able to say what prose cannot. We've been seeking poets and poetry to provide fresh insights for our programs. We're collecting the results of those efforts here, whether they're from our programs, blogs, or special features.
June 25, 2009
Revealing Ramadan
Poetry was Adnan Onart's response to our invitation for expressions of Muslim identity. He first submitted "Morning Prayer" — which he wrote as he was coming out of a deep depression. Read that poem, along with three others, and listen to Onart reciting his words.
» "Ramadan in Dunkin Donuts"
» "Morning Prayer"
» "Ribbon Time: The Moment"
» "Al-Mir'aj"
May 7, 2009
Fragility and the Evolution of Our Humanity: A Geophysi-
cist's View
Xavier Le Pichon describes how his mother taught him a version of this lovely Sully Prudhomme poem. Read our commissioned English translation, and listen to a Québécois poet to recite the poem in French and English.
» "Le Vase Brisé / The Broken Vase"
June 25, 2009
Repossessing Virtue: Living Differently, Beyond Economic Crisis
One of the voices in this program mentioned this Wendell Berry poem as one of her favorites. Listen to Krista recitation and read the text.
» "The Peace of Wild Things"
April 16, 2009
Opening to Our Lives — Jon Kabat-Zinn's Science of Mindfulness
hear Derek Walcott's poem recited by Kabat-Zinn, who said that a prose statement was "bound to be inadequate" in communicating his point. Download the poem and read along.
» "Love after Love"
March 26, 2009
Alzheimer's, Memory, and Being
includes two poems by Sean Nevin, who has led writing groups with Alzheimer's patients and lived through his own grandfather's struggle with this disease.
» "Oblivio Gate"
» "Self-Portraits from the Widow House"
March 19, 2009
Laying the Dead to Rest
features Argentine poet Alicia Partnoy reciting her verse and a poem by Chilean poet Marjorie Agosin — in English and Spanish.
» "Survivor"
» "Testimony"
» "Epitaph"
» "A Homespun Love"
» "How many times …"
February 28, 2008
The Inner Landscape of Beauty
dedicates a special hour to the late Irish poet, John O'Donohue.
December 13, 2007
The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi
presents the texts and readings of the Sufi mystic's poems in Persian and in English, with male and female voices.
February 26, 2009
The Soul in Depression
features poetry for reflection, help, and healing from Rainer Marie Rilke, Anita Barrows, Jane Kenyon, and the Book of Psalms.
January 8, 2009
A History of Doubt
includes the poetry of guest Jennifer Michael Hecht.
March 19, 2009
» Children of the Disappeared
[video, 4:59]
The legacy of Argentina's Dirty War lives on in the children of those who disappeared. We pair their portraits with the poetry of Alicia Partnoy, a survivor from that time and place.
February 28, 2008
» "Beannacht"
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