Poets & Writers Theater

“Out of the acids of rage, the candor of tar, / Out of creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, wooden dollies, / They Lion grow.” Watch this 2013 LIVE From NYPL recording of an event featuring the late Philip Levine reading his rousing poem “They Feed They Lion” in tribute to Federico García Lorca.

In honor of the seventh anniversary of poet Philip Levine’s passing, Tom Sleigh speaks about their friendship and reads “That Word,” a poem from his latest book, The King’s Touch (Graywolf Press, 2022), dedicated to Levine in this video directed by Ed Robbins. Sleigh says of Levine: “Phil’s intelligence was as brilliantly acerbic as it was heartbreaking.”

“We stand in the rain in a long line waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.” The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, who died on February 14, 2015 at the age of eighty-seven, speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown in a 2010 interview about the need for working-class life to be represented in poetry.

Happy National Poetry Month! Last week U.S. poet laureate Philip Levine read three of his poems at the Rogue Festival in Fresno, California, accompanied by the Benjamin Boone Evolution Quartet. All music was written specifically for each poem.

In this clip from Fresno State University, the poet laureate reads "Gospel," from his collection Breath (Knopf, 2004). For more Philip Levine, read Michael Bourne's interview in the current issue and listen to the poet read "The Mercy."

The next poet laureate, Philip Levine, who will succeed W. S. Merwin when he takes over the post in October, reads a selection of his poems, including "What Work Is."