Wake, Butterfly: Beyond (So What) with Edward Salem

In the second episode, Edward Salem invites listeners to find what’s beyond “so what.” _____ Matsuo Bashō wrote: Wake, butterfly— it’s late, we’ve miles to go together. Poetry magazine presents Wake, Butterfly, a series of intimate portraits that invite listeners to keep creating. The series is produced by Rachel James with sound design by Axel Kacoutié. _____ Here’s an edited version of Salem’s prompt: Write a poem that responds to the question, “What is beyond so what?” You can replace “so what” with “eternity.” What is beyond the void? What is beyond the body? What is beyond your little human life? What is beyond the life cycle of the universe? _____ The poem Salem reads in the episode, “The Palestinian Chair,” is from his book Monk Fruit (Nightboat Books, 2025). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to Wake, Butterfly: Beyond (So What) with Edward Salem online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Wake, Butterfly: Beyond (So What) with Edward Salem is an episode from The Poetry Magazine Podcast by Poetry Foundation.

This episode is 00:13:11 long.

This episode was published on Jun 23, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Poetry Magazine Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.