The Literature Observer

In this episode, James reviews four very short, fun poems (because poetry is not meant to express and entertain) which benefit from being seen in words on top of being heard:

Untitled 
By Muhammad Ali

Me.
We.

On Going to Meet a Zen Master in the Kyushu Mountains and Not Finding Him

to A.G.

By Don Patterson

Poem Recognizing Someone In The Street
By Aram Saroyan

                       ey?h

                       e?he

                   ...

James interviews the current Washington State Poet Laureate Derek Sheffield and analyzes one of his poems! Like most poems, Sometimes I Risk benefits from reading along, so a copy is included in the description, or you could navigate onto Derek's website. Sometimes I Risk combines humor with contemplation, highlights the feeling of cherishing memories, and reminds readers of the many times they found their parent peering at them through the rear-view mirror while driving.

In this podcast episode, James analyzes Shakespeare's Sonnet 30. He conquers three different interpretations of the poem in a slightly confusing, but resolving way (kind of like how the poem navigates the narrator's emotion). Please excuse the fact that his voice was corrupted by sickness at the time of recording!

Here is the poem if you would like to read along:

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes...

For the first episode of the Literature Observer, James analyzes "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. James touches on Robert Frost's biography, and reflects about the typical reader response to the poem. 

Here is the poem if you would like to read along:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then t...