Present Poetry
By Erynn Crittenden
Tune in every Wednesday to learn about a new poet, hear five of their poems read aloud (with permission), and explore the relevant links provided in the show notes.
It's the perfect podcast for people who love poetry and want to discover someone new, so follow and subscribe today!
Present PoetryFeb 22, 2023
Poetry by Julie Brandon
Julie Brandon is a poet, playwright, storyteller, and lyricist. Her work has appeared in Bewildering Stories, Corner Bar Magazine, Awakenings Review, Poetica Magazine, Writing of Love During War: Poems anthology, Am Yisrael Chai anthologies vol. 1 and 2, Mini Plays Magazine, Of The Book Literary Journal, and Fresh Words.
Several of her short plays and monologues have been produced locally and in Great Britain, and two short plays will be presented on podcasts later this year.
She lives in a Chicago, IL suburb.
Poetry Reading with Julie Flanders
Julie Flanders is known for her passionate and haunting texts. Her first book of poetry, entitled Joyride, was a number-one bestseller on Amazon in its category.
An award-winning poet and songwriter, Flanders is the lyricist for the band, October Project. It is still celebrated for its two groundbreaking albums on Epic Records that have sold over 1/2 million copies worldwide.
Her songs with OP and other artists have been widely featured on TV and in film, and she is considered an innovator in both the creation and marketing of independent music.
To check out her work, visit her Website.
Or, click here to submit to the October Project Poetry Contest.
Poetry by Gargi Sidana
Gargi Sidana is a voracious reader and skilled writer from India.
Her poems were published in Spillword, Hues of Reflection Anthology, Silent Cries, Red Rose Thorns publication, Amar Ujala, Delhi Poetry Slam, Iceblink Literary Journal, and others.
She also received a diploma in 2019.
Her fervent love for words is visible in her writings, and she finds peace and solace in poems.
Poetry by C.J. Anderson-Wu
C.J. ANDERSON-WU (吳介禎) is a Taiwanese writer who has published two collections about Taiwan's military dictatorship (1949–1987), known as The White Terror: Impossible to Swallow (2017) and The Surveillance (2020). She is currently working on her third book Endangered Youth—to Hong Kong.
Her short stories have been shortlisted for several international literary awards, including the Art of Unity Creative Award by the International Human Rights Art Festival.
She also won the Strands Lit International Flash Fiction Competition, the Invisible City Blurred Genre Literature Competition, and the Wordweavers Literature Contest.
Since her writing is largely historical, here are the notes provided for each poem.
Poem 1: Candle Glow in Ukraine and Hong King
"The publishing industry in Ukraine experienced significant growth after the outbreak of the war, as reading became one of the few activities people could engage in during power outages caused by bombardments. Additionally, the invasion led the Ukrainian public to value their own culture, history, and language more deeply.
On June 4th each year, people in Hong Kong would hold a candle vigil at Victoria Park for those who died during the Tiananmen Square Crackdown in 1989. However, since the implementation of the National Security Law by China in 2020, any event commemorating the slaughter of June 4th has become illegal. Several pro-democracy activists who persisted in continuing the vigil have been arrested and imprisoned without due process of law."
Poem 2: Footprints Left By Your Body Heat
"Footprints Left By Your Body Heat" pays respect to two professors from the Journalism College of Fudan University in Shanghai, who stood between policemen and students during the protests against severe restrictions for zero-Covid policy."
Poem 3: Secrets of A Wounded City
"Denise Ho, a Hong Kong pop music star, actively supported the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the Anti-extradition protest in 2019. Now she is silenced, as were millions of pro-democracy Hong Kongers, by the draconian National Security Law implemented by China in 2020. Her song “Secrets of A Wounded City” was from a 2006 movie Confession of Pain."
Poem 4: There Is No Illegal Vigil
"Tonyee Chow Hang-Tung, a Hong Kong lawyer and pro-democracy activist, was convicted for inciting an unlawful assembly in 2021 under China’s National Security Law. The so-called unlawful assembly was the vigil held in Hong Kong for victims of the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, while “64” or “June Fourth” among other keywords of the massacre are filtered out from all media in China, and Chinese people have no knowledge about it. Tonyee Chow Hang-Tung refuses to plead guilty for a lenient sentence, currently, she is incarcerated in Stanley Prison."
Poetry by Devika Mathur
Devika Mathur resides in India and is a published poet, content writer, and Editor.
Her works have been published (or are upcoming) in Madras Courier, Modern Literature, Two Drops Of Ink, Dying Dahlia Review, Pif Magazine, Spillwords, Duane's Poetree, Piker Press, Mojave Heart Review, Whisper and the Roar amongst various others. She also has poems in the US-based Indie Blu(e) Publications- The Kali Project and As the World Burns.
She recently published her surreal poetry book, Crimson Skins, which is now available worldwide.
To connect with this author, check out her Blog or her Instagram.
A Celtic Psaltery by Alfred P. Graves
Happy St. Patrick's Week!
Alfred Perceval Graves was born July 22, 1846, in Dublin, Ireland. Alfred was educated both in England, at Windermere College, Westmorland, and in Ireland, at Trinity College Dublin. His first poem appeared in the Dublin University Magazine in 1863, and he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1869.
He is the author of the comedic songFather O'Flynn, as well as many other songs and ballads. He published Songs of Old Ireland (1882) and Irish Songs and Ballads (1893), the airs of which are taken from the Petrie manuscripts. He published a collection of Irish folk songs in 1897, followed by the Songs of Erin in 1901.
Graves also had a keen interest in the Welsh language and the culture of Wales; he was elected as a Welsh bard in 1902.
He published an autobiography, To Return to All That, in 1930, as a response to his son Robert's World War I memoir, Good-Bye to All That.
