Feels like listening to an MFA seminar. Cool resource that’s taught me lots and opened my perspective on familiar and new poems.

Providing the original recordings of poets reading their work and the subsequent close readings provided by the podcast editors and guests gives me hope that poetry is not dead. Please keep up the great work. Thank you.

What a shame it is to have a host for a poetry podcast - speak over guests - not taking standard cues of breaks and breaths - and curtailing and controlling the art of conversation. The form has great potential, but the ego here trumps the magic.

Al Filreis has a gravely, made-for-radio voice in the tradition of Bobby Dylan and Tommy Waits. The conversations are insightful and inviting. The breadth of poets covered is wonderful. The back catalog is extensive. What’s not to love?

I love poetry but the poems presented here are ‘meh’ at best, performed lazily, and the discussion that follows is nothing but effete say-nothingness that speaks more to the sensibilities of the “hosts” rather than the craft, history, or medium of poetry itself. If you like poetry that lacks spirit in favor of experimentation, and analysis akin to fly-fishing on a frozen lake then go right ahead.

The best available poetry podcast.

For some reason, over the past month or so, this podcast keeps updating with 20 unplayed episodes. The problem is, there are no new episodes...all 20 are past episodes. So you have to go through and click "mark as played" on all of them. Big pain. Deleting.

The "close but not too close reading" descriptor that is used to open these podcasts is accurate. It is typically three folks chatting about what they like about a poem, its structure, word choices and some historical information about the author and the poem. Al Filreis does a good job of keeping the discussion moving as well as from becoming too pedantic. The only recurring weakness is that the sound quality of some of the readings (all of the poems are read by the author) are not that good. The audio quality of the discussions is fine. It would be helpful, if copyright permits, to have the poem presented in the lyrics part of the podcast. Have been able to find them on the web.

I recommend this podcast most highly to teachers, students, writers, & lovers of poetry. The conversation is spirited and unscripted; the choice of poems is superb, running a gamut unmatched by most literary reviews. It's a rare thing to devote an entire conversation to a single poem these days. If only the papers covered poetry with such concentration and verve!

Nice podcast, but at times it sounds like exactly what it is: poets in a closed room talking about poetry. I have listened to the podcast for several months, and found some of the readings are tight, and others drain the life blood from a poem ("I don't even accept my own reading, but I suppose I can accept hers"). Still one of the better podcasts on poetry.

Love that this podcast breaks down the thick wall between the sometimes-perceived "esoteric" poetry world and the everyday reader/listener. Poetry can be for everyone! I also hope that these podcasts make for better poets. Nobody likes an under-read poet.

"A close...but not too close reading": perfect description. Panelists don't get so close to the poem that we can't see it, but they don't talk around the poem, either. Terrific podcast.

I was fortunate enough to attend an undergrad institution with small classes. My creative writing advisor would hold classes in his living room, a tray of coffee and tea in the middle. Each discussion harkens back to those days of learning about and interpreting poetry with others. It even improves upon the experience in a specific area: every contributor is distinguished and has interesting insight into the works. (No stinky, weird guy who always has super weird feedback that seemingly has nothing to do with the topic at hand!) Thank you and please, please keep up the wonderful work!

A wonderful addition to the podcast library! Love that the poems are read by the actual authors. Insightful and entertaining discussion. Please make more!

Well, I'm biased...but I'm very proud and happy that PoemTalk is finally launched. We are having fun with it. Next episode due out January 7, 2008. Then one new one after that every 3 weeks. Subsequent shows feature poems by Adrienne Rich, Allen Ginsberg singing Blake, Ted Berrigan, George Oppen, Jaap Blonk, Jerry Rothenberg. Stay tuned.