On this episode, Peter Orner and Yvette Benavides welcome the poet Nicholas Regiacorte to the Lonely Voice clubhouse to discuss two poems by Zbigniew Herbert— “The Rain” and “Elegy of Fortinbras.”
Grace Paley famously compared poetry to short fiction.
She once wrote that, "A short story is closer to the poem than to the novel (I've said that a million times) and when it's very, very short... should be read like a poem. That is slowly."
The reverse can be true, and a poem can be read like a story.
So it stands to reason that when Orner and Benavides had a chance to break all the rules and invite a poet to discuss poetry on a podcast that is a celebration of the short story, it wasn’t a big lift. It was, in fact, kind of perfect to be able to welcome in Nicholas Regiacorte to discuss two poems by Zbigniew Herbert.
Herbert was a poet and a prose writer. He was born in 1924, and his work was shaped by the upheaval caused by World War II and the subsequent Soviet-imposed communist rule in Poland.
He is known for having taken a moral stance against totalitarianism. He is also known for his poetic alter-ego, "Mr. Cogito." His style combines contemporary concerns, irony and allusions to critique oppressive systems.
But you don’t need to know any of this to appreciate his poetry—particularly the two poems selected by Nicholas Regiacorte and Peter Orner for this very special episode of The Lonely Voice.
Zbigniew Herbert is the author of “The Rain” and “Elegy of Fortinbras.”
Guest: Nicholas Regiacorte
Nicholas Regiacorte is a transplant to the Midwest, having spent his childhood in Maine, high school and college in the South. After grad school at the University of Iowa and a Fulbright year in southern Italy, he settled with his family in Galesburg, Illinois. His poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Mary, New American Writing, Descant, Bennington Review, Colorado Review, Verse Daily, Dialogist, Tupelo Quarterly, Peripheries, and elsewhere. A finalist for numerous prizes, including Rescue Press, New Issues, and Cleveland State’s first book prize, American Massif is his first book. He currently teaches at Knox College, where he directs the Program in Creative Writing.
Read more about Nicholas Regiacorte here.