Alfred Perceval Graves died on December 27, 1931 in Harlech.
Satires of Circumstance by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy was born June 2nd, 1840 in Higher Brockhampton, Dorset, England. When he was eight, Hardy began attending Mr. Last's Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester. While there, he demonstrated great academic potential. However, his family didn't have the means for higher education, so he left school at 16 and became apprenticed to a local architect.
In 1898, Hardy published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, a collection of poems written over 30 years. While some suggest that Hardy gave up writing novels following the harsh criticism of Jude the Obscure in 1896, it was never verified.
Hardy then published Poems of the Past and the Present in 1901, which contains "The Darkling Thrush" (originally titled "The Century's End"), one of his best-known poems about the turn of the century.
Some of Hardy's more famous works are from Poems 1912–13, a collection of poems written following the death of his wife Emma in 1912. They had been estranged for 20 years, and these lyric poems express a deeply felt "regret and remorse".
In 1910, Hardy was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit and was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was nominated again for the prize 11 years later and received a total of 25 nominations until 1927, but never won.
In 1914, Hardy was one of fifty-three leading British authors—including H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in the First World War.
Hardy became ill with pleurisy in December 1927 and died on January 11th, 1928 at 88 years old. His funeral was on January 16th at Westminster Abbey, and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His family and friends concurred; however, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner.
Although his poems were initially not as well received as his novels, Hardy is now recognized as one of the great poets of the 20th century, and his verse had a profound influence on later writers, including Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Philip Larkin.
We are reading from Satires of Circumstance, a collection published in 1914.
Into the Western Sky by Erynn Crittenden
Erynn Crittenden has written poetry since she could hold a pen. This love prompted her to earn a BA in Creative Writing, where she learned how to experiment with syllables and styles.
Since then, Erynn has self-published three poetry collections through Amazon and continues to write and publish individual poems, articles, and stories on her website.
Erynn is also a poetry staff writer for the Coffee House Writers, as well as the creator and host of the Present Poetry Podcast.
To learn more, visit her website or check out her books on Amazon!
The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was born August 3, 1887, in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, and was the third child of William Parker Brooke and Ruth Mary Cotterill.
In October of 1906, Rupert went to King's College, Cambridge, to study classics. There, he became a member of the Apostles, was elected president of the university Fabian Society, and helped found the Marlowe Society drama club, where he acted in several productions, including the Cambridge Greek Play.
Brooke enlisted at the outbreak of war in 1914 and served as a Royal Naval volunteer reserve temporary sub-lieutenant assigned to the Royal Naval division.
In 1915, Brooke became an official "war poet" when the Times Literary Supplement published two sonnets- The Dead and The Soldier.
Rupert Brooke died on April 23, 1915, on a French hospital ship moored off the Greek island of Skyros. He was 27.
To learn more, visit the link above or check out his Wikipedia page.
Valentine's Day Special!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Let us help you set the mood with a special episode of classic love poems from Love's Sweet, Old Song, a compilation published in 1896 by George H. Ellwanger. Enjoy!
Poetry by Aishwarya Khale
Aishwarya Khale has studied English at the University of Oxford. She has worked at UNDP India and SWA India.
She has published her poetry and fiction on platforms across the globe, and her play has been performed at The Golden Goose Theatre in London.
You can find her on Twitter or Instagram to learn more or connect with this author.
Selected Poems of Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California.
In 1894, Frost sold his first poem to The Independent, a weekly magazine published in New York. He published his first poetry collection- A Boy's Will- in 1913. He published his second collection, North of Boston, in 1914.
In 1915, Frost launched a career of teaching, writing, and lecturing- specifically on the myriad sounds and intonations of the spoken English language in writing. He called his colloquial approach to language "the sound of sense."
He won his first of four Pulitzer prizes in 1924 for the book New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes. He would win additional Pulitzers for Collected Poems in 1931, A Further Range in 1937, and A Witness Tree in 1943.
In 1960, Frost was awarded a United States Congressional Gold Medal "In recognition of his poetry, which has enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world," which was formally bestowed on him by President Kennedy in March 1962.
Frost died in Boston on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate surgery. He was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph reads: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world.", which is the last line of his poem "The Lesson for Today," published in 1942.
To learn more about this iconic author, check out the link above or visit his Wikipedia Page.
We are reading from Selected Poems, published by Henry Holt and Company in 1923.
Behold This Dreamer by Elizabeth Bartlett
Born Elizabeth Roberta Winters on July 20, 1911, in New York City, she was always a bright child who skipped grades and graduated with her bachelor's degree in 1931 at 20. She then graduated with her postgraduate degree in 1940 and began a rich life devoted to writing and teaching.
She met Paul Alexander Bartlett in 1941, a fellow writer and artist. They were married in 1943 and had one child, a son, born in 1945.
Overall, she published 16 collections of poetry, a thousand individually published poems, and a host of essays, short stories, and translations.
In 1968, she invented the twelve-tone form of poetry. She also founded the Literary Olympics around 1982.
Elizabeth died on August 12, 1994. To learn more, check out her Wikipedia page.
We are reading from Behold This Dreamer, a book of poetry published in 1959.
Poetry by Philip Berry
Philip Berry is a doctor from London. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in Black Bough, Poetry Birmingham, The Healing Muse, Deracine, and Dream Noir.
He also has several books, a medical ethics blog, and more- which you can find through his website at www.philberrycreative.wordpress.com. You can also connect with him on social media through the tag @philaberry.
Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild on August 22, 1893, in New Jersey.
She sold her first poem in 1914 to Vanity Fair, which launched a 20+ year career as a poet, critic, screenwriter, and humorist. She wrote over 300 poems, over 15 movies (including one nominated for an Academy Award), a few short story collections, and more.
