How The Academy of American Poets is Celebrating Poetry Month

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How The Academy of American Poets is Celebrating Poetry Month"

Podcast: All Of It
Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Ricardo Maldonado, President and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets
Release Date: April 8, 2025

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Introduction to National Poetry Month

The episode centers around April being National Poetry Month, highlighting the collaboration between All Of It and the Academy of American Poets. Alison Stewart introduces the theme by mentioning the Academy's initiative to publish a poem every day throughout April on their website, poets.org.

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Conversation with Ricardo Maldonado

Ricardo Maldonado joins Alison to discuss his role and the Academy's efforts in promoting poetry. He emphasizes the Academy’s mission to make poetry accessible to a diverse audience, catering to emotions ranging from grief to joy.

Key Responsibilities of the Academy: [07:54]

"We serve about 18 million visitors to our site, poets.org in most cases, we will see increases like April, for example. Everyone wants a poem in April, want poems when they're feeling grief or trying to process grief or when they're trying to process joy."
— Ricardo Maldonado

Ricardo explains that the Academy curates poems through their Poem a Day series, featuring both established and emerging poets. The organization also provides resources tailored for specific occasions, such as funerals and weddings, ensuring poetry serves as a supportive tool in various life moments.

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Listener Interactions: Favorite Poems and Poets

Throughout the episode, listeners call in to share their favorite poems and poets. Each caller provides a brief explanation of their choice, enriching the discussion with diverse perspectives.

Highlights from Listener Calls:

1. Lisa from the East Village - "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold [06:30]

   • Theme: The poem reflects on the chaos of the world and the solace found in enduring relationships.
   • Notable Quote:

     "Oh, love, let us be true to one another. For the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, that's in the registers of my brain."
     — Alison Stewart [07:03]

2. Kimberly from Brooklyn - "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe [09:48]

   • Theme: An autobiographical exploration of isolation and personal struggle.
   • Reading: Kimberly recites the poem, conveying the profound sense of loneliness it encapsulates.

3. Justin from Morristown, New Jersey - "Digging" by Seamus Heaney [11:04]

   • Theme: The connection between poetic craft and traditional Irish farm work.
   • Insight: Justin discusses how Heaney's work serves as a bridge between generations and personal relationships.

4. Gail from the Upper West Side - Original Poem [13:48]

   • Theme: A personal narrative about an incident in Central Park turned into poetry, reflecting on memory and forgiveness.
   • Reflection: Gail shares a touching story behind her poem, highlighting the healing power of writing.

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Analysis of Poetic Themes and Accessibility

Ricardo delves into the inclusive nature of poetry, discussing how the Academy ensures that poetry resonates with individuals from all walks of life. He highlights the importance of making poetry relatable and accessible, regardless of a person's background or current emotional state.

Ricardo on Poetry’s Role: [09:54]

"We want to be there through poetry for readers of all backgrounds, whether that means established poets, older readers, or even teenagers who are looking to find themselves corroborated in art or their experiences corroborated in art."
— Ricardo Maldonado

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Featured Poems and Readings

Alison and Ricardo read selected poems that exemplify the themes discussed, offering listeners a direct experience of the poetic works.

"Shoulders" by Naomi Shihab Nye [16:20]

A poignant portrayal of a man carrying his sleeping son, symbolizing the gentle care and responsibility undertaken in daily life.

"The World Is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth [29:40]

Wordsworth laments society's disconnection from nature, advocating for a more profound relationship with the natural world.

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Closing Reflections and Encouragement

As the episode concludes, Alison encourages listeners to explore the vast array of poems available on poets.org, emphasizing the platform's role in connecting individuals with poetry that speaks to their personal experiences and emotions.

Final Poem Reading: [29:40]

"The World Is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours..."
— Alison Stewart reading Wordsworth

Ricardo expresses gratitude to the listeners for their participation and reiterates the Academy's commitment to fostering a vibrant poetry community.

