Hello, you're listening to the New Yorker Poetry Podcast.

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

On this program, we invite poets to choose a poem from the New Yorker archive to read and discuss.

Then, we ask them to read one of their own poems that's been published in the magazine.

My guest today is Ellen Bass.

A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets,

she's received the Lambda Literary Award for Poetry,

the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry,

and fellowships from the California Arts Council

and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Welcome, Ellen.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, thank you for inviting me.

I'm delighted to be here.

So the poem you've decided to read for us is Cohogs by Frank X. Gaspar.

Can you tell us why this particular poem caught your attention as you were looking through the archives?

I love this poem for many reasons.

One of them is it's so primal. It's so. as you were looking through the archives? I love this poem for many reasons.

One of them is it's so primal.

It's so visceral.

It brings us into one of the most basic human experiences.

And I feel like I'm having that experience when I read the poem.

...