The group gathers in the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss June Jordan's "Financial Planning" and "Song of the Law Abiding Citizen."Herman Beavers, Bob Holman, Christy Davids, Al Filreis

The group gathers in the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Horace Gregory's "Chorus for Survival" nos. 5 and 11.Jon Hoel, Christos Kalli, Henry Steinberg, Al Filreis

The group gathers in the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two versions of Callie Gardener's "Culture Warrior."Julia Bloch, Laynie Browne, Iain Morrison, Al Filreis

The group gathers in the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss a six-page section from Harryette Mullen's Open Leaves, called "Chasing Dirt."Laynie Browne, Harryette Mullen, Simone White, Al Filreis

The group gathers in the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems from Trish Salah's Lyric Sexology Volume 1.Kay Gabriel, Syd Zolf, Levi Bentley, Al Filreis

The group gathers in the Writers House's Arts Cafe for a special live taping to discuss two poems by Evie Shockley.Aldon Nielsen, William Joe Harris, Tyrone Williams, Evie Shockley, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems by Edward Denby: "Subway" and "Ciampino envoi."Vincent Katz, Thomas Devaney, JS Wu, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss three poems from Larry Price's 1/0.Larry Price, William Fuller, Sophia DuRose, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss four of Marjorie Welish's "Textiles."Michelle Taransky, Christy Davids, Sally Van Doren, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Hart Crane's "The Harbor Dawn," as performed by Tennessee Williams.Jonathan Dick, Gabi Ojeda-Sagué, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss "The Austrian Maiden" and "Joe Brainard's Painting Bingo" by Richard Padgett.James Berger, Richard Deming, Sophia DuRose, Al Filreis

The PoemTalk team travels to Scotland for a discussion at the Fruitmarket Arts Center in Edinburgh on two poems by Veronica Forrest-Thomson.Iain Morrison, Anthony Capildeo, Laynie Brown, Lee Ann Brown, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Ariana Raines's "To the Reader," from A Sand Book (Tin House, 2019).Michelle Taransky, Eric Shoemaker, Pattie McCarthy, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems by Owen Dodson: "For Billie Holiday" and "Sorrow Is The Only Faithful One."Herman Beavers, Tracie Morris, Amber Rose Johnson, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two Kenward Elmslie pieces, "Core Bonus" and "One Night Stand."Henry Steinberg, Simone White, Wayne Koestenbaum, Al Filreis

The group gathers for a live session in the Kelly Writers House's Arts Cafe to discuss the eponymous piece from Aldon Nielson's book Tray (Make Now Press, 2017).William Joe Harris, Aldon Nielsen, Tyrone Williams, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Gregory Corso's 1969 performance of "Vision of Rotterdam."Rita Barnard, J.C. Cloutier, M.C. Kinneburgh, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Ted Pearson's 1987 book-length poem, Catenary Odes.Rachel Blau DuPlessis, William Fuller, Bruce Andrews, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two "Love Poems" by Mina Loy, from a recording and interview with Paul Blackburn and Robert Von Dias in 1965.Laynie Browne, Maya Pindyck, Hoa Nguyen, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss a version of Tina Darragh's "Wire Boxes" performed at the Line Reading Series in New York in February of 2001.Joan Retallack, Simone White, erica kaufman, Al Filreis

The team hits the road and lands in Los Angeles at the home of Marjorie Perloff, where the group gathers to discuss two well-known poems by Frank O'Hara: "Poem" or "Lana Turner Has Collapsed!" and "Song (Is it Dirty)."Marjorie Perloff, Charles Altieri Robert von Hallberg, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss John Giorno's 1977 poem, "Everyone is a complete disappointment."Michelle Taransky, Brooke O'Harra, Christopher Funkhouser, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss an excerpt from Dodie Bellamy's Vomit Journal.Henry Steinberg, Chantine Akiyama Poh, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems from Douglas Kearney's SHO (Wave Books, 2021): "Welter" and "Static."Divya Victor, Whitney Trettien, Dagmawi Woubshet, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House to discuss Hoa Nguyen's "Long Light," collected in Red Juice: Poems, 1998-2008 (Wave Books, 2014).Bethany Swann, Jonathan Dick, Kate Colby, Al Filreis

The group travels to the Poetry Foundation in Chicago to discuss seven short poems from Lisa Fishman's Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition (Wave Books, 2020).Lisa Fishman, Gabriel Ojeda-Sague, Laynie Browne, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems by Armand Schwarner: "Tablet XXV" and "'daddy, can you staple these two stars together to make an airplane?'"Charles Bernstein, Pierre Joris, Jerome Rothenberg, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss Matvei Yankelevich's book of poems (or book-length poem), Dead Winter (Fonograph, 2022).Ahmad Almallah, Huda Fakhreddine, Kevin Platt, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio to discuss two poems by Maggie O'Sullivan, "To our Own Day" and "Hill Figures," from In the House of the Shaman (Reality Street, 1993).Julia Bloch, Charles Bernstein, Eric Falci, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Writers House's Wexler Studio for a fresh take on John Ashbery's iconic "Some Trees."Abdulhamit Arvas, Dagmawi Woubshet, Carlos Decena, Al Filreis

The group travels to Bard College in the Hudson Valley to discuss the two opening paragraph's from Joan Retallack's essay "The Poethical Wager."Joan Retallack, Laynie Browne, erica kaufman, Al Filreis