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Conclusion

This episode of All Of It effectively celebrates National Poetry Month by showcasing the dynamic relationship between the host, the guest from the Academy of American Poets, and the engaged listener community. Through shared readings, personal stories, and insightful discussions, the podcast underscores the enduring significance of poetry in capturing and shaping cultural experiences.

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Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

Listener support WNYC Studios.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

You are listening to all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in soho. Thanks for sharing part of your day with us. I'm excited to tell you about a special event we've been cooking up with the team at Broadway's Hell's Kitchen, the hit musical from Alicia Keys, I Keep.

[Listener]

On Falling in.

[Alison Stewart]

And I Love with you.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

On April 15th, one week from today, we will be broadcasting all of it live from the green space. I'll be there with cast members from Hell's Kitchen, Jessica Vos, Jade Millan, Keshe Lewis and Tank, plus Adam Blackstone and Tom Kidd, who supervised and orchestrated the show's music. It'll be an hour of live radio on stage. You'll get to hear members of the cast take on songs like no One and Fallen in performances tailored for the green space. We'll also talk about how the show's music came together and the work that it goes in to put it on a Broadway show. This is a free event, part of our Listening Party Live series on all of it. Tickets are a first come come, first serve. You won't be guaranteed a seat if you show up late, so make sure you get there early. We have to be on the air at noon. There are only a few tickets left, so go to wnyc.org events. That's noon on April 15th in the green Space with me and the team from Broadway's Hell's Kitchen. Let's get into today's show. April is National Poetry Month and all month we're collaborating with the organization behind it, the Academy of American Poets. On the academy's website, poets.org, it publishes a poem every day, all throughout April. We're featuring recorded readings of its National Poetry Month selections on all of it. Last week we kicked things off with a poetry call in where we asked you to call in and tell us your favorite poems. The flown lines just blew up, so we are doing it again today. I'm joined by president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, Ricardo Maldonado. He's also the author of the book the Life Assignment. Ricardo, welcome to ALL of it.

[Alison Stewart]

Hi Alison. Great to be here.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

So glad to have you. Listeners, what's your favorite poem? What is a poet that you admire? What poem or poet do you especially like to lean on during uncertain times? The phone lines, they are yours. 212-433-WNYC 212-433-9692. You can call in and share your poem on the air or you can text to us at that number. 212-433-WNYC 212-433-9692. I'd like to start with a poem. Ricardo, your first pick is something here about memory from Robin Walter. Can you introduce us to this poem before you read it?

[Alison Stewart]

Absolutely. Robin was the winner of our first book award. Last year's is just came out. It's from this beautiful collection called Little Mercy, which I highly recommend that folks go out and get and then share with friends and loved ones. It's a poem about how we are interconnected with nature and how we get to see a nature, the space or reflected. A space for memory and writing. I guess I like to say that every poem makes a statement about what poetry can do and what writing can do to our lives. And this is a great example of a poem doing that. Something here about memory. If you root around hard enough, of course, you will find the letters that begin the body, at least what you now know of it. Something here about memory or something about the wound itself bearing the body, by which I mean giving birth to it, as if a dark leaf unfurling or a hand opening to itself.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

When you think about that poem, what.

[Listener]

About that poem speaks to you individually?

[Alison Stewart]

I really love the way that this poem ends with a hand opening. As a writer, but also as part of a large organization, I like to think that poems have this ability to take someone's hand and bring them along as we share something vitally essential about the world and how we live in it. I also like that this poem makes room for thinking, for the insertion of memory into everyday life. Often times I find myself walking down the streets of New York and I will remember what the city looked like, what it smelled like a decade ago, two decades ago. And I think this poem is doing something very similar. Reminds me of that gesture and that like compulsion of the brain to bring the back the past into the present. And we sort of find ourselves living in that little home. Right. For a brief moment.

[Listener]

We've got a text here. We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. That's my favorite poem. Let's talk to David from Windsor Terrace. Hi David, thank you so much for calling, all of it. What are you going to share?

Song of Wandering Angus by Yeats. It's a fantastic poem. I'd be happy to recite it for you, but you probably don't have time for that. But it's. It's a great poem about nature and spirituality. Beautiful.

