This is the third of several special episodes of Liberal Arts Voices featuring this year’s Penn State Laureate, poet and Professor of English and Womens’ Studies, Robin Becker. Throughout the fall semester, Liberal Arts Voices will be collaborating with Penn State Live to cover the poems and work of Professor Becker.
In this podcast Professor Becker joins Dean Long; CLA Enrichment Coordinator and PSU English alum, Ashley Tarbet; English major Natalie Kovak; and English grad student William Woolfit to discuss Professor Becker’s poem “The Lover of Fruit Trees.” You can read the full version of “The Lover of Fruit Trees” on Penn State Live.
Professor Becker begins by describing how she found inspiration for this poem by observing her friend’s experience gardening in the dessert of New Mexico. Throughout this episode, the group discusses a variety of themes that are evoked by the poem such as endurance, the ability to find the unexpected in miraculous places, and the love and awe inspired by natural landscapes.
We invite you to respond to this poem or to the question that Professor asks at the conclusion of her poem: With whom do you have rich and searching conversations? How might you describe those conversations or find images that evoke them?
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To watch a video of Professor Becker reading this poem or to read the actual poem, visit Penn State Live.
We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.