I Offer Poetry
17 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsI Offer Poetry asks the question, why don’t we share poetry like we share music? Host Elizabeth Ellson interviews people from all walks of life and gives them the opportunity to share a poem that their heart holds onto. Guests tell the stories that bring their chosen poem to the forefront of their mind. This podcast aims to share poetry the way that we share music: fluidly and accessibly.
It’s a little bit linguistic, it’s a little bit rock and roll.
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Episodes
Side B - On Poetry Giving Us Permission To Be Gentle
December 27, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 23.8 MBIn the final episode of Season One, I Offer Poetry explores Wild Geese by Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver’s work is greatly influenced by her upbringing in Ohio and her chosen home, New England, as well as the authors Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. While the focus of this episode is Wild Geese, Elizabeth also mentions two other poems of Oliver’s (The Summer Day and The Invitation) which she highly recommends to the audience for further reading. A peaceful episode exploring ans...
Kiran Subramaniam - On Using Poetry To Cope With Big Feelings
December 20, 2021 14:00 - 42 minutes - 40.5 MBIn the final guest episode of Season One, Elizabeth hosts her friend Kiran Subramaniam and they discuss the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Kiran Subramaniam is a writer & performer living in Los Angeles by day, who dreams of the North Carolina mountains and beach by night. She currently works on the show Hightown as seen on Starz. She's a fan of chewy raspberry licorice, books, Spotify, and international architecture. Her first dog will be named Toby, a la the curmudgeonly Toby Zielge...
Side B - On Poetry About A Fiercer Mother Mary
December 13, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 24.3 MBIn this episode Elizabeth explores the poetry of contemporary poet Leila Chatti. The poem was originally sent to Elizabeth via snail mail and arrived as a page torn from the The New York Times Magazine; Confession by Leila Chatti. Timestamps: 00:00:41 Poem Reading (Elizabeth) 00:04:00 Author Info 00:5:36 Elizabeth’s Relationship to the Poem 00:18:58 Pause / Poem Reading (Elizabeth) 00:24:03 Reflection & Invitation to Write Us Poem & Links: Confession by Leila Chatti ...
Gregory Sinche - On Poetry As A Way To Organize Your Mind
December 06, 2021 14:00 - 37 minutes - 35.6 MBIn this episode Elizabeth hosts her cousin Gregory Sinche to discuss the unparalleled New England poet, Robert Frost. Throughout the episode there is discussion of the many roads we are offered in life, their varying vantage points, and how we can choose to move forward knowing that ‘way leads on to way’ and we are bound to end up where we are meant to. Greg expresses appreciation for the life he’s led up until this point even with its trade-offs, using poetry to reflect how far ...
Side B - Poetry Allowing Space For Grief In The Everyday
November 29, 2021 14:00 - 31 minutes - 30.1 MBOn this week’s Side B, Elizabeth shares the brilliance of contemporary poet Hanif Abdurraqib. Also from Columbus, Ohio, Hanif is a well lauded poet, essayist, and curator of excellent playlists. This episode explores Hanif’s poem And What Good Will Your Vanity Be When The Rapture Comes which deals personally with loss and the reflection of our limited time here on earth. There is commentary on how potent Hanif’s writing is, both in this poem & his poetry collections, and his abil...
Stephen Stern - On Poetry Infusing Life Lessons
November 22, 2021 14:00 - 31 minutes - 30.6 MBThis week on I Offer Poetry Elizabeth interviews her high school Honors Organic Chemistry Teacher, Mr. Stephen Stern. You read that correctly; Elizabeth took an honors level science class. It obviously didn’t pan out for her, but she still adores Mr. Stern and was thrilled to discuss all things creative in this episode. Stephen Stern was born and raised in California and moved to Elizabeth’s hometown of Columbus, OH in 1993 while his wife attended veterinary school at The Ohio State Un...
Side B - On Poetry Expressing Universal Emotion
November 15, 2021 14:00 - 22 minutes - 22.1 MBIn this week’s Side B, Elizabeth brings us the poem Unending Love by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore’s notable influence on 20th century Indian literature is made all the more impressive by his being the first non-European to earn a Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913. Unending Love is a poem about how universal our emotional landscapes can be, remembrance of the shy sweetness of meeting, and the merging of all love through song and poetry. It is a perfect piece for I Offer Poetry, a chance...
Natasha Wright - On Poetry Fueling Self Empowerment
November 08, 2021 14:00 - 40 minutes - 39.2 MBThis week on I Offer Poetry Elizabeth and her guest, Natasha Wright, discuss the inimitable power of Maya Angelou. Natasha lives in Washington, D.C. and currently serves as the Senior Advisor in the Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). In this role, Natasha is responsible for developing and implementing many of ACF’s strategic initiatives. Prior to starting this role in April 2021, she served for two years as a legislat...
