Podcast
The Verb
Hosted by BBC Radio 4 · EN
Ian McMillan hosts Radio 4's cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance.
11episodes
Episodes
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Michael Laskey, Michael Schmidt, Michelle Penn, Rachel Douglas-Jones
Mar 800:42:10Tap to summarizeMichael Laskey has produced six collections of poetry since his first pamphlet in 1988. That was also the year he co-founded the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. His career in poetry which has seen him teach, edit, and publish and has resulted in him becoming this year's recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry. As his Collected Poems is published, he looks back on charting his life in poetry.When Michael Schmidt met Elizabeth Jennings, he was a student and she was a celebrated poet. As managing director of Carcanet Press he become her publisher. A relationship that endured until her final collection in 2001. In her centenary year, he talk about her distinctive qualities as a poet and shares his favourite poem of hers.Michelle Penn takes inspiration from the Latin American iteration of the retablos art form for her new book - Retablo for a door. The poetry collection in part explores the female experience, but also turns its attention to subjects as varied as the first atomic bomb test, and Leonardo da Vinci's drawing, Vitruvian Man. She discusses why she found retablos such a useful creative aid for her poetry.In Redacted: Writing in the Negative Space of the State, academic Rachel Douglas-Jones reflected on the poetic power of redaction to interrogate and understand the General Data Protection Regulations. She explains why redaction, currently in the news for its power to obscure, can also lead to revelation.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Transcribe →Sibling relationships with Blake Morrison, Natalie Shapero, Tara Bergin, and the word 'literally'
Mar 100:41:34Tap to summarizeIan McMillan is joined by Blake Morrison with the poetry of sibling relationships, Natalie Shapero - who reports poetically from the world of cinema in L.A., and Tara Bergin, who looks at how to escape from a poem, as well as sharing a 'Neon Line' with us. We also have our cartoon for the ear - an 'eartoon' exploring the origins of confusing words in the English language - written and performed by Stagedoor Johnny (Richard Poynton).Blake Morrison's new poetry collection is 'Afterburn' (Chatto and Windus) - his new book on writing memoir 'On Memoir' is published in April.Natalie Shapero's collection 'Stay Dead' is published by Outspoken Press.Tara Bergin's 'Savage Tales' is published by CarcanetProduced by Faith Lawrence
Transcribe →George Szirtes, Iryna Starovoyt, Zain Rishi, Katie Clarke
Feb 2200:42:08Tap to summarizeGeorge Szirtes, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry, is the most recent poet to join the small selection panel for arguably the UK's most public celebration of poetry - Poems on the Underground. As the London Tube initiative reaches its 40th birthday, George discusses how poems are chosen and shares some poetry that he feels speaks to the strength of the scheme.Depending on how you count it, this month marks the 4th or the 12th anniversary of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia - a conflict in which poetry has become a player. Iryna Starovoyt is a poet and critic from Ukraine. She reflects on the 19th century poet and artist Taras Shevchenko - regarded as a totemic figure in Ukrainian literature, and whose name is on the country's highest award for Arts and Culture, the Taras Shevchenko National Prize.Katie Clarke, Director of Literature at The Reader organisation, shares her experiences of reading poetry with people who have dementia and the surprising power of poetry to make fresh connections at the individual and group level. Zain Rishi's debut poetry pamphlet, Noon, is published this month. He becomes the latest poet to choose a Neon Line for The Verb's regular feature in which poets reflect on poetry lines that they feel shine out.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Transcribe →Richard Dawson, Jacob Polley, Sarah Howe, Frank Cottrell Boyce on John Carey
