Podcast Summary: The New Yorker: Poetry

Episode: Traci Brimhall Reads Thomas Lux
Host: Kevin Young (The New Yorker Poetry Editor)
Guest: Traci Brimhall (Poet Laureate of Kansas)
Date: November 26, 2025

Overview

This episode spotlights poet Traci Brimhall as she reads and discusses "Refrigerator, 1957" by Thomas Lux and her own poem "Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole in It." Host Kevin Young and Brimhall delve into the power of poetry to make the ordinary extraordinary, the importance of memory and ritual in reading poetry, and the intimate, sometimes vulnerable act of writing and sharing love poems. The conversation moves fluidly between literary analysis, anecdotal stories, and broader reflections on the role of poetry in daily life, food, and culture.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Concept of "Refrigerator Poems"

[01:27–04:05]

• Brimhall's Rituals: Traci reveals her personal practice of hand-copying beloved poems:

  “I call it meditating in cursive. I still hand copy beloved poems into a book… I find that it is a way to sort of tend the coals and keep my relationship to poetry warm…” (A, 01:36)

• Totemic Poems: She relates to the notion that certain poems become "wallpaper" for one's life, providing comfort and inspiration.

• Physical Space for Poems: Brimhall gives anecdotes—like poets displaying verses on their shower doors—as ways to integrate poems into daily rituals beyond the fridge.

2. Reading and Analysis of "Refrigerator, 1957" by Thomas Lux

[04:05–13:52]

• Poem Performance:
  Brimhall reads the poem, capturing its blend of nostalgia, humor, and awe. The focus is on the maraschino cherries, untouched, luminous, and almost sacred within the drab refrigerator (A, 04:12–05:59).

• Host Reflection:
  Kevin Young lauds the vividness and unusual verbs in the poem:

  “I love all the verbs in this poem... mugged, slumming and such company... something kind of wise and also wisecracking.” (B, 05:59)

• Repetition and Awe:
  Brimhall admires Lux’s willingness to break poetic “rules” with repeated adjectives and his revision-in-the-moment style, creating intimacy:

  “It feels like he’s revising himself in real time, trying to get the... And I love that.” (A, 07:10)

• Childhood Perspective Without Coyness:
  The poem evokes childlike awe, not by vocabulary but through curiosity and reverence, avoiding sentimentality or self-consciousness (A, 10:33).

3. The Sacred and the Ordinary

[12:45–18:24]

• Untasted, Sacred Objects:
  The cherries’ untouched status stirs questions about ritual, presence, and self-restraint:

  “I love that it’s a food Poem in which we never taste it. And I think there’s something profoundly interesting in that.” (A, 12:45)

• Family, Inheritance, and Imagination:
  Discussion turns to inherited foods and how collective and personal histories are layered into everyday objects—even if origin stories (like "the pig farmer in Bohemia") are partly imagined.

• Food as Culture:
  Brimhall reflects on the difference between cultural inheritance from food and how, over time, these meanings contract or mutate in America:

  “Sometimes all that remains of a culture is like a side dish that shows up rather than a feature.” (A, 18:28)

4. Is "Refrigerator, 1957" a Poem About Poetry?

[20:44–22:37]

• The Fridge as an Ars Poetica:
  The hosts debate whether the maraschino cherries are a metaphor for poetry—something sacred, beautiful, rarely consumed.

  • Brimhall shares a memorable definition:

    “A poem is an egg with a horse inside it. Because I still think that anything that is something small with something large inside it is a poem.” (A, 20:59)

• Experience Over Meaning:
  She stresses valuing the experience of a poem, not just its “meaning”:

  “...stop trying to get to a poem’s meaning and get to the poem’s experience.” (A, 22:37)

5. The Role of Mystery in Poetry

[23:53–25:34]

• Negative Capability:
  Mystery and unknowing are crucial—poems are to be luxuriated in, not solved:

  “We don’t want an ex vivo. We don’t want like a corpse that we're dissecting. We want an in vivo thing. We want to be. It still needs to stay alive while we're experiencing it.” (A, 22:43)

• Musicality and Surprise:
  Kevin Young likens poetry’s pleasure to music—understood in feeling even if not totally analyzed, with continuous surprise.