Thank you for calling in let's talk to Lisa from the East Village. Hi, Lisa.

Hi.

[Alison Stewart]

How are you doing?

[Listener]

Well.

So my favorite poem is a Victorian English poem called Dover beach by Matthew Arnold.

And why is it your favorite?

Are you familiar with is so timely. It basically talks about the world and history and how things are just so insane at the moment. But if the writer of the poem and his loved one stay together, they can get through it and come out the other side.

Lisa, thanks for calling in. Are you familiar with that poem, Ricardo?

[Alison Stewart]

Absolutely. This was one of the poems I got to read as a high schooler, one of those poems that really got me into thinking and writing poetry, thinking about poetry and writing poetry. And there's a beautiful line, oh, love, let us be true to one another. For the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, that's in my that's in the registers of my brain.

[Listener]

I'm speaking to Ricardo Maldonado. He is president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, the organization behind poets.org and national poetry Month. We want to know your favorite poem or what poet you admire. 2124-3396-9221-2433 WNYC. So that's a title, President and executive director of the Academy of American Poets.

[Alison Stewart]

Yes.

[Listener]

What does the job entail?

[Alison Stewart]

So we're a national organization that put out hundreds of poems every year through our Poem a Day series by established and emerging poets. And these are curated by poets themselves. So we find ourselves sharing lots of work, lots of content, advocating for this work and space that poetry makes available for readers and poets themselves. We serve about 18 million visitors to our site, poets.org in most cases, we will see increases like April, for example. Everyone wants a poem in April, want poems when they're feeling grief or trying to process grief or when they're trying to process joy. And so we have resources like, for example, poems for funerals, poems for weddings. We want to be there through poetry for readers of all backgrounds, whether that means established poets, older readers, or even teenagers who are looking to find themselves corroborated in art or their experiences corroborated in art. And I'm here to work with a great team of poets and editors as well as members of the community to make all of this happen.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Is there any reason you single out American poets?

[Alison Stewart]

The organization was founded at the as the Academy of American poets in 1934, and I feel like it's such a charged and potentially exciting term that we can all question and work through. We publish translations we work with poets writing in other languages, whether they live in the United States or outside that. I feel like it's a working and expansive definition of America and what the American experiment could be.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Let's take another call. Let's talk to Kimberly, calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Kimberly. Thank you so much for calling, all of it.

[Listener]

Hi. Dark times call for a dark poet, Edgar Allan Poe. I'm going to read Alone, and this is an autobiographical poem about his life in isolation or feeling isolated. Okay. Alone from childhood's hour I have not been as others were I have not seen as others saw I could not bring my passions from a common spring from the same source I have not taken my sorrow I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone and I'd love I'd love alone then in my childhood in the dawn of a most stormy life Was drawn from every depth of good and ill the mystery which binds me still from the torrent or the fountain from the red cliff to the mountain from the sun that round me rolled it's an autumn tint of gold from the lightning in the sky as it's passed me flying by from the thunder and the storm and the cloud that took the form when the rest of heaven was blue Of a demon in my view.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Kim, thank you so much.

[Listener]

Let's talk to Justin, who is calling.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Us from Morristown, New Jersey. Hi, Justin. Thank you so much for making the time to call, all of it.

[Listener]

Well, thank you for taking up this subject. I'm delayed to be talking about poetry today. The poem I want to highlight is one that I've taught many times. It's Digging by Seamus Heaney, one of the great Irish poets of the 20th century. And the reason this poem always spoke to me is just how he kind of locates his craft of poetry in a tradition of Ireland farm work, particularly digging potatoes. And I always loved working with my students and unearthing, if you will, all of the incredible imagery and appeals to the senses that Teeny makes. And when I was primarily teaching boys, it was a great way to talk about relationships with fathers as well.

Justin, thank you so much for the work you do as a teacher. That's an interesting subject, Ricardo. Teaching poetry. When you think about teaching poetry, what's important for people to consider?

