Starting in 1995, NPR's All Things Considered began presenting poets
reading their own works. Introduced by "poetry DJ" Catherine Bowman,
these popular short segments allowed listeners to experience poetry as a
kind of verbal music, recalling its roots as a spoken art form. Word
of Mouth, edited by Bowman, brings together the poems that have been
featured on NPR, providing a window onto the dynamic contemporary poetry
scene. A child playing with flashes of sunlight in the aisle of an
airplane; a woman describing tropical fruit to someone in a faraway
country; a man building a deck with his dead father's hammer; the
musings of a Barbie doll participating in a 12-step program: these poems
powerfully and lyrically transform the stuff of every day life. A
celebration of the poetic voice that includes 33 acclaimed writers, this
vibrant anthology proves beyond any doubt that poetry is far more than
just words on paper.
Quincy Troupe - Czeslaw Milosz - Campbell McGrath - C.D. Wright - Jack
Gilbert - Heather McHugh - David Lehman - Wang Ping - Joseph Brodsky -
Paul Beatty - Lorna Dee Cervantes - Paul Muldoon - Lucille Clifton -
Naomi Shihab Nye - Richard Blanco - Albert Goldbarth - Carrie Allen
McCray - Belle Waring - Russell Edson - Kevin Young - Nuali Di
Dhomhnaill - Charles Harper Webb - Denise Duhamel - Yusef Komunyakaa -
Hal Sirowitz - Lucia Perillo - Amy Gerstler - Maura Stanton - Marilyn
Chin - Philip Booth - Jane Cooper - Diane DiPrima - Elizabeth Spires
