An episode from 12/7/21: Tonight, I read eleven short poems from a handful of books that Ted Hughes published during the 1970s. As I talk about in the introduction, this decade saw the writing and publication of Hughes's most powerful books: Crow, Moortown Diary, Remains of Elmet, and River (which themselves did not find their final form until the 1990s). In between these books, Hughes published a handful of other collections, mostly through small presses. Few of these books can be read from start to finish as successful wholes; however, the best poems from them are as strong as anything he ever wrote, and they deserve to be heard together. They can all be found in his Collected Poems: Prometheus on His Crag (1973): #7 Gaudette (1977): I skin the skin Uncollected (1977-1978): New Foal Orts (1978): #1, #44 Cave Birds (1978): The Executioner, A Green Mother, Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days Adam & the Sacred Nine (1979): And the Phoenix has come Earthnumb (1979): Life is Trying to Be Life, A God Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

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