Audio by Adam

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:48 — 2.2MB)

This is a story about some of the most beautiful short poetry I have ever come across. Edited by the poet Jane Hirshfield (see “Given Sugar, Given Salt” elsewhere in this blog), it is a collection of short erotic haiku-like poems written by Ono No Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, who were part of the Japanese medieval court.  The themes – transience, love, loneliness, and erotic longing – are eternal, but the words come across both artful and vividly personal (not to mention steamy) across the centuries.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:56 — 4.5MB)

For nearly 60 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder has combined an environmental awareness shaped by America’s Far West with a Zen Buddhist perspective that celebrates and reveres the natural world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:43 — 4.3MB)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:35 — 7.9MB)

In which the California poet (and Buddhist) discusses her poetry with Adam, and reads excerpts from several of her poems with explanations….