The Best Of Last Year

In case anyone is joining us fresh, I thought it might be helpful to list my five favorite posts from last year.

1) Henri Cole schooled us on exactly how Elizabeth Bishop should be read.
He wasn't the only one to offer audio of a Bishop poem--be sure to also check out Thom Gunn's reading of Varick Street and Robert Pinsky reading At the Fishhouses.

2) Seamus Heaney read poetry by Ted Hughes.
Trying to put this into context for one of my friends, I was actually heard to say 'This is like getting to hear The Rolling Stones covering James Brown.' (I'll trust that everyone here knows what I meant.)

3) Associate publisher of FSG Linda Rosenberg weighed in on two of my favorite poets: Thom Gunn and August Kleinzahler. Her words on re-issuing The Man With The Night Sweats:

...it's our hope that our volumes—most with new introductions by poets of today—will make it easier for new readers and old to find their way into these extraordinary books. Due to the unique power of the form, most of these works seem to acquire an even greater resonance as time passes. It may just be that the impact of deeply felt, finely wrought language is even more intense in a less literate age.

4) Frederick Seidel in what looks like a most enjoyable night on the town.
The reading of 'The Owl You Heard' isn't too shabby, but the thought of running into Seidel in a photo booth is what makes me smile.

5) The first-ever FSG vs Knopf literary smackdown
Quickmuse.com came to town to pit Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Muldoon against Knopf's Brad Leithauser in a spur of the moment poem-composing competition. Debut poet Eliza Griswold opened the event.

After the jump, one more bonus moment!

“The Window Is Starless Still”

Time to launch into what I’ve taken to calling ‘the crown jewel’ of this poetry blog: new recordings from FSG’s poets!

A little background: all of our poets were invited to select one poem of their own and one from a backlist FSG poet, and then to come into the studio to record both, with a few words of introduction for each poem. And that’s all the direction they had—which has made for some really raucous and enjoyable recordings, all of which I'll be posting in the next month. I like listening to see if I can discern links between the two poems. Sometimes it’s immediately apparent, and sometimes it takes a bit more digging to discover.

I wanted to kick these off with a bang, so I thought we’d begin with Seamus Heaney reading 'The Thought-Fox' by Ted Hughes (which is the source for this post's title) and his own poem, 'Postscript.' Seamus Heaney, of course, can probably be most accurately described as the U2 of the poetry world—with nearly every prize under his belt that you can collect, including the Nobel, he’s become a literary juggernaut while remaining a critical darling (although, luckily, his taste in glasses is much better than Bono's).

I’ll let Heaney describe these poems to you in his own words. Enjoy! Follow the directions in the post below if you'd like to subscribe to our podcasts, or click on the button to the right to subscribe via iTunes. And if you find yourself wanting to buy copies of Heaney's latest book, District and Circle, or Hughes' massive and wonderful Collected Poems, places to buy are linked here.

Seamus Heaney reading 'The Thought-Fox' and 'Postscript':