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 Daughter Industry.

Find the full recordings of Strand, Ali, and Yanyi reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Mark Strand (May 4, 1971)
Kazim Ali (February 24, 2011)
Yanyi (September 28, 2023)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

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 “The Splintering,” a piece that inhabits the blessing and curse of first becoming aware of language.

Find the full recordings of Limón, Hass, and McHugh reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Ada Limón (December 4, 2024)
Robert Hass (September 19, 1979)
Heather McHugh (April 19, 1995)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Eduardo Martínez-Leyva considers what it means to be a good ancestor, to live and work with the desire to comfort those who will follow us in their own trying times. He shares Gloria Anzaldúa modeling the mixed languages of the border (“mujer cacto”), Rigoberto González leading the gaze to strange beauty (“Walking by the Panteón San Franciscano”), and Adrienne Rich showing the way to walk away from comfort (“August”). Martínez-Leyva closes with his “Learning the Language,” a poem that springs from the ground broken open and prepared by those before him.

Listen to the full recordings of Anzaldúa, González, and Rich reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Gloria Anzaldúa (October 23, 1991)
Rigoberto González (September 22, 1999)
Adrienne Rich (January 31, 1974)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Laura Da’ selects poems that report back to us with forthright courage She introduces James Welch speaking with a ringing sense of sovereignty (“In My First Hard Springtime”), Saretta Morgan crossing thresholds of space and perspective (“Consequences upon arrival (i)”), and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha resolving to speak and continue speaking (“To Be Self-Evident”). Da’ closes with “A High Bank to Spare the Flood,” a poem of returning to Shawnee homelands.

Find the full recordings of Welch, Morgan, and Tuffaha reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
James Welch (November 10, 1971)
Saretta Morgan (March 28, 2024)
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (February 19, 2026)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Asa Drake introduces poems that illustrate the long line’s possibilities for creating meaning and connection. She shares Saretta Morgan demonstrating silence and expansiveness (“Dominant orientation lights a corridor wide as Mexico's northern border”), Jennifer Chang exploring distance between speaker and listener (“Dialogues (Against Literature)”), and Solmaz Sharif delving into precision via unrelenting grammar (“Look”). Drake closes by inviting the listener to sit with her in unease with her poem “I’m not here to speak until you feel clarity.”

Watch the full recordings of Morgan, Chang, and Sharif reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:

Saretta Morgan (March 28, 2024)
Jennifer Chang (September 4, 2025)
Solmaz Sharif (September 1, 2016)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Prageeta Sharma selects recordings by poets who shaped her as a writer, and who have also shaped the landscape of contemporary American poetry by blending a sense of intimacy with direct address. She shares Ai inhabiting a persona that mixes sass and ancient knowledge (“Twenty-Year Marriage”), Michael S. Harper offering a testament spoken to rather than about a historical figure (“Dear John, Dear Coltrane”), and C.D. Wright creating doubleness in a love poem that melds closeness and estrangement ("Floating Trees"). Sharma closes with “A One Won,” a poem from her most recent collection.

Find the full recordings of Ai, Harper, and Wright reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Ai (September 13, 1972)
Michael S. Harper (April 4, 1973)
C.D. Wright (September 14, 2000)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis curates poems that illuminate characteristics of refugee poetics. He introduces Mai Der Vang on the displacement of the self (“Dear Exile”), Monica Sok on the contradictions inherent in being a refugee in the nation that caused the initial wound (“Americans Dancing in the Heart of Darkness”), and Ocean Vuong on the desire for belonging that can never be fulfilled (“Of Thee I Sing”). Davis closes with an untitled poem from his novel-in-progress, expressing defiance against loss of agency.

Watch the full recordings of Vang, Sok, and Vuong reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
Mai Der Vang (August 11, 2022)
Monica Sok (February 13, 2020)
Ocean Vuong (April 6, 2017)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.

Philip Metres introduces poems that speak to the enduring work of poetry to carry us toward life. He shares W.S. Merwin reflecting on how we not only survive but live (“The River of Bees”), William Stafford invoking the inner journeys we each must take (“Peace Walk”), and Natalie Diaz demonstrating the way poetry can hold us amidst pain (“My Brother at 3 A.M.”). Metres closes with his poem “To Go On One’s Way,” after the Aramaic word “yazil.”

Find the full recordings of Merwin, Stafford, and Diaz reading for the Poetry Center on Voca:
W.S. Merwin (January 17, 1990)
William Stafford (February 21, 1968)
Natalie Diaz (September 5, 2013)

Full transcripts of every episode are available on Buzzsprout. Look for the transcript tab under each episode.

Voca is now fully captioned, with interactive transcripts and captions available for all readings! Read more about the project here, or try out this new feature by visiting Voca.