She was also a Civil Rights advocate and gave her estate to MLKJR upon her death.
To learn more about this incredible poet, click the link above or visit her Wikipedia page.
We are reading from Enough Rope, her first poetry collection published in 1926.
The Snow-Drop by Sarah S. Mower
Miss Sarah S. Mower has been misfortune's child. Disease laid its relentless hand upon her in early childhood. It deprived her of a common school education and the world's sweet intercourse. Such has been its nature, that, except on one occasion, she has not been able to leave home for more than six years.
"THE SNOW-DROP" would never have appeared had not life's wintry hour given it birth! It was written to beguile tedious time. Winds, as they played through groves that surround her aged father's retired and humble dwelling, sweet songsters, as they caroled from spray to spray, and the ripple of the Androscoggin, as it glided past, to her ear, were nature's sweet minstrels, that cheered her heart in solitude and inspired her, too, to attempt the artless strains of nature.
This little work, at the suggestion of her friends, is presented and dedicated to the benevolent public, humbly hoping and trusting that it may give pastime to the leisure hour, impress more fully moral and religious sentiment, and afford some little return for the thought she has bestowed upon it.
Taken from the preface of The Snow-Drop: A Holiday Gift
Poetry by Prince Views
Chamber Music by James Joyce
James Augustine Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882, and was the oldest of ten surviving children of John Joyce and Mary Jane Murray.
At nine years old, James wrote his first poem, "Et Tu, Healy," in response to his father's anger and betrayal after the death of Charles Stewart Parnell.
In 1898, he enrolled at University College to study English, French, and Italian. While there, he became acquainted with the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas, which had a strong influence on the rest of his life.
Joyce didn't find true fame until 1914 with the release of Dubliners. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published in 1916, and Ulysses in 1922. Finnegans Wake, a stream-of-consciousness novel, came out in 1939 and was the last work published while he lived.
James Joyce passed on January 13, 1941, in Zurich, days away from his 59th birthday.
However, his works still hold sway over modern authors and artists because Joyce's fascination with the details of everyday life opened new possibilities for expression, and they are used across the art and literary world to this day.
We are reading from Chamber Music, his first collection of poetry published in 1907.
Poems New and Old by John F. Freeman
John Frederick Freeman was born on January 29, 1880 in London. When he was 13, he got a job as an office boy in an insurance firm and went on to have a successful career before quitting to write poetry full-time.
He met Walter De La Mare in 1907, and the two poets became fast friends.
Freeman won the Hawthornden Prize in 1920 for his poetry collection, and he ended up writing sixteen bodies of work consisting of poetry collections, letters, and essays between 1911 and 1929.
Freeman passed on September 23, 1929.
We are reading from Poems New and Old, a collection published in 1920.
Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born on December 4, 1875, in Prague.
In 1886, he was enrolled in a military academy, where he attended until an illness forced him out in 1891. He then enrolled in a trade school but got expelled in 1892.
After getting expelled, he took his writing seriously and published Life and Songs, his first poetry collection, in 1894.
In 1896, Rilke moved to Munich, where he met and fell in love with Lou Andreas-Salome. He changed his name from Rene to Rainer at her bidding, and they continued a relationship until 1900. However, she remained a close friend and confidant of Rainer's until his passing.
In 1900, Rainer met sculptor Clara Westhoff, and they eventually married and had a daughter. By then, he had some acclaim for his writings and was known as one of Germany's most intense lyrical poets.
That inspired Rainer to begin one of his most ambitious projects, called the Duino Elegies. He began writing it while living as a guest in the Duino Castle in 1912, but depression, the war, and other roadblocks kept him from finishing it until 1922.
However, once he published it, it quickly gained a reputation for being his most important work.
Rainer died on December 29, 1926, of leukemia. Before he died, Rainer had chosen a poem as his epitaph, and it's now inscribed on his gravestone.
It reads:
Rose, o pure contradiction, desire
to be no one's sleep beneath so many
lids.
(please forgive any mispronunciations. I did my best!)
Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen by Bliss Carman
William Bliss Carman was born on April 15, 1861, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
While at school, Carman discovered a love of classical literature through the poetry of Dante Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne.
It inspired him to write, and he published his first poem in the University's monthly paper in 1879.
Overall, William Carman published 13 books of poetry and several books of prose and drama.
His health began declining between 1908 and 1920, and he decided to return to Canada to start the first of a very successful line of reading tours. In 1921, Carman was awarded the title of Canada's Poet Laureate.
He sadly passed away on June 8, 1929, from a brain hemorrhage. He was cremated and eventually returned to his hometown of Fredericton for burial.
Twenty-five years later, the town planted a scarlet maple tree on his grave to honor a stanza in his 1892 poem "The Grave Tree."
It read:
Let me have a scarlet maple
For the grave-tree at my head,
With the quiet sun behind it,
In the years when I am dead.
We are reading from Behind the Arras, a poetry collection published in 1895.
Poetry by John M. Mullen
John Mullen was attached to the art world for 11 years while he worked to supply an artist with ideas (and got paid a pittance for it). However, that job allowed him the space to steep himself in art (and literature, to a point). Mullen has a real love for artists and feels that they contribute to society in more ways than is appreciated.
He also believes that the imagination (taking from Blakean thought) is the real force for good in the human psyche. In his mind, imagination is the key.
His love of writing poetry stretches back many years, and he tries to learn as he goes. He does try to distance himself from other poets for fear that he'll end up trying to imitate them. Instead, he falls in love with certain poems that catch his attention.
Especially Blake. In Mullen's eyes, Blake's artwork is more profound than his poetry, but the English author's words affected Mullen as well.
We are reading five of Mullen's poems that reflect his love of words, imagination, and appreciation for the art world. If you'd like to learn more about this author and his works, you can connect with him on Twitter.
