In this episode of the Village Voice, we shared several modern spins on one of poetry’s most celebrated forms: the sonnet.
“[These are not] our grandparent’s sonnets,” Blanco said, referencing traditional expectations like meter and subject matter. “There’s a lot more going on that we’ve inherited from the sonnet, and a lot of it has to do with the rhetorical mode or structure or movement.”
We then offered some historical background on the famously square poems, including their surprising origins. read more…
In this episode of the Village Voice, Richard Blanco reflects on a new poetry anthology from the front lines of climate change: “A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis,” edited by Meghan Sterling and Kathleen Sullivan.
Blanco told Jim and Margery the poems go “beyond the political, preaching, ranting” about climate change to “really shift our consciousness” around the issue. read more…
In this episode of The Village Voice, Richard Blanco joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to give Jim and Margery a crash course in poetry. During the segment, he read a prose poem called “Mango, Number 61.” read more…
In this episode of The Village Voice, Boston Public Radio and Richard Blanco share poems to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month, from an anthem to immigration and nationhood, to a retelling of the creation story, as a Cuban would have written it. read more…
In this edition of “Village Voice,” inaugural poet Richard Blanco highlighted the anthology What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump edited by Martin Espada, out Oct. 15, 2019.
Blanco read from two poems that will be included in the anthology, one of his own and one by Naomi Shihab Nye entitled “Gate A-4” from “Honeybee” an excerpt is included below. read more…
August is almost over, and with that comes the beginning of a new school year and the bittersweet end of summer. Noting the time of year, poet Richard Blanco says that this time of year is a time to appreciate living in the moment.
In this episode, Blanco shares some of his favorite poetry to read during this time of year. read more…
Richard Blanco joins Boston Public Radio for another segment of Village Voice to share a collection of poems “that surrender to oblivion as a way of feeling renewed and perhaps in a way arriving at a new kind of awareness that helps us to keep on going,” he says.
Follow along with the poems as they are read and discussed: read more…
In the latest edition of “Village Voice,” Jim and Margery get a lesson in evocative writing from poet Richard Blanco.
“I just wanted to take a little deep dive into one of the golden rules of creative writing, called show don’t tell,” he said. “I don’t know [that] we always know how that really works in a poem, and in our lives, so I’m going to walk you through this, and you’ll be my students today.” read more…
In the latest edition of “Village Voice,” Boston Public Radio’s recurring conversation about poetry and how it can help us to make sense of the news of the day, poet Richard Blanco shares his favorite poems about summer and the Fourth of July.
Blanco newest book, “How To Love A Country,” deals with various social and political issues that shadow America. read more…
In the latest edition of “Village Voice,” Jim Braude and Margery Eagan celebrated Pride Month with poet Richard Blanco.
Blanco shared two of his own poems about growing up gay. In one, “Queer Theory: According To My Grandmother,” Blanco chronicles the way his grandmother policed any behavior she deemed “too feminine” when he was a child.
“I learned a lot from her, I got a lot of support from her, but when it came to this dimension of sexuality, it was something she didn’t understand,” he said.
Blanco said it was this fraught and often painful relationship that shaped his identity as a writer. read more…
