Welcome to Multi-Verse, a new podcast that offers a listening space for poems usually confined to the page.
In Episode 1 of Multi-Verse, poet Erika Meitner reads and discusses her poem “Thumbs-Up for the Mothership” in conversation with host Evangeline Riddiford Graham, touching on themes of climate change, migration, and Whitman vs Dickinson.
Erika Meitner is the author of six poetry collections, including Useful Junk, out this spring with BOA Editions.
Meitner wrote “Thumbs-Up for the Mothership” as part of a lyric investigation into sea level rise in Miami, created in collaboration with photographer Anna Barry-Jester. “Climate change is a both quick and slow-moving disaster,” Meitner explains. “If you talk to any photographer working with sea-level rise or global warming—or any artist, even—one of the things that’s so complicated is how hard it is to capture.”
“Thumbs-Up for the Mothership” was first published in Virginia Quarterly Review.
Multi-Verse is hosted and produced by Evangeline Riddiford Graham, senior managing editor at Public Seminar. Join Riddiford Graham once a month to hear poets discuss the poems they don’t usually read aloud. We’ll take time to listen closely to these poems and unwind the multitude of meanings contained in every verse.
Find new episodes of Multi-Verse at Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, or at multiversepoetry.org.
