Poetry Centered

About Poetry Centered

Linger in the space between a poem being spoken and being heard. Poetry Centered features curated selections from Voca, the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s online audiovisual archive of more than 1,000 recordings of poets reading their work during visits to the Center between 1963 and today. In each episode, a guest poet introduces three poems from Voca, sharing their insights about the remarkable performances recorded in our archive. Each episode concludes with the guest poet reading a poem of their own.

Publisher

University of Arizona Poetry Center

Category

arts · arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jun 2020

Latest episode

9 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

2 of 69 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   9 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Acts of Attention: Elizabeth Bradfield

   Poet Elizabeth Bradfield interviews fellow poets about their profound attention to community and the natural world, sharing powerful works.

2. 

   26 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Lyric You: Soham Patel

   Soham Patel shares poems that each speak to “you,” finding in the second-person pronoun a way to explore difficult subjects. She introduces Mark Strand asking questions of his deceased father (“Elegy for My Father”), Kazim Ali addressing a past self in a time of transformation (“Gallery”), and Yanyi considering the fragmentary world alongside the beloved (“Beginning of Spring”). Patel closes with her poem “Beloved Writes a Letter,” a direct address to one of seven characters in her book The D...

3. 

   12 Aug 2026

   Richard Blanco: A Home in Language

   Richard Blanco curates poems that look to language as a spiritual and psychological home, a center from which we make sense of reality. He introduces Ada Limón confronting the limits of what a poem can do (“The End of Poetry”), Robert Hass balancing lyric with narrative to reveal how language helps us understand our lives (“Meditation at Lagunitas”), and Heather McHugh demonstrating a way to conclude a poem with a leap into another universe (“What He Thought”). Blanco closes with his poem “Th...

Inside a recent episode

Acts of Attention: Elizabeth Bradfield

Published 9 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] But for those of us who have continued writing, all of a sudden now we have these friends who have brought beautiful books into the world. And it's just such a gift, not only to celebrate the moments when they are celebrated, but also just to be part of a group of people who have continued and who i'm able now to see across decades and to see through different stages in their work and that is one of the real unexpected gifts of being a writer this poem by mark wonderlick also involves the sea He references Herring Cove, which is just a delicious beach for swimming here in Provincetown. And again, that fluidity and the way that ocean influences the experience of this place. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

26 ratings

Contact Poetry Centered

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Shows with a similar audience

• 

  Of Poetry Podcast

• 

  Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

• 

  Poetry Off the Shelf

• 

  Poem-a-Day

• 

  The New Yorker: Poetry

• 

  Poetry For All

Questions about Poetry Centered