The group gathers at the Kelly Writers House to discuss four poems from Sawako Nakayasu's Some Girls Walk into the Country They Are From (Wave Books, 2020).Bethany Swann, Henry Steinberg, Caroline Bergvall, Al Filreis

In this episode, the group gathers to discuss a selection of poems from Divya Victor's book Curb (Nightboat Books, 2021): three poems from the titular "Curb" series in the middle of the book ("Curb" 3, 4, and 5) and another poem, "Frequency (Alka’s Testimony)."Timothy Yu, Josephine Nock-Hee Park, Piyali Bhattacharya, Al Filreis

In this episode, we talk about two prose poems in Harryette Mullen’s collection Sleeping with the Dictionary, published by California in 2002. The poems are “Dim Lady” and the title poem, “Sleeping with the Dictionary.”Maxe Crandall, Larissa Lai, Julia Bloch, Al Filreis

In this episode, our discussion takes us to the great Ostashevskyan topics — knowledge otherwise somehow alienated; language that embodies or transliterates a kind of violence; the (sound) differences between knowing and saying no (and similarities); his sincere (and doubtless Russian Absurdist-influenced) plea to “teach us love / teach us love / t…

In this episode, the group discusses three poems from Diane di Prima's 'Revolutionary Letters' project: #16 (“We are eating up the planet”), #19 (“If what you want is jobs”), and #27 (“How much can we afford to lose before we win”). The project’s goals and modes of address shifted over time. Any single letter-poem, read separately from the others, …

Al Filreis convenes Charles Bernstein, Anthony Elms, and Laynie Browne to talk about two poems by George Quasha. The book, published by Spuyten Duyvil in 2020, titled Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole, consists of eight gatherings of preverbs; our two poems, coming from the final section — which bears the name of the book — are “self fast” (number…

Today we are releasing episode #168 of PoemTalk, in which Amber Rose Johnson, Daniel Bergmann, and Yolanda Wisher meet up at the Kelly Writers House to talk with Al Filreis about Jayne Cortez's "She Got He Got". This poem/performance piece is comprised of a “She” half and an “He” half, she giving variations of hot, while he instantiates variations …

Today we are releasing episode #167 of PoemTalk, in which Jack Giesking, Jonathan Dick, and erica kaufman meet up at the Kelly Writers House to talk with Al Filreis about Myung Mi Kim's "And Sing We" from Under Flag.Jack Giesking, Jonathan Dick, erica kaufman, Al Filreis

Today's episode dives into Cecilia Vicuña's 'Colliding and not colliding at the same time'. The performance begins as the audience, having been encouraged to ask questions about an art video that had just been screened, went momentarily silent. No questions were being asked, so Vicuña began improvisationally to fill the room with words and sounds, …

Today, we talk about a poem by Stephen Collis that appeared in his book, A History of the Theories of Rain, published by Talonbooks in Vancouver in 2021. The poem is titled “Yes I Do Want to Punch” — and perhaps should be called “Yes I Do Want to Punch / fascists in the face,” proceeding to its key first line. The eco-poetic turn — an urgent one, a…

This episode discusses a three-page section of Leslie Scalapino’s “‘Can’t’ is ‘Night’” — the passage having been chosen by the poet for It’s Go in Horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974-2006. Close listening and close reading: surely some manner of these, both, are required by every Leslie Scalapino work. The PoemTalk group sought to respect this in the …

This episode features a poem by Daphne Marlatt called “Steveston, B.C.” We were joined by Davy Knittle, Jane Robbins Mize, and Karis Shearer. The poem is in a sense — although not quite exactly — the title poem in a much-admired book published in 1974.Davy Knittle, Jane Robbins Mize, Karis Shearer, Al Filreis

This episode presents a remarkable — freewheeling, energetic, yet comprehensive — discussion of a remarkable artist, Tuli Kupferberg. We considered two works by Tuli: “Morning, Morning,” among the most famous songs performed by The Fugs; and one of Tuli’s spoken-word pieces or “pop poems,” titled “No Deposit, No Return.”…

The group convenes over Zoom to discuss Sarah Dowling's Entering Sappho (Coach House, 2020).Larissa Lai, Maxe Crandall, Julia Bloch, Al Filreis

The group convenes over Zoom to discuss two well-known sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay, "I Shall Forget You Presently" and "Love Is Not All." (Coach House, 2020).Lisa New, Jane Malcolm, Sophia DuRose, Al Filreis

Stephen Ratcliffe, Joanne Kyger and Julia Bloch join Al Filreis in Bolinas, California to discuss Philip Whalen's "Life at Bolinas. The Last of California".Stephen Ratcliffe, Joanne Kyger, Julia Bloch, Al Filreis

Siobhan Phillips, Emily Harnett, and Joseph Massey join Al Filreis to discuss Kate Colby's "I Mean"Siobhan Phillips, Emily Harnett, Joseph Massey, Al Filreis

Camara Brown, Edwin Torres, and Brooke O’Harra join Al Filreis to discuss Tracie Morris's "Slave Sho to Video aka Black but Beautiful"Camara Brown, Edwin Torres, Brooke O’Harra, Al Filreis

Pierre Joris, Anna Strong, and Ariel Resnikoff join Al Filreis to discuss Paul Celan's "Corona."Pierre Joris, Anna Strong, Ariel Resnikoff, Al Filreis