This Is Just To Say: National Poetry Month 2025

Discover how a work or body of literature can become the core of an entire culture in this examination of the influence of Homer on the Greeks and of the centrality of the Vedas and Epics in the civilizations of ancient India.

Journey through some of the best-known styles and voices of Japanese poetry. You'll start with the oldest surviving Japanese poems and follow the development of tanka, the classical five-line form, and renga, a single poem written by multiple poets. We conclude with the master poet Basho and the emergence of haiku, now Japan's most famous and popular form of poetry.

An impressionistic documentary about legendary poet Diane di Prima, the most famous female poet of the Beat Generation, "The Poetry Deal" opens a window looking back through more than 50 years of poetry, activism, and cultural change, providing a unique women’s perspective of the Beat movement.

In the second season of the PBS series Poetry in America, guests join Elisa New to discuss the poems of Marilyn Chin, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Mark Doty, Yusef Komunyakaa, Stephen Sondheim, William Carlos Williams, and Walt Whitman.

Called the "Woodstock of Poetry" by American Film, and "Dazzling" by the Los Angeles Times, Poetry in Motion is an unprecedented anthology of twenty-four leading North American poets who sing, chant, anything but "read" their work. The result is a celebration of poetry's ancient oral tradition. And an energetic demonstration that verse is alive and thriving in the media-blitzed age.

Derek Walcott, Literature Nobel Laureate travelled the world while remaining closely connected to his beloved island St. Lucia. As a poet, playwright, painter and even filmmaker, Derek Walcott hymned the Caribbean for over 60 years. This documentary presents an intimate portrait of him, set in his beloved native island St. Lucia. This film explores the poetry of Derek Walcott, the landscapes and people that inspired it.

he Poetry Lounge: Self-Expression Through The Spoken Word is a free, multicultural open-forum for self-expression, inspiring young people to find their own voice and let it be heard. Hosted by award-winning Def Poets Shihan and Poetri, the "Lounge" has become the largest weekly open mic forum in the country, and was one of the inspirations for Russell Simmons' 2003 Tony-winning show, Def Poetry Jam.

The emotional content and the poetic techniques found in rock lyrics are examined in this program, which is ideally suited to introduce students to the universality of human values, to such poetic tools as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, symbolism and allegory and to lyric, dramatic and narrative poetic forms. Hit songs from the 1950's through the 1970's are used, and students are encouraged to compare the poetry of rock with more traditional forms.

Cynthia Nixon delivers a triumphant performance as Emily Dickinson as she personifies the wit, intellectual independence and pathos of the poet whose genius only came to be recognized after her death. Acclaimed British director Terence Davies (House of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea) exquisitely evokes Dickinson’s deep attachment to her close knit family along with the manners, mores and spiritual convictions of her time that she struggled with and transcended in her poetry.

In a life that has spanned 92 creative years, ruth weiss is one of the most influential writers of the Beat Generation. Born to a Jewish family during the rise of Nazism, as a 10-year-old refugee, she escaped to the United States. ruth became a Jazz troubadour exemplifying the zeitgeist of Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

A nonfiction narrative that takes you on a trip through the Slam Poetry phenomenon, following New York City's novice team on its journey to join over 120 spoken word artists on 27 city teams at the National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon.

Delve into the aristocratic society of the Tang Dynasty and the particular social and political meaning given to poetry within this world. See how poetry of various genres was used within specific social contexts, in the example of court poet Wang Wei. Follow the fortunes of beloved Tang poets Li Bai and Du Fu, as they embodied the vogue and singular significance of poetry in Chinese culture.