MPR has had a keen ear for capturing the words and meter of poetry. Minnesota is home to many nationally renowned poets, city and state poet laureates, spoken word artists, and individuals young and old that have simply created work for the sake of the form. The state is also a magnet for poets all throughout the world. Here is a wonderful breadth of those readings, speeches, thoughts, and histories of the poet.
May 10, 1996 - Duluth poet Barton Sutter provides commentary on the importance of poetry and it’s status in the United States.
May 22, 1996 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Red Wing poet and teacher Robert Hedin, whose assembled a literary history of the train titled "The Great Machines: Poems and Songs of the American Railroad."
September 9, 1996 - MPR’s John Rabe interviews Irish poet Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Heaney speaks about the importance of radio in his life. Heaney also reads numerous poems.
September 12, 1996 - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner, speaks at Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis for the annual Global Voices Lecture series. Heaney reads numerous poems during speech.
September 18, 1996 - MPR’s Chris Roberts presents a story about the birth of a poet. 10-year-old Josh Tane, of St. Paul, would probably be the last to tell you that he deserves the title of "poet." But last year, to the amazement of his teacher and parents, Josh discovered his muse and wrote some remarkable poems.
September 20, 1996 - Voices from the Heartland presents poet Diane Glancy reading "Voices in Wind," a work about the land.
October 14, 1996 - On this Odd Jobs segment, MPR’s Tim Kelly interviews Neal Henry Lawrence, an 88-year-old monk from Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, who's lived in Tokyo for almost four decades, and is a pioneer in the writing of Tanka in English.
November 15, 1996 - Voices from the Heartland presents poet Diane Glancy reading "Snow," which is a reflection on the Halloween blizzard of 1991.
November 20, 1996 - MPR’s Mary Stucky reports on local poetry book "The Palm of My Heart," which collects vivid poetry by African American children who live in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
January 1, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger visits Mille Lacs, and reports on the perplexing nature of ice fishing.