A Day on the Radio

Greetings from sunny Santa Barbara!

I just got off the phone with Gigi, at WKUF, a small radio station at Kettering University, in Flint, MI.

I contacted Gigi to get my client on her show: Lunch Poems with Gigi. She and I also hit it off, so she invited me to be on her show, too - a show of my own! The hard part - she asked me to think of my favorite poet, so we could discuss that person and his/her poems.

Favorite poet? Me?!? I'm sort of a haiku girl, really. But I gave it some thought, and suddenly I knew - Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet. Or at least a poet I know a little bit about.

In college at Indiana Central University, I had an amazing professor, Dr. Michael Allen. I took a couple of his classes, and really, those are the ones I remember the most - a Great American Novel class, and maybe something along the lines of Short Stories, or something. One class included a section on American poets. And Sylvia Plath was one of them.

He did a wonderful job of showing us poems, deconstructing them, explaining, line by line, what the poet was saying. "Daddy" by Plath is one I remember the most - so amazing, so moving, such great images and wordcraft.

Gigi didn't know a lot about Plath, but she plunged into her journals and poems, to prep for our one hour show. And what a show! Gigi played an audio we'd found on Youtube, of Plath reading "Daddy." Hearing that poem, in Plath's voice - haunting.

The hour flew by, and included me reading another poem that caught my eye as I thumbed through my new Plath collection: "Ode to Ted." It is a love poem to her new husband, Ted Hughes. Honestly, I got a bit choked up after reading it on the show. Ever the trooper, I gulped past my tears and continued the discussion.

It was fun, I had a great time. I don't think I'll be able to get a copy, but if I do, well, I'll share it, if I can.

Today I'm heading to Borders Goleta, to see my pal Wayne, and attend the event of my pal, Kathryn Cushman - she'll be discussing and signing her new novel. Looking foward to it!

Enjoy your Sunday - K8.