A light-touch exploration of poems and poetry with Neil Elder, long-time English teacher and prize-winning poet. Taking inspiration from the Billy Collins poem, 'An Introduction To Poetry', Neil puts poems alongside each other to see how life looks when seen through the lenses of different poets. There will be poems everyone knows, and plenty that are new to listeners. Not heavy, but certainly illuminating.
Waterskiing on Poetry - Waving hello to poems and poets with Neil Elder
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14 episodes
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Podcast Overview
A light-touch exploration of poems and poetry with Neil Elder, long-time English teacher and prize-winning poet. Taking inspiration from the Billy Collins poem, 'An Introduction To Poetry', Neil puts poems alongside each other to see how life looks when seen through the lenses of different poets. There will be poems everyone knows, and plenty that are new to listeners. Not heavy, but certainly illuminating.
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Publishing Since
8/26/2025
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Recent Episodes
May 10, 2026
Buffaloes And The Blue Planet
<p>Ep 14. Recorded on Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday, this episode treads an ecological path. We explore 'The Flower-Fed Buffaloes' by Vachel Lindsay, and 'Report To Wordsworth' by Boey Kim Cheng. Both poems raise the matter of how human activity impacts the environment - and at the end of our skim across those poetic waters, I offer my poem in honour of Sir David.</p><p><br></p><p>To read the poems go here - <a href="https://allpoetry.com/The-Flower-Fed-Buffaloes">https://allpoetry.com/The-Flower-Fed-Buffaloes</a><a href="https://big-slate.com/study/en/c/85e7bbea/report-to-wordsworth-boey-kim-cheng" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://big-slate.com/study/en/c/85e7bbea/report-to-wordsworth-boey-kim-cheng</a></p><p><br></p><p>To hear Vachel Lindsay read the poem go here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-GyPsFcnLQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-GyPsFcnLQ</a></p><p><br></p>
April 5, 2026
Ep 13. Who's Leaving Who?
<p></p><p>Leaving home ain’t easyOn the one you're leaving home (Brian May) In this episode we explore the inevitable sense of love and loss that has to happen when children become independent and move beyond the orbit of their parents. Our exploration of this theme is built around the poems 'Walking Away' by C.Day Lewis, and 'To A Daughter Leaving Home' by Linda Pastan; two poems we hold up to the light and admire.</p><p>Does the parent feel the dread of starting school more than the child? And how can riding a bicycle be a metaphor for growing up? We discover in this episode - oh, and we reference a couple of songs by Queen that also deal with the process of leaving.</p><p><br /></p><p>The poems can be found here -</p><p>C. Day Lewis - </p><p><a href="https://holytrinity.academy/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Walking-Away-Worksheet-1.pdf" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://holytrinity.academy/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Walking-Away-Worksheet-1.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Linda Pastan - </p><p><a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-075/to-a-daughter-leaving-home/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-075/to-a-daughter-leaving-home/</a></p><p></p>
March 15, 2026
Ep 12. Imagined Museums
<p>Imagine a museum of the future. What would you put in it? Would you put your vinyl, video cassettes and cheque book in there? Oh, and what would you leave out of the museum display? Do you have anything that is just too valuable and personal for the public gaze? Are we in danger of forgetting things if they are not preserved? When we all move to Mars some time in the future, could emotions like love become concepts from the past? These thoughts are all explored in the poems held up to the light in this episode. Tracy K Smith's poem<strong> The Museum of Obsolescence</strong> and Rebecca Lindenberg's <strong>The Museum of Lost Objects </strong>take us into imagined museums. You can read the poems here</p><p><a href="herehttps://genius.com/Tracy-k-smith-the-museum-of-obsolescence-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://genius.com/Tracy-k-smith-the-museum-of-obsolescence-</a></p><p><a href="annotatedhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55526/in-the-museum-of-lost-objects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">annotatedhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55526/in-the-museum-of-lost-objects</a></p><p>The interview with Rebecca Lindenberg that I refer to is here - <a href="https://www.cincinnatireview.com/on-craft/poetry-at-the-museum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.cincinnatireview.com/on-craft/poetry-at-the-museum/</a></p>
14 total episodes available
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