Lou Mitchell - On The Lyricism of Brandi Carlile
November 01, 2021 13:00 - 27 minutes - 26.6 MBAnother first for the podcast; Concert Deconstruction. Elizabeth has invited a wonderful musician friend to dissect lyrics as poetry after attending a concert and getting to experience their live performance. Introducing Lou Mitchell, a singer songwriter from California who spent the majority of her childhood either in the dirt or out on the delta. Like any other small-town kid, she couldn’t get out of there fast enough. She spent the majority of her twenties trying to blend in with th...
David Guerra - On How A Poem Ages With Us
October 25, 2021 13:00 - 39 minutes - 37.8 MBOn this week's episode Elizabeth is excited to introduce her dear friend, David Guerra, who quickly takes the reins and teaches her more about Tennessee Williams, the conquest of Mexico City, and what it means to get deeply vulnerable about family. Our guest David is an award winning actor, director, teacher and performing artist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and has worked and collaborated with a lot of respected institutions within Southern California, including the Center T...
Side B - On Poetry Viewing Religion As An Opt Out
October 18, 2021 13:00 - 31 minutes - 30.7 MBIn this week’s Side B episode Elizabeth is given a run for her money with the incredible spoken word poetry of Singapore’s Victoria Lim. Religion, by Victoria Lim, is the first spoken word piece to be featured on I Offer Poetry and since it is a lesser known piece, it required our host to do a lot more supposition and exploration of her own feelings and relationship to the poem. Poet Victoria Lim spent her childhood in Penang, Malaysia and moved to Singapore when she was nine. She began wr...
Lauren Flans - On Poetry Using Dark Humor To Shed Light
October 11, 2021 13:00 - 21 minutes - 21.4 MBThere is a trigger warning at the top of this episode regarding suicide, as the poem in this week’s episode deals directly with the topic. The discussion surrounding the subject is that of respect for the author's history, but also how the author chose a humorous lens to reflect a dark subject matter. Elizabeth is eager to introduce her longtime friend, Lauren Flans. Lauren is a contemporary multi-hyphenate. She was a recurring cast member on MTV’s Wild ‘n Out and Comedy Central's Anot...
Side B - On the Impossible Desire of Long Distance Love
October 04, 2021 13:00 - 16 minutes - 16.5 MBIn our second Side B episode host Elizabeth Ellson dives into a brief but emotionally packed poem by Carol Ann Duffy. This episode focuses on the pain, and considers the possible pleasures, of being in a long distance relationship. There is exploration of the poet's use, or lack thereof, of tenses and how much of a shift that makes in the longevity of both the poem and the love. In her very musically enthusiastic way Elizabeth ties in a band, this time the Local Natives, and how ...
Will DaRosa - On Poetry Exploring Escapism
September 27, 2021 13:00 - 35 minutes - 34.2 MBIn our second episode Elizabeth completely ignores the fact that W. B. Yeats has a full first name, as she is on a nickname-only basis with him. This episode features cinematographer, music video director, and filmmaker Will DaRosa. Will’s rapidly-lengthening resume testifies to his dedication to his craft and his growing reputation as one of the fresh talents to work with on the Los Angeles indie-genre scene. As director/dp, his music videos have aired on MTV and VH1 and been viewed m...
Introducing Side B - On Poetry Immortalizing Love
September 20, 2021 13:00 - 16 minutes - 16.7 MBThis is the inaugural episode introducing Side B - I Offer Poetry’s ‘minisodes’, so to speak. Our host Elizabeth Ellson is inviting the audience to join the poetry discussion. She lays out the format for Side B, which allows for two readings of a poem and the memory associated with that poem the first time it was discovered. The hope is that this short format will encourage podcast listeners to write in with their stories, which will allow IOP to share even more poetry and give life to...
Yaani King Mondschein - On Poetry Embracing Letting Go
September 13, 2021 13:12 - 27 minutes - 26.9 MBIn the pilot episode, actor Yaani King Mondschein shares the beautiful poem She Let Go by Reverend Safire Rose. As an actor Yaani is known for her work on Good Trouble, Sneakerheads, Bad Hair, Blood & Oil, and Saving Grace. Her exciting forthcoming project is the series Kings of Napa on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) expected Spring 2022. Throughout the episode we dive into what it means to let go and the opportunities to do that simply. The discussion swirls around faith, fri...
Trailer • I Offer Poetry with Elizabeth Ellson
August 25, 2021 17:35 - 1 minute - 2.96 MBHi, I’m Elizabeth Ellson, host of I Offer Poetry and I believe poetry should be as accessible as music. I don’t understand every song that’s ever been written. If I don’t understand a song, I listen to it a couple of times. I investigate it. This is an investigation into poetry and I welcome you to explore with us the idea that everyone can offer poetry. Much like music, we may associate a poem with one specific phase of our lives. The poem can instantly bring us back, or if it...