"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem each
episode. Proposing
memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby delivers
an
exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest
about poetry and memory.
In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a special
format designed to
work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.
A visit to the Thomas Mann House and a séance from The Magic Mountain with Benno Herz
In this episode, Abby visits the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. She speaks with the house's programming director, Benno Herz about the Mann family's years of exile from Nazi Germany and the community they found in their adopted city. There is no poem, but instead, for a special Halloween episode, a spooky (and funny) passage from The Magic Mountain -- a ghost is summoned and starts reciting poetry.
30 Jul 2026
James Fenton's "In Paris with You" with Darryl Pinckney
In this episode, Abby has a second conversation with Darryl Pinckney and he presents “In Paris with You” by James Fenton, a poem which Darryl himself inspired.
Recitation begins at 66:33.
In Paris with You
James Fenton
Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful
And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two.
I'm one of your talking wounded.
I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded.
But I'm in Paris with you.
Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled
And resentful at the mess that I've been through.
I admit I'm on the rebound
And I don't care where are we bound.
I'm in Paris with you.
Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre,
If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,
If we skip the Champs Elysees
And remain here in this sleazy
Old hotel room
Doing this and that,
To what and whom
Learning who you are,
Learning what I am.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris,
The little bit of Paris in our view.
There's that crack across the ceiling
And the hotel walls are peeling
And I'm in Paris with you.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris.
I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do.
I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth,
I'm in Paris with...all points south.
Am I embarrassing you?
I'm in Paris with you.
16 Jun 2026
Sylvia Plath's "Crossing the Water" with Darryl Pinckney
In the first half of this special double episode, Abby interviews Darryl Pinckney, novelist and critic, and discusses his book Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan, which is about his mentor writer Elizabeth Hardwick. Together, they present “Crossing the Water” by Sylvia Plath.
Recitation begins at 60:20.
Crossing the Water
Sylvia Plath
Black lake, black boat, two black, cut-paper people.
Where do the black trees go that drink here?
Their shadows must cover Canada.
A little light is filtering from the water flowers.
Their leaves do not wish us to hurry:
They are round and flat and full of dark advice.
Cold worlds shake from the oar.
The spirit of blackness is in us, it is in the fishes.
A snag is lifting a valedictory, pale hand;
Stars open among the lilies.
Are you not blinded by such expressionless sirens?
This is the silence of astounded souls.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
12 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
7 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 15 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
2
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
71
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