Autumn Leaves by Ardelia Maria Cotton Barton
Ardelia Marie Cotton was Born July 22, 1836, in Nobleboro, Lincoln County, Maine, to Henry Page Cotton and Emeline Seiders. She married Benjamin Franklin Barton in 1872, ended up moving to California at some point, and passed on November 9, 1914, at the age of 78.
During her life, she wrote at least five books that we know of, most of them poetry collections, all of which received favorable reviews.
We are reading from Autumn Leaves, a poetry collection published in 1908. Interestingly enough, the preface to this collection states that the original manuscript perished in the great fire of April 1906. She began writing it anew on June 12, 1908, and published it in September of that same year.
According to Ardelia, "It has given me new courage, and by searching, perhaps you may find one leaf among my Autumn Leaves that you will feel was painted expressly for you, and is worthy to be pressed upon the tablet of your heart."
Midnight Forever 17: Coffin Shaped by Brandon D. Henry
(Explicit warning for disturbing visuals)
Brandon D. Henry is a Texas-based author who's been writing and publishing for over twenty years. He specializes in writing horror stories and gothic poems and likes to draw inspiration from both fantasy and fact.
Henry has 48 horror collections published through Straightjacket Publications, and you can find them all through his Amazon profile. We are reading from a collection of gothic-style love poetry titled Coffin Shaped, which is part of his Midnight Forever 17 series.
To learn more about this author and his works, visit his Amazon profile or connect with him on Instagram.
Want to submit your work to the podcast? Then check out the form at Present-Poetry.com!
Poetry (and BIG news) From Erynn Crittenden
Hello! It's me, Erynn- the creator and host of the Present Poetry Podcast!
Earlier this month was Present Poetry's ONE-YEAR anniversary, and I cannot thank you enough for the support you've given this podcast.
To celebrate, we're expanding!
Present Poetry now has a Twitter Account, a Facebook Page, and (very soon), a Website! I'm also hosting LIVE podcast episodes on my Twitch channel twice a month, so make sure you follow us for more news and info.
Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy more Present Poetry episodes in the years to come!
The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater
Walter Horatio Pater was born on August 4, 1839, and was the second son of Dr. Richard Pater. After his father's untimely death, Walter's family moved to Enfield, where Walter attended the Enfield Grammar School until 1853 when he left to attend the King's School in Canterbury.
While there, Walter read John Ruskin's Modern Painters, which inspired a love of art and prose. He eventually gained a school exhibition, which he took to the Queen's College in 1858.
In 1866, he anonymously published his first critical essay on the metaphysics of Coleridge in the Westminster Review. He then published an essay on Winckelmann in 1867, followed by the Poems of William Morris in 1868.
In the following years, the Fortnightly Review printed essays on Leonardo da Vinci (1869), Sandro Botticelli (1870), and Michelangelo (1871).
These publications eventually became Walter's first collected works, known as The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, which he published in 1873.
Walter Pater died of heart failure caused by rheumatic fever on July 30, 1894. He is now buried at the Holywell Cemetery in Oxford, and his home at 12 Earl's Terrace, Kensington, is now part of the English Heritage.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by Anne Hunter
Anne Hunter was born to Robert Boyne Home of Greenlaw Castle, Berwickshire, in 1742. She was the eldest daughter, and while we don't know much about her early life, we do know that She began writing as early as the 1760s. In 1765, her lyrical poem "Flowers of the Forest" was published in The Lark, an Edinburgh periodical, and offered her a moment of fame.
In 1771, she married acclaimed scientist and surgeon John Hunter. They eventually had two children, and Anne would go on to host elaborate salons with the chief literary personalities of her time.
Those parties would introduce her to the Bluestockings, a group of women who would become Anne's friends. They encouraged her poetry, and she published a collection in 1802 but received little acclaim.
One critic even said her poetry had no depth of thought, but rather a natural feeling of expression that may make them worth reading.
After her husband's death in 1793, Anne fell on hard times until the combined efforts of parliament and her son-in-law bailed her out of debt and set her up for retirement, where she lived until her death in 1821.
We are reading from the Modern Scottish Minstrel, an anthology of poetry compiled by Charles Rogers LL. D. and published around 1855.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by Ali Ashhar
Ali Ashhar is a poet, short story writer, and columnist from Jaunpur, India. He is the author of Mirror of Emotions, a poetry collection published by Notion Press in 2021.
Following the release of his book, he was chosen as the Best Debut Author for the year 2021 by The Indian Awaz. Ashhar was also the recipient of an India Prime 100 Authors Award.
His works have been published extensively in the journals of 15 countries, including the Indian Review, The Raven Review, Wild Court International Poetry Journal, and The Bosphorus Review of Books.
To learn more about Ashhar and his works, you can connect with him on Instagram or follow his profile on All Poetry.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by K.G. Munro
K.G. Munro is an author and poet from Scotland.
Her poetry has been featured in numerous publications, such as Indian Periodical, Poetry Potion, Splendeur magazine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Spillwords, Fevers of the Mind, Friday Flash Fiction, and Poet Magazine.
She also has a poetry collection coming out soon.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by Joel O'Connor
Joel O'Connor is an Australian poet who likes to draw on scientific research to create poems about the connection between science and magic in the natural world.
His love of poetry began in his younger years, and he won his high school's poetry award during his last two years there.
That award inspired him to create Poetry Australia, a non-profit organization to help promote and support poetry from non-traditional sources.
Aside from his poetry, Joel is also a playwright and has written several plays that have been performed in Sydney and Melbourne.
