Skip to main content
Access to this video is a benefit for members through PBS Passport.

Up Next

Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt

Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt

Season 4 Episode 3
25:21
July in Washington

July in Washington

Season 4 Episode 4
25:21
Hill Country

Hill Country

Season 4 Episode 5
25:21
Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

Season 4 Episode 7
25:21
Poetry in America Season 4

Steps

Season 4 Episode 8
24:42
Episode 5: The Calling

The Calling

Season 4 Episode 5
53:05
When Whales Could Walk

When Whales Could Walk

Season 51 Episode 1
53:35
Back to Show
Poetry in America

Six Years Later, Epitaph for a Centaur

Season 4 Episode 2

Russian-born poet Joseph Brodsky wrote about the centaur as a Cold War self-portrait: a divided global refugee, created by a geopolitics of shifting borders and cultures. Theater of War artistic director Bryan Doerries, writer Yelena Akhtiorskaya, and scholars Sven Birkerts, Zakhar Ishtov, Jonathan Brent, and Joseph Ellis read two poems by Brodsky: one about love; the other, exile.

Support Provided By
Season
Cascadilla Falls, by A. R. Ammons
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:21
DJ Spooky, Joshua Bennett, & more discuss A.R. Ammon’s “Cascadilla Falls” with Elisa New.
Looking for The Gulf Motel, by Richard Blanco
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:02
Gloria Estefan & more read Richard Blanco’s "Looking for The Gulf Motel" with Elisa New.
The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:11
Tony Kushner, David Strathairn & more read Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser” with Elisa New.
Active loading indicator