Poems to help us brave the elements

Ian McMillan's poets show how the tiniest poem can help us brave the fiercest elements - from a haiku that's inspired generation after generation - with its careful noticing of the splosh of a frog into a pond, to a thin poem that summons the forces that shape mountains, and which end up shaping our own lives - and the poetry of biblical fire and wind.

Some poets seem to be in tune with the elements - and in this show Ian celebrates the poetry of Wendell Berry, American poet and farmer - who encouraged us to 'come into the peace of wild things' in times of despair.

Ian's guests are:

The poets Robert Crawford and Keith Jarrett, who share poems of fire, air, water and earth.

Professor of Physical Geography Jamie Woodward, who takes us close to a landscape that's inspired life-changing poems, and to poetry that can help us understand the changing landscape.

Poet Kate Fox who brings us a new poem inspired by the screen-avoiding, earth-loving, farmer and poet Wendell Berry - who died in Kentucky last week.
Kate wonders whether modern poets can really avoid the distraction, or the assistance, of a mobile phone when they try to get closer to the elements.

Books:
Robert Crawford's new book is 'Haiku. How the modern world came to fall in love with small poems from Japan' and his most recent collection of poems is 'Old World'.
Keith Jarrett's latest collection is 'Hide me under the blood'
Jamie Woodward's new book is 'A Little History of the Earth'
Kate Fox's latest book is 'On Sycamore Gap'

Produced by Faith Lawrence