Piece Description

SEGMENT A: Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) first became Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1963-64, and was re-installed as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1988-90. From 1969 until his death, Nemerov was Poet in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In this rather contrary interview with Rebekah Presson, Nemerov reveals some of his working habits and reads some of his poetry, including "On an Occasion of National Mourning," about the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. SEGMENT B: Billy Collins, poet laureate from 2001 to 2003, tries to make poetry accessible through the use of humor in his poems. While laureate, Collins initiated a program called "Poetry 180," which called for a poem to be read aloud every day in high schools across the country. In this interview with New Letters' Robert Stewart, Collins talks about finding his first success as a poet after the age of 40, and the pitfalls of traditional poetry analysis to beat meaning out of a poem. SEGMENT C: Long associated with the Kansas prairie of his birth, William Stafford (1914-1993) was named the Library of Congress' Consultant in Poetry from 1970-71. Stafford's poetry often deals with ordinary subjects, but uses formal structures to reveal a deeper meaning. In this segment from a 1984 public reading recorded in Kansas City, Mo., Stafford shares some of his poetry and discusses his lifetime of pacifism.