The Happy Booker: April Crucial Rooster

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We've got our Crucial Rooster up and crowing, just in time to spread some National Poetry Month love. Once again Reb is on the case, our favorite poet and editor serves up some easy listening recommendations to get our poetry groove on.

Crucial Rooster: Poetry Column by Reb Livingston

It’s National Poetry Month and you’re thinking “Oh dear, that crowing poet chick is going to guilt me into reading poetry – AGAIN.” Oh, if only guilt was that effective. Ok, since it’s a holiday month I’m going to let you off easy – WAIT just one minute, where do you think you’re going? I said easy, not completely, it would be a crime not to partake in poetry during this most holiest of poetry months.

So pull out your iPod or plug your headset into your computer – because this month we’re going to listen to poetry at MiPOradio. For the past year, this project produced by Didi Menendez slowly expanded from audio poems recorded from issues of MiPOesias into regular audio releases of new poems, interviews, columns and live readings from around the country.

One of the newest weekly programs on MiPOradio is The Goodnight Show Pjed (Podcast Jockey) by Michelle Buchanan. Every week she slips into her jammies, sends up her Top Ten favorite poems published online that week and invites the authors to read them. Buchanan’s selections are quirky and varied and qualify for a highly enjoyable listening experience. From this past week’s “Mellow Yellow” episode she invited Aaron Belz, to read “Pain Boot” that goes as follows:

If you have nothing better to do, try wearing a pain boot. / I wore one for two weeks and as a result wrote a book / about the history of sadness. Fill a boot with broken glass, / put it on, lace it tightly, and walk around for two weeks.

Now that’s poetry, not instructions, following such a suggestion is not advisable and Belz, while possibly one of today’s pre-eminent authorities on pain boots cannot be held responsible for any injuries that might incur. Of course, some of us need the inspiration to finish our books and appreciate the idea.

Another regular feature on MiPOradio I appreciate are the many author interviews and one of my favorite interviewers is Amy King, whose warm, casual and conversational style makes the listener feel like she’s sitting at the table, part of the discussion. A great example is her recent interview with Daisy Fried, author of My Brother is Getting Arrested Again.

If you like what you hear, it’s easy to implement the shows into your daily routine. Simply sign up for the RSS feed if you’re listening from your computer or if you want to download the shows on your iPod, subscribe on iTunes or Odeo. It’s the perfect thing to listen to while you’re driving, riding the subway, tuning out the loud wheezing jackass in the cubicle next door or just relaxing on the sofa. You can even listen while you take in an air show, a mime performance or give your overworked eyeballs a break and close them tightly. Happy National Poetry Month, dear retina, enjoy it while it lasts, next month it’s back to the book mines for you!