Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share and examine their work, produced and moderated by John Gillespie. Episode 13 features five poets - Karren Alenier, Tara Betts, Bernadette Geyer, Fred Marchant, and Aaron Caycedo-Kimura - reading poetry in response to Gertrude Stein’s book Tender In this episode, Karren brings together poets from From the Belly Volume II: Poets respond to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, Food. The poets huddle their significant creative talents to respond to Stein’s most mysterious work and launch into a conversation about the hard to penetrate Food section of Tender Buttons.
These poems are from From the Belly Volume II: Food, a collection of poetry responding to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons.
Karren Lalonde Alenier is author of eight poetry collections—latest: how we hold on from Broadstone Books, 2021—and editor or co-editor of three anthologies, including From the Belly, volumes I and II. Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, her jazz opera with composer Bill Banfield premiered June 2005 in New York by Encompass New Opera Theatre. More at alenier.com.
Tara Betts is the author of Refuse to Disappear, Break the Habit, and Arc & Hue. She served as the inaugural Poet for The People Practitioner Fellow at the University of Chicago. Betts currently teaches full-time in Peace Studies at DePaul University and serves as poetry editor for The Langston Hughes Review. Learn more on the faculty page of DePaul’s Peace, Justice, Conflict Studies Department.
Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is the author of Common Grace (Beacon Press, 2022) and Ubasute (Slapering Hol Press, 2021). His honors include a MacDowell145 Fellowship, a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, and a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award. His work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Plume Poetry, RHINO, and elsewhere. Learn more at aaroncaycedokimura.com.
Bernadette Geyer is author of the poetry collection The Scabbard of Her Throat (The Word Works) and editor of My Cruel Invention: A Contemporary Poetry Anthology (Meerkat Press). Her poems and translations have appeared in Barrow Street, The Massachusetts Review, Oxford American, and elsewhere. Geyer lives in Berlin, Germany. Learn more at bernadettegeyer.com.
Fred Marchant is the author of five books of poetry, the first of which is Tipping Point, winner of the 1993 Washington Prize from The Word Works, and re-issued in a 20th anniversary second edition. His most recent collection is Said Not Said, from Graywolf Press. He lives in Arlington, MA. Learn more at fredmarchant.com.