Poetry in America

Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer

02/25/2022 | 25m 38s | WETA Passport

Sharon Olds’s “The Language of the Brag” and Bernadette Mayer’s “The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters” are exuberant, boisterous tributes to motherhood. Both poets join host Elisa New, actor Donna Lynne Champlin, writer Emily Oster, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, obstetrician Lorna Wilkerson, and co-founders of Our Bodies Ourselves to explore the miracle, and mess, of creating new life.

Aired: 02/25/22 | Expires: 02/25/29 | Rating: TV-MA

Support for Poetry in America is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Dalio Philanthropies, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, Deborah Hayes Stone and Max Stone. Season 3 is distributed to PBS stations nationwide by PBS Plus, with Seasons 1 & 2 distributed nationally by American Public Television.

More Episodes

• Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay

  03/11/2022 | 25m 41s | WETA Passport

• Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos

  03/04/2022 | 25m 14s | WETA Passport

• Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer

  02/25/2022 | 25m 38s | WETA Passport

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