About this episode
Wonder and strangeness commingle with the commonplace and universal in Danielle Chapman’s “Trespassing with Tweens.” In a not-quite mirroring, a human mother and her children stand and watch together in awe as a great blue heron flaps in and feeds its two offspring. The pleasures found here are profound and multiple – the joys in seeing, in sharing an experience of seeing, in seeing with fresh eyes, and in being seen. Danielle Chapman is a poet, essayist, and lecturer in English at Yale University. Her most recent collection of poetry, Boxed Juice , was published in 2024 by Unbounded Edition Press. Her previous collection of poems, Delinquent Palaces , was published by Northwestern University Press in 2015, and her memoir, Holler: A Poet Among Patriots , was released by Unbound Edition Press in 2023. For several years, Chapman served as the Director of Literary Arts and Events for the City of Chicago, and she was also an editor at Poetry Magazine . She currently teaches Shakespeare and creative writing and lives in Hamden, Connecticut, with her family. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Danielle Chapman’s poem and invite you to subscribe to Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack newsletter, read the Poetry Unbound book , or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — Kitchen Hymns (new poems from Pádraig) and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.