You can connect with him through Instagram and Twitter. You can also check out his website at Joeloconnor.net.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by Hannah Pearl
(Marked explicit for light use of adult language)
Hannah Pearl is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, with a degree in psychology. Over the years, she has worked in special education and customer service. Pearl is a published author with A.B. Baird Publishing. The company saw potential in Pearl’s poetry, which is how her debut collection- Laughing with My Hair Up- was born. She is also published in the literary magazines Snapdragon and Burningword Journal.
To learn more about this author and her works, you can connect with her on Instagram and Twitter or check out her book, Laughing with My Hair Up, on Amazon.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Poetry by John Keats
(marked explicit for the usage of old slang words that may be offensive)
John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in Moorgate. His parents were Thomas and Francis Keats, and John was the eldest of four children.
While attending the Clarke's School, Keats enjoyed the classics and history, but he left to study medicine after his mother passed in 1810. However, his love of writing never wavered, and Keats became a full-time poet in 1816.
He wrote around 150 poems during his life, many of which are considered to be masterpieces.
Keats died of tuberculosis on February 28, 1821. He was 25. His headstone reads:
"This Grave contains all that was Mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, Who, on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart, at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water."
To learn more about this author and his works, visit the link above or check out his Wikipedia page.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
OPEN SUBMISSIONS
If you write poetry, I want to read it!!! That's why Present Poetry Podcast offers this OPEN SUBMISSION CALL for poets of all ages, types, and genres!
Submit a biography, links you want to share, and five (5) poems to PresentPoetryPodcast@Gmail.com or through the form at LadyErynn.com/Present-poetry-podcast.
Any length, style, genre, and subject are welcome, but please include a content warning for anything graphic.
Among the Trees Again by Evaleen Stein
Evaleen Stein was born on October 12, 1863, in Lafayette, Indiana, where she remained for her entire life.
In 1886, Evaleen wrote her first poem and sent it to the Indianapolis Journal for publication. They loved it, and she contributed to the journal (and other newspapers) for several years.
This was only the beginning of Evaleen's writing career, and she published eleven volumes of stories and three books of verse.
Aside from her writing career, Evaleen was also an accomplished artist who did decorative work for Chicago and New York societies as an illuminator.
Like her poetry, her artwork was sentimental but true to technique and featured a floral or natural theme.
Evaleen Stein passed on December 11, 1923, in her "little house of Dreams" and was interred in Lafayette's Greenbush Cemetery. She was 60 years old.
We are reading poems from her second book of poetry, Among the Trees Again, which she published in 1902.
To learn more about this author and their works, click the link above or check out their Wikipedia page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was born in La Celle Saint Cloud, France, on July 27, 1870. His father was Louis Belloc, a French lawyer, and his mother was renowned English writer and women's advocate Bessie Rayner Parks.
Hilaire married Elodie Hogan, his long-time love, on June 15, 1896, after his graduation from Oxford. The two had five children before her death in 1914.
During his distinguished career, Hilaire wrote over 150 books on poetry, warfare, religion, and other prevalent topics. He was also one of the big four of Edwardian Letters, putting him in the ranks of HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and GK Chesterton.
Hillaire Belloc died on July 16, 1953, at Mt. Alvernia Nursing Home in Guilford, Surrey. However, his legacy in writing, history, and politics lives on.
His most acclaimed book, and the one we are reading from, is The Cautionary Tales for Children. Published in 1907, this book of poems describes humorous situations with a stark moral lesson.
To learn more about this poet, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
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Carry On by Virna Sheard
Virna Sheard was born Virna Stanton on April 12, 1860, just after the Vernal Equinox. She lived in Cobourg, Ontario, with her aunt as her parents- photographer Eldridge Stanton and his wife Elizabeth- traveled through the US taking war pictures.
She later moved to Toronto to attend school and remained there for the rest of her life.
In 1884, she married Dr. Charles Sheared, Toronto's first chief medical officer, and began the journey to motherhood. Unfortunately, her first set of twins were stillborn, but Virna never gave up hope and ended up with four sons: Charls Jr., Paul, Joseph, and Terence.
In 1889, Virna composed her first poems and submitted them to a popular children's magazine. With the editor's encouragement, she regularly contributed poems and short stories to several magazines across Canada and the US- including St. Nicholas, the Globe, Saturday Night, New England Magazine, and more.
Her first novel, Trevelyan's Little Daughters, came out in 1898 and displayed a rare sensitivity to a child's perspective. However, as her children grew, so did her writing, and she began writing for more mature audiences when her sons entered school.
Her first volume of poetry, The Miracle and Other Poems, came out in 1913 and was dedicated to her younger brother, Eldridge Jr., who died during the Niagra Falls Ice Bridge incident in 1912.
Despite her husband's reluctance to support Vina's writing, she produced seven novels and six collections of poetry before her death. She was regarded as one of Canada's best-known poets and authors.
Virna Sheard passed on February 22, 1943, in her hometown of Toronto. She was 83.
We are reading from Carry On, a collection of poems published in 1917 under the Distinguished Patronage of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire in Aid of the Red Cross.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
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Boys and Girls by James Foley
James William Foley was born on February 4th, 1874, in St. Louis, Mo. He moved to Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota in the late 1870s, following his father's career as a military man. There, James attended school until the family moved to Bismark, where he eventually graduated from high school in 1888.
He then moved to Medora for a year to attend the University of South Dakota before spending several years in the Badlands.
In later years, Foley worked as a writer and editor for the Bismarck Tribune. He also became interested in state politics and for many years served as a stringer for several national newspapers.
In 1902, Foley published Prairie Breezes, his first book and the namesake for the Bismark High School Yearbook.
When Roosevelt traveled through North Dakota in 1903, Foley wrote a poem celebrating his return. He also wrote a poem entitled “Theodore & Joe,” about the friendship between Roosevelt and his first hunting guide Joe Ferris.
