Hello, you've made it to the back of the book, a podcast devoted to arts and culture.

I'm your host, Christopher Scalia, of the American Enterprise

Institute. My guest for this episode is the poet and critic James Matthew Wilson. James is the

Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature and the founding director of the Masters

and Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at the University of

St. Thomas. He's also the author of 16 books, most recently the poetry collection, St. Thomas

and the Forbidden Birds. A previous collection, The Strangeness of the Good, won the Poetry

Book of the Year Award from the Catholic

Media Awards.

James serves as poet in residence of the Benedict XVI Institute, scholar in residence of Aquinas

College, editor of Coliseum Books, and poetry editor of Modern Age magazine.

I'm excited to have him on today to talk about his poetry.

James, welcome to the back of the book.

Thanks for having me, Chris.

Well, I want to jump right in by talking about your most recent collection, St. Thomas and the Forbidden Birds.

And I thought that the best way to do that

would be by having you read a couple of the poems, and then we can settle down and talk about them.

But let's start with two poems, self-possession and then a withered tree.

Sure. So here's self-possession.

This girl in heels walks by a mirror and stops to sweep hair from her shoulder,

then turns and goes, as if it's clear her fate is to be her own beholder.

And that glass in the hall grows clearer with her approach,

...