Planet Poetry
Love poetry? Join Robin and Peter and their guests as they read poems, chat about all things poetry and generally explore the bedazzling world of Planet Poetry. Since we started this podcast in 2020 we've interviewed dozens of poets and poetry editors, discussed all the thorny issues about the poetry world and delved into our favourite poetry past and present. We don't have sponsors and we don't interrupt the flow with ads, so if you like what we do, please buy us a coffee or two at buymeacoffee.com/planetpoetry to help keep the poddy going! Thanks!
Episodes
63 episodes since 2020
Vigils | Confabulations - with Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny
Rrrrrrrip! Yikes! That’s the sound of the Planet Poetry rulebook being wantonly torn in half for our Season 4 finale. For one episode only Robin and Peter abandon their solemn vow and share some of their own poetry from forthcoming
July 25, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 13
•
47:13
Lost trades | Lost songs - with Jane Commane
Grip the square steering wheel of your Austin Allegro and let Jane Commane navigate you through the haunted places of the post-industrial Midlands. She treats us to poems from As...
July 04, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 12
•
1:05:40
Fathers | Frontiers - with Rory Waterman
Hear Rory Waterman describe his experience of being stuck in quarantine in Korea, where (as well as doing press ups) he used his time to begin his fourth collection
June 14, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 11
•
59:10
Bold Lines | Black Pages - with Seni Seneviratne
Silent faces and displaced lives. Seni Seneviratne gives voice to overshadowed Black children, exotic pages and servants in the portraits of nobility and the mercantile class in 18th Century paintings. Other of her poised and beautiful po...
May 23, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 10
•
48:29
Absence | Accidents - with Ali Lewis
Staring at the mark on the wall where that painting once hung? Wondering why the moon, seen by others, has been hidden from you? You've entered the world of Absence (
May 02, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 9
•
1:02:35
Testaments | Troubles - with Roy McFarlane
Hop aboard. No time to idle in green pastures here, instead let’s follow Roy Mc Farlane as he guides us through his collection Living by Trouble...
April 11, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 8
•
1:06:57
Rapture | Reality - with Seán Hewitt
We’re back with global ambitions for World Poetry Day. First we skip over to Dublin to interview Seán Hewitt about his gorgeous second collection
March 21, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 7
•
1:03:50
Archive - Inua Ellams from March 2021
A classic interview from the archive: Inua Ellams talking about his extraordinary book The Actual (Penned i...
March 07, 2024
•
Season 4
•
33:32
Sorrow | Stored - with Paul Stephenson
Go on. Press the button. Paul Stephenson guides us through a choice of his varied, formally diverse and moving elegies in his Carcanet collection
February 08, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 6
•
57:10
Darkness | Discovered - with Tamar Yoseloff
We are back and delighted to bring you more wonderful poetry in 2024. So let's illuminate the new year with Tamar Yoseloff, whose long engagement with visual art has created a poetry...
January 18, 2024
•
Season 4
•
Episode 5
•
1:01:45
Archive | Kim Moore from October 2022
Happy New Year! We're on our festive break, but wanted to share with you another classic interview from the archive. Here's Kim Moore talking about her Forward Prize-winning collection 'All the Men I Never Married' from Seren Books.
January 04, 2024
•
Season 4
•
30:29
Crossings | Christmas - with Jane Clarke
Psssst! Here's a moment of reprieve from the festive frenzy... Follow Jane Clarke wobbling on an oak log slick with frost, then she smooths us down a butter path to a place of poetry. Here we revel i...
December 15, 2023
•
Season 4
•
Episode 4
•
1:01:53
Bridges | Broken - with Martyn Crucefix
Go on. We dare you to reach across the gulf to Planet Poetry. This time you'll find Martyn Crucefix, reading poems from his Salt collection
November 23, 2023
•
Season 4
•
Episode 3
•
1:02:34
Aloneness | Liberty - with Leontia Flynn
All aboard! Planet Poetry is going to rattle you into a Belfast haunted by absence. Here you'll meet Leontia Flynn and discover how the upheavals of Brexit and the pandemic have been echoed by ruptures and aloneness in her own life....
November 02, 2023
•
Season 4
•
Episode 2
•
50:13
Observation | Celebration - with Ian McMillan
Hush your vuvuzela! Barnsley's own Ian McMillan lobs the keeper and helps Planet Poetry's fourth season start with a belting win. He treats us to selections from T...
October 12, 2023
•
Season 4
•
Episode 1
•
1:05:12
Archive | Kathryn Maris in March 2021
We revisit the Spring of 2021 and Robin's interview with Kathryn Maris, principally about her collection The ...
September 28, 2023
•
25:14
Archive | Charlotte Gann in January 2021
Another absolute sparkler from our trove of first season interviews. Charlotte Gann talks about her exceptional Happenstance Press collections,
September 14, 2023
•
28:17
Archive | Clare Shaw in November 2020
Another gem from the archives to tide you over the long, hot (?) summer of 2023...the brilliant Clare Shaw was our second interviewee on the podcast back in 2020, and here she is talking to Robin about her 2018 Bloodaxe collection
August 31, 2023
•
19:37
Archive | Pascale Petit in Oct 2020
Summertime. Ho, hum. But wait! What's this on your device. Planet Poetry? Robin and Peter have descended into The Vaults to present a conversation first broadcast in October 2020 with the fabulous Pascale Petit. Enjoy!
August 24, 2023
•
Season 3
•
Episode 14
•
30:10
Culture | Cut-ups - with Richard Skinner
Follow us as we slip into le Quartier asiatique through a noirish wordscape, when the flutes in the musique concrète are interrupted by David Bowie, Kate Bush and Genesis… Suddenly you realise you are hearing Richard Skinner sharing po...
July 13, 2023
•
Season 3
•
Episode 13
•
1:02:30
Play | Wonder - with Rachel Piercey & Kate Wakeling
Pens down, everybody! Now look at me... Today we meet poets Kate Wakeling and Rachel Piercey, editor of ...
June 15, 2023
•
Season 3
•
Episode 12
•
56:05
Looking | Relooking - with Greta Stoddart
Did you ever repeat a word so often that its meaning ebbed away? Or look so hard at an object -- say a glass of water -- that it began to hint at unknowable mysteries? No? Then you should join us as we meet
May 25, 2023
•
Season 3
•
Episode 11
•
53:40
Trust | Betrayal - with Clare Best
If you have endured a childhood overshadowed by profound betrayal and abuse, how do you learn to trust again? What kind of bravery must this take? We feature Clare Best reading from her po...
April 27, 2023
•
Season 3
•
Episode 10
•
59:15