Summary
The latest discussion features a diverse group of poets and artists exploring the intersections of poetry, performance, and personal history. Graham Richardson, whose debut collection "Dirt Rich" reflects on the past's influence, emphasizes the importance of poetry living beyond the page, advocating for recitation and memorization as vital to its essence. He shares insights on how his upbringing in a coalfield shapes his work, revealing a deep connection to the themes of memory and belonging.
Julie Blake, co-founder of Poetry by Heart, highlights the initiative's role in encouraging young people to engage with poetry through memorization and performance. She recounts the origins of the program, which aims to lift poetry off the page and into the hearts of students, fostering a love for the art form across generations. The program has seen significant participation, with nearly 150,000 pupils involved this year, despite recent funding challenges.
Simeon Barkley discusses his performance piece "The Ruin," which intertwines personal narrative with the cultural significance of the M62 motorway. He reflects on how language and materiality inform his artistic practice, while Hastie shares her experience with the pamphlet format in poetry, celebrating its unique qualities and the freedom it offers compared to traditional collections. The conversation underscores the dynamic nature of poetry as a living, breathing art form that resonates with both personal and collective experiences.
Show Notes
Are you ready for a poetry brew? Ian McMillan is and he's joined by: Graeme Richardson, Anglican priest and the Sunday Times poetry critic, with his debut poetry collection, Dirt Rich; Dr Julie Blake, cofounder and director of Poetry By Heart - the schools and colleges poetry recitation competition, on why learning poetry when young is a gift for life; Artist Simeon Barclay, shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize for his spoken word performance, The Ruin, on making art from language; and Hasti, winner of the Michael Marks Award 2026 for their debut pamphlet, Young, Dumb, and Full of Poems. Presenter Ian McMillan Producer: Ekene Akalawu
More from The Verb
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Ian McMillan's poets show how the tiniest poem can help us brave the fiercest elements - from a haiku that's inspired generation after generation - with its careful noticing of the splosh of a frog into a pond, to a thin poem that summons the forces that shape mountains, and which end up shaping our own lives - and the poetry of biblical fire and wind. Some poets seem to be in tune with the elements - and in this show Ian celebrates the poetry of Wendell Berry, American poet and farmer - who encouraged us to 'come into the peace of wild things' in times of despair. Ian's guests are: The poets Robert Crawford and Keith Jarrett, who share poems of fire, air, water and earth. Professor of Physical Geography Jamie Woodward, who takes us close to a landscape that's inspired life-changing poems, and to poetry that can help us understand the changing landscape. Poet Kate Fox who brings us a new poem inspired by the screen-avoiding, earth-loving, farmer and poet Wendell Berry - who died in Kentucky last week. Kate wonders whether modern poets can really avoid the distraction, or the assistance, of a mobile phone when they try to get closer to the elements. Books: Robert Crawford's new book is 'Haiku. How the modern world came to fall in love with small poems from Japan' and his most recent collection of poems is 'Old World'. Keith Jarrett's latest collection is 'Hide me under the blood' Jamie Woodward's new book is 'A Little History of the Earth' Kate Fox's latest book is 'On Sycamore Gap' Produced by Faith Lawrence
Ian McMillan and poets Vona Groake, Jardel Rodrigues, Mira Rosenthal and Malgorzata Lebda bring poetry that helps us navigate storms, rivers and seas - real and metaphorical, and sound artist and musician SHHE (Su Shaw) immerses us in surprising sounds of the sea. Vona Groake’s latest collection Infinity Pool was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize this year. She’s writer in residence at St John’s College Cambridge and the Ireland Professor of Poetry at Trinity College in Dublin. Vona chooses a 'neon line' to explore and reads her own work. Su Shaw, who works as SHHE, is a sound artist and composer, whose music has been shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year. Su is based in Dundee – and has always been intimate with that city’s river - the River Tay. Her new album ‘THALASSA’ was produced sustainably, in keeping with her ecologically minded projects - and is is a six-part ambient work giving voice to the Mediterranean Sea. Jardel Rodrigues is from Old Trafford in Manchester – he’s won the BBC Words First Spoken Word Poetry Competition, and he’s a titan of Manchester’s shining spoken word institution 'Young Identity'. He brings us a new commission on the theme 'How to get through'. We hear the voice and the work of Malgorzata Lebda, a Polish poet who writes poems that reveal what flows between people and landscape. Malgorzata ran the length of the longest river in Poland, the Vischula – driven by her sense of how threatened our rivers are, a kind of poetry activism. Malgorzata's translator, Mira Rosenthal joins us to explain how she managed to convey Malgorzata's innovative way of writing about the body in her collection 'Mer de Glace' (Fitzcarraldo). Mira is a poet, and a Professor of Creative Writing based in California. Produced by Faith Lawrence
The celebrated writer Daniel Mendelsohn on his acclaimed translation of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. Poet Lydia Unsworth on finding inspiration for her new collection, Stay Awhile, in ring roads, shopping centres, and cooling towers. BBC New Generation Thinker, Joe Shute, on using poetry to reconnect communities to the waterway which powered Manchester's industrial revolution - the River Irk. Khadijah Ibrahiim discusses her choice of Neon Line for The Verb's long-running feature which asks a guest to talk about a line from a poem that shines out to them. Presenter Ian McMillan Producer: Ekene Akalawu