I mentioned in the last post that my Book Cougars cohost Emily and I were up to something for National Poetry Month. What we’ve done is ask a bunch of our friends to record themselves reading a favorite poem and each day in April we’ll share one of those poems over on our shiny new YouTube channel.
Here’s our kick-off video from April 1st featuring yours truly. (April Fool’s Day, Easter, Passover, and National Poetry month all rolled into one…there’s a hell of a joke in there somewhere).
I’m not planning on posting more of the videos here on WildmooBooks, but I will create a list with links to each poem that I’ll update every few days just to have a record here.
1. “Books” by Hermann Hesse read by Chris Wolak
2. “Just Up” by Steven Barza read by Emily Fine
3. “On a Picture of a Black Centaur by Edmund Dulac” by William Butler Yeats read by Martin Seay
4. “Halfway Down by A.A. Milne read by Laura Thoma
5. “Thirst” by Mary Oliver read by Shuly Cawood
6. A stanza from “Bacchae” by Euripides read by Sally Allen
7. “My Religion is the Sea” by Adebe DeRango-Adem read by Jenny Colvin
8. “Not Waving by Drowning” by Stevie Smith read by Russell
9. “Hi I am a Machine” by Thea Brown read by Jung Yun
10. “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich read by Adam
11. “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman read by Lory
12. “Six Months after Contemplating Suicide” by Erika L. Sanchez read by Amada
13. “Early Summer Babysitter” by Katherine D. Perry read by Alison Law
14. “Le Pont Mirabeau” by Guillaume Apollinaire read by Ryan Ludman
15. “When I Heard at the Close of the Day” by Walt Whitman read by Thomas Otto
16. “Savior” by Shuly Cawood read by the poet
17. “How to Like It” by Stephen Dobyns read by Michael Branch
18. “Grace” by Sarah Kay read by Emily Fine
19. “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver read by Julia Leslie Warmer
20. “The Metamorphosis” by David M. Bader and Haiku read by Chris Wolak
21. “Il n’aurait fallu” by Louis Aragon read by Emma
22. “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou read by Tracy McCrea
23. “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson read by Kristen Howe
24. “Splitting Wood” by Billy Collins read by Jacob Trumbull
25. “I Am Only Me” by Erin Stoddard read by the poet
26. “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver” by Edna St. Vincent Millay read by Jennifer Jackson
27. “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg read by Colleen Olsen
28. “The End of The Raven” by Henry Beard read by Kathryn Atwood
29. “A High-Toned Old Christian Woman” by Wallace Stevens read by Michael Keller
30. “The More Loving One” by W.H. Auden read by Will Schwalbe
If you’re interested in poetry, please do subscribe to this series over on YouTube or follow the Book Cougars on Facebook or Twitter.
Happy National Poetry Month!
Really liked the poem you picked. It’s a new one for me. Even better :).
Shuly
Glad you like it. One of my favorite things about NPM so far is learning about new to me poets. It’s going to be a great month!
I’ve read and enjoyed a number of poems by Hermann Hesse, but not this one. A great choice to kick off the month. I uploaded my video to your link — hope it worked as I’m a video novice. Looking forward to a month of poetry!
Yes, it worked. Your reading gave me shivers. I can’t wait to post it. Sorry, I thought I had written you back on Twitter to let you know it came through. I appreciate you jumping in!
No problem, just wanted to make sure. I can’t wait to see what others come up with.
Thanks to you and Emily for reminding me about National Poetry Month. I just picked up a few books of poetry at the library this past week and hope to get to them during the readathon at the end of the month. In the meantime, I have to go catch up with your poems on your YouTube channel.
Reading poetry for the readathon is a great idea! Would you like to read a poem for us? We’d love to have you! If you’re interested let me know and I’ll send you the link.
I’ll think about it and let you know.
Aww I love that poem!!