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you for asking that question, Alison. I was a teacher before I was an arts administrator. I taught English in Puerto Rico and also in New York. I remember as a teacher that my desire was to be of service or be of help to a younger reader. Who feels generally alone or not understood. I got to poetry because my. My dad had died when I was younger, died when I was young. And I couldn't really understand what that meant, what death meant. So one of my teachers gave me to an athlete dying young by a Hausman. And I felt like I understood something, not the totality of it. And oftentimes when I find myself with students, I spend some time talking to them about where they are, what questions they have about the world, and providing poems that can help them understand they're part of a larger chorus. And that poetry is there to sing with them. Just last week, I was in the Bronx meeting with a group of high school students, and we spent a lot of time talking about love. And I invited them to write love poems, either to themselves or to their friends. And it was an exhilarating experience hearing them read those poems about friends who were in the classroom and friends they had not seen in years. They were finding something about themselves and about their world through that exercise. And that's really something that I feel like we should all be taking into classrooms all over the United States. This ability of poetry to really create a connection deeper than just a surface one.

[Listener]

Let's talk to Gail, who's calling in from the Upper west side. Hi, Gayle, thanks for calling, all of it.

Hold. Hello? Hello, Alison. This is a poem that I wrote some 40 some odd years ago for a guy that I ran over in Central Park. Who was running. I was on my bicycle and I was just so enthralled and I couldn't believe I ran over him. And anyway, I wrote him a poem. And it goes. Before I'm old with vision faint I will portray us both in paint as time goes on and through the sun Our souls through our bodies run all around us rot and rust all we've known Is turned to dust Alone I sit framed on a museum wall My portrait of you Hangs just down the hall for miles around People come to see your eyes painted beautiful and true Then all will know I was not a fool in loving you that's it.

Hello? Does that mean that you're with this guy?

I am with this guy today. He was the best man at two of my weddings. And he's a wonderful guy and I'm very happy. And that was 43 years ago that I ran him over in Central park with my bike. Yes.

Okay. That's the best. Thanks for calling in, Riccardi. You're also a writer of poetry. I don't know if you've ever Run over anybody with your bike. But your poetry book was called the Life Assignment. Tell us a little bit more about that.

[Alison Stewart]

So a lot of these poems I wrote immediately after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. My family is there, and I had a night of pure terror. I couldn't get a hold of them, and I was privileged enough to hear from them the next day. And so I was trying to understand what it meant to love from afar. And I think that's like my working definition of diaspora, being a Puerto Rican who was born and raised there, who has been living in New York for the past 20 years. And so my book is a reflection of all those connections I have with my family, whom I visit often, but they're far away and trying to make connections and understand what love means when you're in the city.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

I'm speaking to Ricardo Maldonado. He is the president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, the organization behind poets.org it's national poetry Month. When you want to hear your favorite poem or who is a poet that you admire, call us or text us now. 2124-339692-21243. Ricardo, while we get more calls lined up, I wanted you to read another poem for us. This one is called Shoulders. Tell us about this.

[Alison Stewart]

Shoulders is a poem about the great poet Naomi Shihab Nye. She was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and she received last year the Wallace Stevens Award for her achievements in poetry throughout her career. This is a poem that I feel like speaks to now and therefore to all the time. It's a poem that I find myself reading to friends. And when I do readings, I start with Naomi. So I'm going to go ahead and, and and read it for you all. Shoulders. A man crosses the street in rain, stepping gently, looking two times north and south because his son is asleep on his shoulder. No car must splash him, no car drive too near to his shadow. This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo. But he's not marked. Nowhere does his jacket say fragile handle with care. His ear feels up with breathing. He hears the hum of the boy's dream deep inside him. We are not going to be able to live in this world if we're not willing to do what he's doing with one another. The road will only be wide. The rain will never stop falling.