Feb 1500:41:39Tap to summarizeIan McMillan's guests this week are the singer and songwriter Richard Dawson, T.S. Eliot prize winning poets Jacob Polley and Sarah Howe and Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell Boyce - who celebrates Professor John Carey and the art of poetry criticism.Richard Dawson and Jacob Polley light up the past and make the future of energy and community life seem more real - by bringing their different sensibilities to 'Ancestral Reverb' - an album created by north east organisation 'Threads in the Ground' (directed by Adam Cooper). 'Ancestral Reverb' contains music spanning over 100 years, and the words of those connected to coal. DJ and producer Bert Verso sampled historic music for this album, and wove it through with his own new compositions. The records are embedded with fragments of coal. Richard Dawson's latest album is 'End of the Middle' and Jacob Polley's 'Hymn to Water' can be heard on BBC Sounds (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002mw7t)Sarah Howe's new book is 'Loop of Jade' which beautifully takes on threads from her T.S. Eliot prize winning collection 'Loop of Jade'. Sarah explores a 'Neon Line' for us from the work of the American 20th century poet Elizabeth Bishop - a stand-out line that lets us into a poem. Sarah tells us about the power of the messy first draft, and where it can lead a poet.Children's Laureate, novelist and writer of the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony - Frank Cottrell Boyce celebrates the wit, generosity, and pithy opening sentences of Professor John Carey, whose distinctive voice as teacher, critic and broadcaster led so many into a deep engagement with poetry.Presented by Ian McMillan Produced by Faith Lawrence
Transcribe →The Love Verb
Feb 800:42:04Tap to summarizeIan MacMillan has love in mind as he is joined by a swoon of poets all interested in the subject of love in lyric form.Kim Moore’s poetry collections include The Art of Falling and All The Men I Never Married. She's chosen this week's Neon Line, The Verb's feature on lines that shine out from their poems, from a love poem that has long moved her. She also shares a new love poem from her forthcoming collection, The House of Broken Things,Deborah Alma, poet, editor, and co-founder of The Poetry Pharmacy is a fan of love poetry anthologies She discusses the approach she took in her own love poetry anthology - Words For Love, and why she finds The Emma Press Anthology of Love edited by Rachel Piercey and Emma Wright, and Something New: Alternative Poems for Alternative Weddings edited by Caroline Bird and Rachel Long, such appealing collections.In Rob Macaisa Colgate's debut poetry book, Hardly Creatures, he models his collection of poems on the experience of a fully accessible art gallery, inspired by his work in disability arts gallery in Toronto called Tangled. Hardly Creatures features a series of love poems which Rob calls Benches to reflect the fact that he sees them as places of rest in a collection often concerned with the practicalities, the pain, and the politics of disability.Mark Connors, co-founder and editor of Yaffle Press, on the love song inspired poetry in their latest publication - Poems Inspired By the Best Songs of All Time.Presented by Ian MacMillan Produced by Ekene Akalawu
Transcribe →Rilke's life-changing poems and Paul Farley, Kate Fox, Griot Gabriel
Feb 100:41:44Tap to summarizeIan McMillan explores Rainer Maria Rilke's life advice, and is joined by Paul Farley, Griot Gabriel, Kate Fox and Ulrich BaerPaul Farley brings us the sound of planes, and the world of the usher - as well as a life-long connection to Robert Louis Stevenson's 'A Child's Garden of Verses'. Paul's latest collection 'When it Rained for a Million Years' was shortlisted for this year's T.S.Eliot Prize.'Can poetry change your life'? - poet and Verb regular Kate Fox - and writer and scholar Ulrich Baer explore a 'neon line' (an outstanding line of poetry' ) by the German language poet Rainer Maria Rilke; an enigmatic line that has left the page and entered popular culture. So why is Rilke's poetry so popular in 2026 - a hundred years after his death? Kate's latest book is 'On Sycamore Gap' - Ulrich's writing on Rilke includes 'Dark Interval: Rilke's Letters on Grief, Loss and Transformation'. Griot Gabriel is from Manchester, and founded The Poetry Place. In 2025 he won the Forward Prize for 'Best Single Poem – Performed' for ‘Where I’m From’. Here he shares extracts of new work and explores the resonance of the word 'hand-me-down'.
Transcribe →T.S. Eliot Prize Poets
Jan 2500:40:44Tap to summarizeJoin Ian McMillan for a celebration of remarkable poets and poetry as he presents highlights of the annual T.S. Eliot Prize readings, recorded in front of an audience at London's Southbank.Ian was the host for the TS Eliot Prize readings at the Royal Festival Hall - where shortlisted poets read from their shortlisted collections in front of a packed audience.For this edition of The Verb Ian has selected poems featuring infinity pools, slush, shopping malls, family inheritances, the beaver, and lost keys - and tells us which collection scooped the prize of £25,000, awarded by the T.S.Eliot Foundation.The poets featured this year are: Gillian Allnutt, Isabelle Baafi, Catherine-Esther Cowie, Paul Farley, Vona Groarke, Sarah Howe, Nick Makoha, Tom Paulin, Natalie Shapero, and Karen Solie.
