Episode details

Radio 4,09 Oct 2022,28 mins
Letters to a Young Woman Poet
Available for over a year
'Ask yourself, in the still of your night, must I write?' In ‘Letters to a Young Woman Poet’ - three of our most celebrated poets: Gillian Clarke, Penelope Shuttle and Grace Nichols, explore the deep pleasure of writing, the poetry of menstruation, sensuality and motherhood, and offer advice to younger writers - in a programme which includes the creative insights of the Bohemian poet Rainer Maria Rilke – who began the iconic correspondence known as ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ 120 years ago. Quotations from 'Letters to a Young Poet' trans. M.D.Herter Norton Produced by Faith Lawrence Mixed by Sue Stonestreet Poems read in full: ‘Confirmation’ - Grace Nichols ‘Ashes, Blood ‘- Penelope Shuttle ‘Sheila Na Gig at Kilpeck’ – Gillian Clarke ‘Invitation’ – Grace Nichols ‘Mother and Child’ - Penelope Shuttle ‘Times Like These’ - Gillian Clarke ‘Moon Mothers’ - Grace Nichols
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