[Listener]

That was Ricardo Maldonado reading for National Poetry Month. We're taking your calls about your favorite poems. Who's a poet that you admire? We'll have more after a quick break. This is all of it.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

You are listening to all of IT on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is. Well, you're my guests. And Ricardo Maldonado, who is president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. We are talking about National Poetry Month. Let's check in with our listeners. Let's talk to Lydia from Manhattan. Hi, Lydia. Thank you so much for calling All OF it.

[Listener]

Hi. Thank you. I wanted to talk about my favorite not my favorite poem, but a poem I reread all the Time by Rainer Maria Rilke, the Archaic Torso of Apollo. And it's an ekphrastic poem, meaning it's a poem that responds to a work of art. And I find it every time I read it, I've read it a hundred times. I just find it incredibly moving. And its final line is, you must change your life. And I just find it like one of the most powerful things you can read when you're feeling a little bit lost and not where you want to be in life. So shout out to Rilke.

[Alison Stewart]

He's a great poet indeed.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Let's talk to John from Astoria. Hi, John.

[Listener]

Hi. I want to give a shout out to James Wright and Northern pike, which is such a beautiful poem that, you know, imagines, you know, something like everyone is gone, but it ends up at a place that is so beautiful. The last line is I am so happy. And it's definitely a poem I think people should read in these times.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Thank you for that call. And let's talk to Michelle, who's online, too. Hey, Michelle, thanks for calling in.

[H]

Oh, thank you so much. My favorite, one of my favorite poems is the Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens. And it's actually pretty short. If I could read it.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Sure, go for it.

[H]

Okay. Call the roller of big cigars, the muscular one, and bid him whip in kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress as they are used to wear, and let the boys bring flowers in last month's newspapers. Let the bee be the finale of seam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream. Take from the dresser of deal, lacking the three glass knobs that sheer on what the embroidered fantails want, and spread it to us to cover her face. If her horny feet protrude, they come to show how cold she is and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Thank you for reading. We appreciate that. Hey, Ricardo, your next poem pick for us is Ada Lamon, the National Poet laureate, I think, until the end of this month. First of all, what makes her stand out as a poet?

[Alison Stewart]

Her deep commitment to exploring what the heart really feels and to nature. Seeing herself as part of the world and trying to make it legible to herself. What would this image of, say, a waterfall mean and what would it say about the way that we think is very fascinating to me. She's also so dedicated to bringing poems everywhere in this country, most recently national parks. I love that invitation to charge all of our spaces with words. I'm very humbled by Ada. She was my teacher, too, for a weekend and that exercise I shared with high school students about writing love poems to friends that came from Ada. She's just the bee's knees.

[Listener]

All right.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

What poem of hers are you going to read?

[Alison Stewart]

This is my favorite poem of Ada, and it's a poem that came out many, many years ago. And I keep revisiting often. So let's, let's, let's go for it. Down Harden. Six horses died in a tractor trailer fire there. That's the hard part. I wanted to tell you straight away so we could grieve together. So many sad things. That's just one on a long recent list that loops and elongates in the chest, in the diaphragm, in the alveoli. What is it that they say? Heartsick or downhearted? I picture a heart lying down on the floor of the torso, pulling up blankets over its head, thinking this pain will go on forever, even though it won't. The heart is watching Lifetime movies and wishing and missing all the good parts of her that she has forgotten. The heart is so tired of beating herself up, she wants to stop it still. But she also. She wants the blood to return, wants to bring in the thrill and wind of the ride, the fast pull of life driving underneath her. What the heart wants. The heart wants her horses back. That was a line to end something with. We always want our horses back.

[Listener]

It's interesting because I've got a bunch of different texts here. Poe's Annabel Lee is a favorite. William Carlos Williams, My favorite poems, Ithaca, a 1911 poem. These are beautiful, beautiful poems by many of the poets that we know. Where do you go to find new poetry and new poems?

[Alison Stewart]

I am grateful to be at the Academy of American Poets. We publish new poems every day, Monday through Fridays, every week, every year. And on weekends, we publish poems from the public domain, bringing back poets and poems that were forgotten. But there's something about the thrill of waking up, opening your inbox or in my case, I listen to the podcast and I hear a poet reading a new poem and also giving us an about this poem statement explaining what really goes into the writing of the poem, what triggered it, what inspired it, what they're writing with or against. And that has been terrifically fun. It's like the best calendar there is. Instead of looking at numbers, let someone read you a poem.

