There's a Poem in That is a new podcast in which poets help strangers discover the poetry in their most intimate stories. This unreleased Episode 1 features guest stranger Joan, a singer whose loss of her singing voice is bound up with three miscarriages and a historic train collision.

If you think there's a poem in your story, leave a voicemail on our Haiku, Hawaii, listener line: 808-300-0449.

Read all three poems for Joan, and her reactions to them: poeminthat.com.

TAPIT Episode One: Joan

A poem from PITCH by Todd Boss (2008, W. W. Norton & Co), now available in paperback wherever books are sold.


Feast

             —Let me taste
the kitchen in your skin. 

Now that company’s gone
& the kids are tucked in, 
let the real feasting begin. 

Let me lay you out on the 
bed like a spread of bone 

china. —Yes, I want a 
piece of you. 
                       Yes, I do.

Give me your garlic, and 
the sting of your pepper.

The plenty of your hair
(cinnamon, cardamom). 

Here a hint of coffee, & 
there, in the cup of your 
shoulder, I swear, a lick 
of salted butter. 
      But first: 
your wrist, your palm’s   
sweet meat. 
                      Dip your 
fingers in my kisses—
star anise—lemon zest—
                                     
Say a grace, my fare,
my flight, 
                 & let’s re-light
the candles tonight…

Feast

Alyen - Mr. Nice Guy

Todd Boss is a poet, public artist, librettist, and film producer in Minneapolis. His poetry collections are SOMEDAY THE PLAN OF A TOWN (2022), TOUGH LUCK (2017), PITCH (2012) and YELLOWROCKET (2008), all from W. W. Norton & Co. His poems have appeared in THE NEW YORKER, POETRY, NPR, THE LONDON TIMES, and many other publications. His choral collaborations with composer Jake Runestad have premiered at Kennedy Center and elsewhere. His large-scale public artworks include a 2022 augmented-reality "Dakota Spirit Walk" in downtown Saint Paul, a 2012 installation in the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis to mark the 5th anniversary of the 35W Bridge collapse, and a 2014 block-wide projection of poetry films onto Saint Paul’s historic Union Depot. He is the founding Executive and Artistic Director of Motionpoems, an initiative that partners with major publishers and film companies to turn great contemporary poems into short films, with 150 in its archive. More at toddbossoriginals.com and motionpoems.org.

Feast

Todd Boss

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