Transcribe →The Christmas Adverb
Dec 1900:56:38Tap to summarizeTestament, beatboxer, rapper and writer - presents a festive Adverb (complete with a yuletide salad battle), with his guests the former Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, poetic legend John Hegley, Mercury prize nominated folk singer Sam Lee, as well as satirical supremo Brian Bilston.They bring iconic robins, soul stirring music, poetic Christmas questions, and quirky Yule traditions to an audience in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Hall in Salford.Brian Bilston's very funny books include 'You Took the Last Bus Home', and 'Alexa, what is there to know about love'? His latest book is called ‘A Poem for Every Question’. He shares new poems and poems from his book ‘And so this is Christmas’:John Hegley brings surreal festive interaction and poignantly playful poems to the Adverb. He also celebrates a playful December celery battle recorded in the letters of Romantic poet John Keats.Sam Lee's album is ‘Songdreaming’ – he's joined by pianist James Keay to perform songs that sing us deep into this time of year. Sam organises 'Singing with Nightingale' events, so we find out where nightingales go for Christmas.Jackie Kay's latest book is 'May Day' - she shares a poem by one of her favourite poets Norman McCaig - which stars a robin - and tender winter poems from her collections.
Transcribe →Simon Armitage, Alistair McGowan, Joelle Taylor
Nov 1600:41:39Tap to summarizeIan McMillan's guests include the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage with poetry from his latest collection 'New Cemetery', impressionist and poet Alistair McGowan and Joelle Taylor with her new book 'Maryville'.Poet Laureate Simon Armitage shares poems from his recent collection 'New Cemetery' - inspired by a cemetery that was being built near his house during lockdown. The poems incorporate a litany of moth species' names, meditations on writing, the dead as an audience for nature - and include responses to the death of Simon's father. Simon also contributes to our 'Neon Line' series - where we ask a poet to celebrate a remarkable line from any poem. Alistair McGowan is an impressionist, a stand-up comedian, as well as a pianist and a poet. In his poems featured on this week's show we encounter a tussle between a sofa and a cat, a critique of using 'that' instead of 'who' or 'which', and a tender exploration of the names we give siblings. His poetry collection is called 'Not what we were expecting'.Joelle Taylor brings us brand new poems from 'Maryville' - the story of a mythical bar in a snowglobe, a stage and a space for lesbian lives and relationships that might otherwise be forgotten. It's been described by Bernadine Evaristo as 'a consistently dazzling work of art'. Joelle won the TS Eliot Prize for poetry for 'C+nto & Othered Poems' and has since published her acclaimed novel, 'The Night Alphabet'.
Transcribe →Train Poetry with Don Paterson, Bella Hardy, Carmen Marcus, Patrick McGuinness
Nov 900:42:33Tap to summarizeIan McMillan enjoys the language of the iconic 'Night Mail' poem by W.H. Auden, invites us into signal boxes, imagines train station bars, and evokes the empty platforms that inspire songs - as he celebrates 200 years of railway inspired poetry with his guests Don Paterson, Carmen Marcus, Bella Hardy and Patrick McGuinness.Don Paterson is a poet and musician. He's the editor of an anthology of train poems called 'Train Songs' (with Sean O'Brien) and described the chapters of his memoir 'Toy Fights' as 'train windows'. The Verb has commissioned Don to write a poem about a station that seems to him particularly unpoetic..Carmen Marcus is a graduate of the 'Verb New Voices' writing scheme. She is a novelist and poet, and for the anniversary of the passenger railway she has been talking to passengers on the Stockton & Darlington line and writing train inspired poems. Carmen brings railway trolls and brand new words for the excitement of train travel to the Verb studio.Patrick McGuinness is British-Belgian writer and poet. He teaches French and Comparative Literature at Oxford. His latest book is a series of essays called 'Ghost Stations' - he explains why the idea of the 'ghost station' has been such a powerful 'engine' for his writing.Bella Hardy is a lover of ballads, a BBC Folk Singer of the Year, and a songwriter. The Verb has asked her to respond to one of the greatest train platform inspired songs of all time - Paul Simon's 'Homeward Bound' . Bella performs a brand new song that celebrates the way waiting for a train can lead artists to come up with some of their best work.You'll also hear the acoustics of a real signal box - part of a soundscape produced by Sheffield folk and electronics duo Polyhymns.Produced by Faith Lawrence
Transcribe →