Later, in 1906, Roosevelt spoke highly of Foley in the introduction to Foley's book, Voices of Song. In it, he called Foley "one of the comparatively few men of that time and region who was devoted to reading and to books." He also claimed that "Now and then, after six or eight weeks on the range with valued friends who were of distinctly non-literary type, I would come in to spend an evening with Mr. Foley for the especial purpose of again listening to speech about books."
Foley wrote prose for the New York Times and the Saturday Evening Post. He also produced more than a dozen books of poetry and was regarded as the unofficial Poet Laureate of North Dakota. In 1926 the Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Dakota, Minnie J. Nielson, invited Foley to write lyrics for a song about North Dakota. Foley’s song, “North Dakota Hymn,” was officially adopted as the North Dakota State Song in 1947.
Sadly, he wouldn't live to see it become Dakota's state song because James William Foley passed away on May 19, 1939, at 65.
He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park of Glendale, California, where he and his wife lived at the time.
We are reading from Boys and Girls, a poetry collection published in 1905.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
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Bankrupt (and other poems) by James Parkerson
James Parkerson is a tragic example of a poet lost to history because, despite my research, there are very few facts about this poet to offer you.
I do know that he was English born and lived in Norwich for most of his life. He's also the eldest son, as indicated by his full name of James Parkerson Junior, and was possibly a religious or spiritual type.
He published nine collections of poetry in the early 1800s, and all of them reference the current events of the time, explore the morality of the people, and offer advice on how to transform your life for the better.
Today, we are reading from Characters of Life (Or Moral Hints in Verse) and his Poetical Works and it's my hope that Present Poetry can breathe some life into this forgotten poet and give him a taste of the influence he may have enjoyed in the past.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
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35 Sonnets by Fernando Pessoa
Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was born on June 13, 1888, in Lisbon, Portugal.
In 1896, Fernando sailed to South Africa with his mother to join his stepfather, a consul in Durban. There, he received his education at the St. Joseph Convent School, run by Irish and French nuns. In 1899, Fernando moved to the Durban High School and quickly became fluent in English. He also developed an appreciation for English literature- so much so that he was awarded the Queen Victoria Memorial Prize for best paper in English during his university exam.
In 1904, the Natal Mercury published his poem "Hillier did first usurp the realms of rhyme" under the pseudonym C.R. Anon. In December of that same year, the Durban High School Magazine published his poem, Macaulay.
In 1905, The Natal Mercury published four of his sonnets, all under anonymous pseudonyms, giving him a taste for publication.
However, Fernando returned to Lisbon in 1905 to study diplomacy, but a combination of illness and political unrest ended his formal education.
In 1907, he was a practitioner at R.G. Dun & Company, an American mercantile information agency. When his grandfather died that September, Fernando used his inheritance to set up his own publishing house, the Empreza Ibis, but it wasn't successful and closed down in 1910.
In 1912, Fernando Pessoa entered the literary world with a critical essay that triggered one of the most important literary debates of the Portuguese intellectual world.
He founded an art journal, Athena, in 1924, where he published verses under the pseudonyms Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis. He also worked as a freelance commercial translator while diving into life as a writer, literary critic, and political analyst. During this time, Fernando contributed to 32 journals and newspapers
In 1925, he wrote an English guidebook to Lisbon, but it went unpublished until 1992.
In 1935, Fernando Pessoa entered the hospital complaining of abdominal pain and fever. He then wrote his last words- "I know not what tomorrow will bring."
He died the next day, on November 30, 1935, at the young age of 47. Critics dispute the cause of death, but the two most common ideas are cirrhosis of the liver or pancreatitis- both caused by Fernando's love of drink.
Fernando Pessoa contributed hundreds of works to the Portuguese and English literary scene, and he remains an influential figure in Lisbon culture. We are reading from 35 Sonnets, a collection of English poetry published in 1918.
To learn more about this author and his works, click the link above or visit his Wikipedia page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
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Poetry by Brandon Nguyen
Brandon Nguyen was born in California where he continues to live. Following the nationwide pandemic, he would often write his thoughts down in the form of poetry. Flowers, sunsets, and whatever else he saw helped inspire what he writes today.
When he's not writing poetry, Brandon enjoys reading, making coffee, cooking, and video games. Brandon submitted his poetry through the form at LadyErynn.com.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Poetry by Vibha Kashyap
Vibha Kashyap is a high school student interested in the creative arts, and they're eager to share their talents with the world. They enjoy expressing themselves through art (especially poetry) and use it to navigate their inner pains and joys. Their greatest goal in life is to reach someone they don't know and connect with them through their emotional poetry.
Vibha submitted their poetry through the form at LadyErynn.com.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Ballads and Other Poems by George Lansing Raymond
George Lansing Raymond was born in September of 1839 to Benjamin Wright Raymond, the twice-elected mayor of Chicago, and his wife, Amelia.
He attended Phillips Academy in Andover before graduating in 1858 and moving on to Williams College, where he became a prominent member of the Kappa Alpha Society. He then studied at the Princeton theological seminary, where he studied philosophy.
After graduating from Princeton in 1865, George married Elizabeth Blake in 1872 and had one daughter, Maybelle.
He also began a long career as a professor. He taught at Williams from 1874 to 1880, then became a professor of Oratory at Princeton from 1880 to 1905, then moved on to become a professor of Esthetics at George Washington University from 1905 to 1912.
During that time, George wrote a systematic theory of art published in seven volumes between 1886 and 1900. It became one of the first comprehensive and systematic theories of art, and the New York Times even claimed that George "pierces through the manifestations of art to their sources, and shows the relations, intimate and essential, between painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture."
