The Poetry Detective, Talisman Poems, Radio 4
“Hello again lovely listeners.” There’s a very warm opening to this series presented by Vanessa Kisuule.
I’m late to this party but it’s a good one.
Vanessa digs deep to understand the power of certain poems and the poets behind them. She works as a detective picking up the leads. Expect fresh and unusual poems.
The episode I heard took the theme of poems as talismans that people carry with them.
Karen Walker from New Mexico was frank about how her life fell apart in the pandemic. Her husband was deemed an essential worker and she had to manage work from home and caring for their young daughter.
On their 11th wedding anniversary, she said he was acting “very distant and weird”… but she was not expecting the bombshell of the end of their marriage.
A poem by Diane di Prima called Revolutionary Letter #1 bolstered her. The first line reads: “I have just realized that the stakes are myself.”
Karen had “The stakes are myself” engraved on a ring. It’s a ring that replaced her wedding band.
“Three days after she died, Diane di Prima saved my life,” said Karen.
On their 11th wedding anniversary, she said he was acting ‘very distant and weird’… but she was not expecting the bombshell of the end of their marriage
The poetry detective’s second interview was with Kevin Koontz talking about his (adopted) mother.
She had carried a faded newspaper clipping around with her for 50 years right up until her death. The week after his parents adopted him, she had come upon this poem:
“Not flesh of my flesh / Nor bone of my bone / But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute / You didn’t grow under my heart / But in it.”
It’s a poem about adoption that many, but not all people love. We hear from one woman who was adopted: “The poem coalesced for me that we have to pretend – I’m pretending to be your mom, you’re pretending to be my child. That’s how we go through.”
But for Kevin, it is about love.
The series is an unusual take on poetry and well worth the listen.