Odysseys of one sort or another theme this archive edition of the SPL podcast.
Our guide, the poet Alasdair Paterson, takes us on a journey from a wry take on Homer’s Greece through the Liverpool music scene of the 1970s, onwards to post-Soviet Russia, ending in Arcadia. Little wonder Paterson’s collection is called Elsewhere or Thereabouts (Shearsman). Along the way we welcome guests such as the geologist James Hutton and Paterson’s fellow librarian-poet Philip Larkin.
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From the Archive: Speaking in Tongues – Bilingual Poetry. August 2015
In this podcast guest interviewer and multi-lingual writer and translator Jessica Johannesson Gaitán talks to three bilingual poets about what it means to have more than one mother tongue, feeling guilty or not about writing in big languages, translating one’s own poetry and much more!
Juana Adcock is a poet and translator working in English and Spanish. Ioannis Kalkounos was born in Greece. His first collection of poems, dakryma, was published in 2011 (Athens, Dromon Publications). Agnes Török is a spoken word performer, poetry workshop leader, poetry event organiser and Loud Poet. Jessica Johannesson Gaitán grew up in Sweden and Colombia.
Music by James Iremonger.
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From the Archive: Commonwealth Poets United-Toni Stuart and Rachel McCrum. June 2014.
Commonwealth Poets United was an international exchange between six Scottish poets and poets from six Commonwealth nations. Toni Stuart is a South African poet named in the Mail and Guardian’s list of 200 Inspiring Young South Africans for her work in co-founding I Am Somebody! – an NGO that uses storytelling and youth development to build integrated communities. Rachel McCrum, originally from Northern Ireland, is a poet and the co-creator of popular spoken word event Rally and Broad (2012-2016).
Both poets visited each other’s countries to draw inspiration from a different culture. When Toni was visiting Scotland, she came into the Scottish Poetry Library with Rachel to talk about their exchange trips, how food united them, and how ‘when you learn a new language, you gain a new soul’.
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From the Archive: Gerry Loose. October 2014
In August 2014, our then regular podcast host Colin Waters travelled to Faslane, home of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, to talk to poet Gerry Loose. Loose’s collection fault line is a suite of poems inspired by the area, which is his backyard. The great natural beauty contrasts with the ugliness of the military base, inspiring Loose. He guides Colin around the area, sharing its history and his thoughts on the nature poetry’s radical past and present.
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Nothing But the Poem - Isabelle Baafi
This edition of our Nothing But The Poem podcast, hosted as usual by Samuel Tongue, features two poems by Isabelle Baafi, from her 2025 Forward Prize winning debut collection Chaotic Good.
‘In this wise-hearted and deft debut, Baafi gets to the grain of family, inheritance, the grit of growing up and the grappling to become oneself.’ - Rachel Long
‘Isabelle Baafi’s Chaotic Good is a debut of amazing endurance. Its formal pressures create a kind of kaleidoscopic intensity that – with each turn of the chamber – brings newly beautiful and painful shapes into focus. - Will Harris
The two poems discussed in the podcast from Chaotic Good are The Cottage and Burst Me Into Song
Ireland