You're listening to the New Yorker Poetry Podcast.

I'm Kevin Young, poetry editor of the New Yorker magazine.

On this program, we ask a poet to select a poem from the New Yorker Archive to read and discuss.

Then they read a poem of their own that's been published in the magazine.

My guest today is Adrian Sue, a professor and poet in residence at Dickinson College,

whose work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts,

the Pushcard Prize, and the Money for Women, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

Adrian, welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Kevin.

So the first poem you've chosen to read is The Longing to Be Saved by Maxine Kuhman.

What was it about this poem that caught your attention as you were looking through our archives?

I would say it was a combination of the imagery and, of course, Maxine Kuhn's signature use of rhyme and form, as well as it's the liberties

it takes with some of those things. And also, I've lived with this poem a long time. I have loved

this poem for years. Well, let's hear it. This is Adrian Sue reading The Longing to Be Saved by Maxine Kuhman.

The longing to be saved.

When the barn catches fire, I am wearing the wrong negligee.

It hangs on me like a gunny sack.

I get the horses out, but they wrench free, wheel, dashed back,

and three or four trips are required. Much whinnying and rearing as well. This happens whenever I travel.

At the next stopover, the children take off their doctor and lawyer disguises and turn back into little lambs.

They cower at windows from which flames shoot, like the tattered red cloth of dime store double suits.

...