George became famous for using psychology and biology in his theory, which helped marry art and reality. In his book, the Essentials of Esthetics, George claims that "the different arts have been shown to be developed by exactly similar methods; and these methods have been shown to characterize the entire work of artistic imagination, from the formulation of psychical concepts to that of their most physical expressions in rhythm, proportion, and harmony."
George Raymond passed away on July 11, 1929, of pneumonia. He was 89 at the time of his death and was a member of many notable clubs, including the National Arts of New York and the Authors of London.
Some scholars believe his legacy to be impactful if neglected and hope to see a resurgence of George's theories in the coming years.
We are reading from one of the few poetry books he ever wrote- Ballads, and Other Poems, published in 1886.
To learn more about this author and his works, visit the links above or check out his Wikipedia page.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Against This Age by Maxwell Bodenheim
Maxwell Bodenheim was born on May 26th, 1892, in Hermanville, Mississippi. In 1900, when Maxwell was eight, the family moved from Mississippi to Chicago. Maxwell remained under the radar until 1912 when he met writer Ben Hecht. The two quickly formed a literary friendship, and Bodenheim published his first poem in 1914, then again in 1917.
He married his first wife, Minna, in 1918. They had a son, Solbert, in 1920 but divorced in 1938.
At this time, Bodenheim had established himself as a leading figure in the bohemian scene of New York's Greenwich Village, an active member of the Raven Poetry Circle, and an upcoming American author. He published ten books of poetry between 1918 and 1946 and co-founded the Chicago Literary Times with Ben Hecht in 1923. However, he quickly deteriorated after his success and became a panhandler. Then, he married his second wife, Grace, in 1939, and they lived in the Catskills until her untimely death in 1950.
In 1952, Bodenheim married Ruth Fagin, who shared his affinity for Bodenheim's derelict lifestyle. Homeless, they slept on park benches. Bodenheim would panhandle or write verse for money and drink, while Ruth became a prostitute- a career that Bodenheim would beat her for.
Their wild and carefree lifestyle eventually caught up to them, and Maxwell Bodenheim and Ruth Fagin were murdered on February 6th, 1954, by Harold, a 25-year-old dishwasher. Allegedly, he slept with Ruth while Bodenheim was passed out drunk, but when Bodenheim confronted the pair, Harold shot him before beating and stabbing Ruth to death.
Despite his macabre ending, Bodenheim left a legacy that continues to make waves in literary circles. We are reading from Against this Age, a collection of poetry published in 1923 at the height of Bodenheim's career. To learn more about this author and his works, check out the link above or visit his Wikipedia page.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Poetry by Stuart Brkn Johns
Stuart Brkn Johns was born in 1979 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has a deep passion for poetry and is often compelled to express his thoughts and emotions in diverse literary forms, from Prose to Haiku, depending on the creative inspiration of the moment.
In 2012, he was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, which has led to some unique challenges in his personal and professional life.
Nevertheless, he strives to pour his heart and soul out through his verse and is the author of seven poetry collections- all of which can be found on Amazon.
If you'd like to know more about this author and his works, check out his Goodreads profile or connect with him on Twitter!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9, 1821, in Paris, France to Joseph-Francois Baudelaire (a French civil servant and amateur artist) and his young wife, Caroline.
After his father died and his mother remarried, Charles was sent to Lyon for education and boarded there for several years. One of his classmates described him as "much more refined and distinguished than any of our fellow pupils."
After some time, Charles left to attend the Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He studies law, which was the default major for those without a career in mind, and received his degree in 1839. However, instead of going into law or diplomacy, Charles decided upon a literary career- much to the disapproval of his family.
To combat his decision, Charle's stepfather sent him to Calcutta, India, in 1841. However, the trip instead left strong impressions of the sea, sailing, and exotic ports, which he later employed in his poetry.
Upon his return to Paris, Charles wrote some of the poems within Les Fleurs du Mal, his first collection. He also became known as a dandy and free-spender, which eventually prompted his family to place his finances in a trust so he wouldn't squander them.
For all his faults, Charles was a slow and attentive writer. However, poor health and other distractions kept him from publishing his work until 1857. Les Fleurs du Mal, or, The Flowers of Evil, became his most famous volume of poems.
The principal themes of sex and death were considered scandalous for the period. He also touched on lesbianism, sacred and profane love, metamorphosis, melancholy, the corruption of the city, lost innocence, the oppressiveness of living, and wine. Notable in some poems is Baudelaire's use of imagery of the sense of smell and of fragrances, which is used to evoke feelings of nostalgia and past intimacy.
However, despite the small and appreciative audience, others deemed the volume a byword for unwholesomeness and took legal action to stop its production. Charles, his publisher, and the printer were successfully prosecuted for creating an offense against public morals. They were fined, but Baudelaire was not imprisoned, and six of his poems were suppressed. His followers began rallying around him, and Victor Hugo even wrote in to declare his support.
Charles Baudelaire died on August 31, 1867, at the age of 41. Many of his works were published posthumously, and his influence on poets and artists can still be seen today.
If you'd like to learn more about this poet or his works, click the link above or visit his Wikipedia Page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
I NEED MORE POETRY!!! (aka a Submission Call)
If you write poetry, I want to read it!!! That's why Present Poetry Podcast offers this OPEN SUBMISSION CALL for poets of all ages, types, and genres!
Submit a biography, links you want to share, and five (5) poems to PresentPoetryPodcast@Gmail.com or through the form at LadyErynn.com/Present-poetry-podcast.
Any length, style, genre, and subject are welcome, but please include a content warning for anything graphic.
That's it! Submit your poems today and get your featured episode on the Present Poetry Podcast!
Poetry by Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke moved to the Whaligo steps area of Scotland in 1989 and quickly formed a love of history, nature, music, and blogging. In 2021, he hoped to build up interest in a blogging website (found Here) by finding like-minded individuals. During his exploration, he found poetry.