6. The Evolution of Meaning Across Time

[25:34–27:31]

• Poems Changing With Us:
  Brimhall observes that old poems yield fresh insights as readers age:

  “...in my 20s, I don't think I fully got it, but revisiting it in my 40s, I feel like I'm seeing something different.” (A, 25:34)

• Poetry as a “Tithe Against Loneliness”:
  She shares a friend’s phrase to describe the communal, comforting power of poems.

7. Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole in It by Traci Brimhall

[28:12–37:47]

• Poem Reading:
  Brimhall reads her poem—a humorous, vivid love poem that leans into hyperbole while claiming otherwise (A, 28:43–30:14).

• Vulnerability and Humor in Love Poems:
  Brimhall discusses how love poems risk embarrassment and how humor became her gateway to write them:

  “...the most vulnerable thing in the world was to be like, oh my God, I like you. Do you like me? Too.” (A, 31:23)

• Everyday and Myth:
  She highlights the blend of mythic and mundane imagery—a hallmark of the best love poems, in her view:

  “I think most of our love is experienced in the everyday. And so I think it’s important that... making out with your socks on, like, should show up in a poem.” (A, 33:14)

• Repetition, Hyperbole, and Risk:
  Discussed how the poem repeats “I love you,” follows forbidden rule-breaking, and explores the hazard of loving more or less deeply in a relationship.

8. On the Poetic Process, Relationships, and Everyday Life

[35:09–39:43]

• Balance of Love in Relationships:
  Brimhall offers down-to-earth wisdom on long-term love:

  “In a long, good love, you take turns with somebody being maybe a little bit more in the hormone soup at a different time than you.” (A, 35:35)

• Always and Never:
  She reflects on using absolute words for love’s ongoing, insatiable feeling.

9. Brimhall’s Role as Poet Laureate of Kansas and Food, Place, and Poetry

[39:43–44:05]

• Spreading Poetry:
  Brimhall centers her role on getting others to fall in love with poetry, often through sharing food poems and engaging with themes of memory, culture, and the senses:

  “I don’t see it as an opportunity for me to read my poems to people. I see it as an opportunity to help people fall in love with poetry.” (A, 40:04)

• Food as Entry Point:
  She talks about how food bridges memory, place, and poetry, especially in a region where agriculture is ever-present yet food insecurity persists.

• Senses as Anchors:
  In both poetry and cooking, Brimhall encourages presence and attention to the moment.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On intimacy with poems:

  “I felt like I’d been hitting on these poems for years. And they finally invited me upstairs…” (A, 03:21)

• On what makes a poem:

  “A poem is an egg with a horse inside it.” (A, 20:59)

• On poetry’s mystery:

  “We don't want an ex vivo. We don't want like a corpse that we're dissecting. We want an in vivo thing. We want to be. It still needs to stay alive while we're experiencing it.” (A, 22:43)

• On the everyday magic of love:

  “...the magic of life is in how I spend each day has been one of the lessons that poetry has helped affirm for me.” (A, 33:14)

• On loving and being loved:

  “In a long, good love, you take turns with somebody being maybe a little bit more in the hormone soup at a different time than you.” (A, 35:35)

• On Kansas, poetry, and food:

  “If I go around and share food poems with people, there’s often a link where people are transported to, you know, being with the land, if they work with the land, or they’re connected to their families or their communities...” (A, 44:05)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Brimhall on hand-copying poems & totemic poetry: 01:36–03:21
• Reading: "Refrigerator, 1957" by Thomas Lux: 04:12–05:59
• Analysis and family/cultural inheritance: 07:10–19:42
• Is this poem about poetry? Discussion on ars poetica: 20:44–22:37
• On mystery, experience, and the music of poetry: 23:53–25:34
• Reading: "Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole in It" by Brimhall: 28:43–30:14
• Vulnerability in love poetry & humor: 31:23–33:14
• Discussion of relationship dynamics and everyday love: 35:09–36:00
• Brimhall on being Kansas poet laureate and food traditions: 39:43–44:05

Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is intimate, reflective, playful, and punctuated by deep literary engagement paired with personal anecdote. Both Young and Brimhall bring warmth and humor, openly exploring both the vulnerabilities and joys of writing and reading poetry. The episode is welcoming, educative, and imbued with the poetic spirit it seeks to celebrate.

Both poems discussed ("Refrigerator, 1957" and "Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole in It") can be found at newyorker.com and in the anthology A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker, 1925-2025.