Poets in Performance

April 2, 2012

Over the years, Bill Moyers has welcomed some of America’s best poets to share their works and inspiration. Many of those writers have performed at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, about which Bill and his colleagues produced television specials including Fooling with Words (1999), The Language of Life (1995) and Sounds of Poetry (1999). Below, enjoy a showcase of such poetry, performed by the poets who dreamed them up, or by other artists who simply adored them.

Coleman Barks | Robert Bly | Lucille Clifton | Rita Dove | Martín Espada | Nikki Giovanni | Maxine Hong Kingston | Galway Kinnell | Stanley Kunitz | Kurtis Lamkin | Li-Young Lee | John Lithgow | W. S. Merwin | Naomi Shihab Nye | Sharon Olds | Adrienne Rich | Christian Wiman| Luis Alberto Urrea


Coleman Barks reads Rumi I See My Beauty In You

Watch this full episode from Fooling with Words


Robert Bly reads After Drinking All Night With a Friend, We Go Out in a Boat at Dawn to See Who Can Write the Best Poem

Watch this full episode from Bill Moyers Journal


Lucille Clifton reads homage to my hips

Watch this full episode from  Sounds of Poetry


Rita Dove reads Daystar

Watch this full episode from Moyers & Company


Martín Espada reads Return

Watch this full episode from Bill Moyers Journal


Nikki Giovanni reads Bicycles

Watch this full episode from Bill Moyers Journal


Maxine Hong Kingston reads Sandy Scull’s Sea Salt

Watch this full episode from Bill Moyers Journal


Galway Kinnell reads After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

Watch this full episode from Fooling with Words


Stanley Kunitz reads Touch Me

Watch this full episode from Fooling With Words


Kurtis Lamkin  reads jump mama

Watch this full episode from Fooling With Words


Li-Young Lee reads The Gift

Watch this full episode from The Power of the Word


John Lithgow reads Ogden Nash’s No Doctors Today, Thank You

Watch this full episode from Bill Moyers Journal


W. S. Merwin reads Yesterday

Watch this full episode from Fooling with Words


Naomi Shihab Nye reads Arabic Coffee

Watch this full episode from The Language of Life


Sharon Olds reads The Clasp

Watch this full episode from Fooling with Words


Adrienne Rich reads Prospective Immigrants Please Note

Watch this full episode from The Language of Life


Christian Wiman reads “Five Houses Down” and “Sitting Down to Breakfast Alone.”

Watch this full episode from Moyers & Company

 


Luis Alberto Urrea  reads from Ghost Sickness

Watch this full episode from Moyers & Comapny

 

 

More Poetry!
Watch modern poets in action: Rita Dove’s List of Young Poets to Watch.

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  • LynnAnn Thomas

    Phillip Levine???

  • Bethhay

    I would love to see Mary Oliver along with these other fine poets.

  • Albert I Martin

    Will anybody ever do a History on John Neiharht One of the Best poets America ever had, and yet he is forgotten!

  • tammy vitale

    Lucille Clifton was local to Southern Maryland (she taught at St Mary’s College).  I wrote poetry in a group with her for about 2 years- she had an amazing ear and the ability to pluck stunning beauty out of poetry.  We all miss her!

  • Dadster3

    Please consider including George Bilgere in your poets series.  There is a lightness in his poetry, more like storytelling, often with a quirky twist.

  • Jerry de Gryse

    I’m all for a reading by Patti Ann Rogers… 

  • http://dgreenleaf.wordpress.com/ Deidra Greenleaf Allan

    Thank you thank you thank you. It was so wonderful to hear again some of these voices that are now lost to us. Fooling with Words was one of the first books on poetry I read and it started me on a lifelong journey in the shadow and light of many of the poets featured here. Thank you for sharing this rich treasure, and for collecting this gold to begin with.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/DGYJZD4T4FFDRV4ZIEGKM5RRHM Johnnie

     If you see yourself as prosperous, you will be. If
    you see yourself as continually hard up, that is exactly what you will
    be.

  • Bessy

    So glad Martin Espada is representing the Latino voice of poetry in the USA

  • RICHARD

     Is it a crime, to call it a poem if it don’t rhyme?

    You may have something to say, that does not rhyme and that’s ok.

    But to call that a poem just will not do, it makes what you say untrue.

    If you do not rhyme, that’s not a crime.

    But to claim that you do, is just untrue.

    poem: piece written in  rhythm

  • Maricelamalvarez

    What a treat!
    Thank you so much