Hey everybody, it's me, Tracy Thomas, host of the Stacks. And I am here with another extra special bonus episode of the Stax Unabridged.

April is National Poetry Month. And so we are bringing back something that you all loved that we did two years ago. We call it poetry therapy.

That's where I invite five poets onto the podcast, each of whom has chosen one poem

for us to read together and discuss. They're going to help us break it down, explain what they

think makes the poem good. I'm going to talk about what I am noticing, what I am wondering about,

and it's all in an effort to alleviate our collective poetry anxieties and fears.

If you are a person who has those, I don't want to project.

I have them.

Today I am joined by Nate Marshall, Jose Olivares, Courtney Lamar Charleston, Camone Felix,

and Jessica Salgado.

And hopefully, with help of these five poets, we will be cured of our poetry anxieties,

and we will be able to just lean in and enjoy the words.

Now, if you're listening to this episode and it cuts off after about 10, 15 minutes,

that means you are not a paid subscriber to my substack, Tracythomas.com, or part of the

stacks pack, patreon.com slash the stacks. These bonus episodes

are exclusive for paying members. However, not only do you get these episodes when you pay,

you also get a bunch of other perks and you get to know that you are supporting this black

woman-run independent book podcast that cares about therapy exist.

So please go join TracyThomas.com or patreon.com slash the stacks.

Okay, enough.

Let us dive in to this year's 2026 poetry therapy session.

Music Poetry Therapy Session.

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