[Listener]

Let's talk to Katie from Fairfield, Connecticut. Hey, Katie, thanks so much for calling in.

Yes, hello, can you hear me?

I hear you. Great, you're on the air.

Oh, good, good. I got involved with poetry about 10 to 12 years ago when my therapist, who is a poetry therapist, introduced me to poetry. And it's. And it's been a life saving thing. I don't know if you've heard of like poetry therapy. It's I poetry. I can't remember what the rest of it is. But anyways, the poem I chose, I mean, there are just thousands of them. But I thought for a little lightfulness we'll do a Billy Collins one called Forgetfulness. The name of the author is the first to go, followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel when suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of. As if one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye and watched the quadriatic, the equation pack its bag. And even now, as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away. A state flower, perhaps the address of an uncle. The capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even looking. In some obscure corner of your spleen, it has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L, as far as I can recall. Well, on your way to oblivion, where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Thank you so much for that. That really struck a chord with me, as you can imagine. Let's go to Tim on the Upper west side. Hi Tim, thanks for calling, all of it.

[Listener]

Hi. Thank you. We can't do this without Robert Frost. Three at my window, Tree at My window, window tree My sash is lowered when night comes on. But let there never be curtain drawn between you and me. Vague dream, head lifted out of the ground and thing next most diffuse to cloud. Not all your light tongues talking aloud could be profound, but three I have seen you taken and tossed and if you have seen me when I slept, you have seen me when I was taken and swept and all but lost that day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her your head so much concerned without her mine with inner weather.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

Thank you so much for calling Tim Ricardo. How are you thinking about poetry [e-mail] that are resonant with right now?

[Alison Stewart]

We do have ways in which or we have made it possible for folks to go on our site and look specifically by themes. And the reason I bring that up is because I am, as probably many of your listeners and maybe yourself feeling panorama of emotions, most of them changing by the hour. There are specific themes that are are bread and butter again. People come when they are experiencing grief or joy, but then when they want to hear from a poet about how they. How, how they respond to fraught times, folks will go straight, look for politics or look for angst. You can search according to theme or emotion. And I've been finding myself waking up again after listening to my poem to the poem a day and going, okay, right now I feel anxiety. I need to find a poem that helps me understand exactly what's going on. And, and we've arranged the site to work that way. It's one of our most popular pages, actually, when folks come in looking for a po either speaks to an emotion, to a theme, to a national holiday. And I just feel like poems can be an open door or the opening of a door. And those doors lead to so many different kinds of houses with so many different kinds of paints and furniture. And I like being able to present that entire panorama for folks to find themselves in those poems and let the poets walk them through it.

[Ricardo Maldonado]

I'm going to ask you to leave us with one more poem. What are we going to hear?

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, that's amazing. I want to read a poem by Wordsworth that has been in my mind. It's called the World Is Too Much With Us. We started a series of literary seminars and we just did Wordsworth. And I want to read this for a close friend of the academy, Patricia Grod, whom we are honoring. It's been a thrill getting to know her and she's a Wordsworth scholar and we've been talking about this poem. So I, I want to go ahead and share it with all your listeners. The world is too much with us. The world is too much with us. Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is ours, we have given our hearts away a sordid boon. This sea that bears her bosom to the moon, the winds that will be howling at all hours and are up gathered now like sleeping flowers for this, for everything we are out of tune, it moves us not. Great God, I'd rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn, so might I, standing in this pleasant lea, have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, have sight of Proteus rising from the sea or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

[Listener]

My guest has been Ricardo Maldonado, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, joining us for National Poetry Month. And thanks to you, dear listeners, for calling in. Ricardo, thanks so much.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you. Happy National Poetry Month. The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most.

[Listener]

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[Alison Stewart]

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[Alison Stewart]

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[Listener]

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