Since then, Gary has combined his inspiration from nature, music, and general philosophy into his own form of rhyming poetry.
Within his first year, he felt lots of love and support from some significant talents on Twitter which encouraged Gary to keep going.
Gary's been published in We wear the world, different, a collection of poems from the Twitter writing community raising awareness/acceptance about Autism, with proceeds going to Autism Angels UK, as well as A Whisper Of Your Love, which is a collection of poems contributed by the poetry community under the #InstantEternal banner on Twitter, with the theme of love.
In late January of 2023, Gary was also published in the anthology Hidden in Childhood, the debut book from a new publishing house called Literary Revelations- which is associated with the award-winning poet Gabriela Marie Milton.
To learn more about this author and his works, visit the link above or connect with him on Twitter.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Everything Is New Under the Moon by Tyler Gambill
Tyler Gambill is 30 years old and his hometown is Indianola, OK. A town with a population of about 200 located about 1.5 hours south of Tulsa. He currently lives in Tulsa with a roommate, three cats, and two dogs.
In high school, he was a “skater kid,” who got kicked out of Mannford High School for having (and acting) on a deep streak of anti-authority. Starting at 21, and for seven years after, he worked full-time making airplane parts during the day. He took evening classes to get his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from TCC and NSU/BA, graduating with the highest honors. During this time he was also a high-functioning alcoholic.
Today he is a non-practicing alcoholic, which is basically a fun way of saying that he used to drink a lot, found out that he and substances weren’t a good match, and so gave drinking up.
He celebrated four years of sobriety this past October and will also celebrate four years of employment at the Tulsa Boys’ Home in February. His work here is what made him decide to pull the trigger on becoming a therapist and he will graduate with his master’s degree in mental health counseling this May. He is currently an intern therapist at the Center for Therapeutic Intervention and works mostly with men who are on their own journey toward recovery and/or participants in the Tulsa Drug Court Program.
Above all, his mission to help men and teen boys is what keeps him grounded enough to write poetry. Poetry, Wordsworth said, is something like “emotion recollected in tranquility.” His work helping others is what allows him to find the tranquility necessary to recollect and reflect upon the emotions that fuel his poetry. This process, to him, is something akin to alchemy: some sort of magical thing where we turn experiences—even the most painful and, at face value, ugly ones—into something beautiful. Something beautiful straight from our hearts. Something that we can share with others that may just open their hearts up too. In as much as writing and sharing poetry is an act of sharing truth and beauty, writing poetry is also an act of loving, which is really what it’s all about.
He, thus far, has one published poem at NSU and one published short story at TCC. He will be self-publishing his first collection of poems—“Everything is new under the moon”—very soon.
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
Absurd Ditties by G. E. Farrow
George Edward Farrow was born on March 17th, 1862 in Ipswitch, England. Very little is known about his early life- only that he was educated in London for a time before moving to America to continue his studies. He worked as a clerk for a while in 1891, then declared himself an author in 1901.
During his career, Farrow wrote over 30 books for children- some adventure, some poetry, and some nonsense- and is often compared to the likes of Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum. His first book, the Wallypug of Why, was first printed in 1895 and still remains a beloved classic for kids and adults alike.
Farrow died around 1919 and has no descendants as far as we know.
We are reading from Absurd Ditties, a children's poetry collection published in 1903. To learn more about the author and his works, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (Jubran)
Jubran Khalil Jubran was born on January 6th, 1883, in the village of Bisharri, which was part of the Ottoman Empire back then but is now in modern-day Lebanon.
After his father got into legal trouble, his mother took Khalil and his siblings to the united states in 1895, where they settled in the South End of Boston. Kahlil's mother became a peddler and seamstress, and she opened a shop with her oldest son and her two young daughters. Kahlil, however, went to school and quickly understood English, even changing his name to the Americanized "Gibran," though his writing of it remained erratic.
To help his writing, one of his teachers recommended drawing classes at the nearby settlement house. In 1896, Kahlil met Fred Holland Day, the eccentric leader of the Boston Avant-garde group known as the Visionists. The Visionists were responsible for two of the first poetry and art magazines in the united states, and Khalil soon became a model for Day's artistic photographs.
In 1898, Kahlil met Josephine Prescott Peabody, a poet from Cambridge, and the two exchanged letters until Kahlil's mother sent him back to Lebanon to further his education.
During that time, Kahlil devoured French and Arabic literature, established a school-wide poetry magazine, and won a poetry contest. He then left school in 1901 and traveled Europe, but returned to the United States in 1902 upon the death of his sister.
While there, he reconnected with Peabody, and she encouraged his writing and art. In May of 1903, Peabody arranged for Kahlil's work to be part of an art exhibition at Wellesley College. However, Kahlil had little time to celebrate his success due to the untimely deaths of his mother and older brother.
In 1904, however, Khalil met Mary Haskill, who became his patron and one of the most influential people in his life. Under her encouragement and financial support, Khalil published his first book, On Music, in 1905. That, along with a job writing for a local Arabic magazine, led to a lengthy writing career.
Khalil Gibran ended up publishing around fifteen books and plays in English, with more than that in his native tongue of Arabic.
Kahlil Gibran died on April 10th, 1931, at the young age of 48, and his body was sent home to Lebanon, where it rests in the Gibran Museum. He also willed all future Royalties from his American books to his hometown of Bsharri for "civic betterment."
We are reading from The Prophet, a poetry collection published in 1923 and widely regarded as his most influential work.
To learn more about this author, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page!
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Are you a poet? Want your work to be on the podcast? Then email presentpoetrypodcast@gmail.com with your submissions, or check out the form at LadyErynn.com!
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!