Bill Moyers: The Language of Life

This is a set of eight (8) one-hour videos of contemporary poets who share with us their lives: their hopes and triumphs, their laughter and pain, their sorrows and joys. The setting is the 1994 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Waterloo, New Jersey, and Bill Moyers not only provides his audience with a wonderful glimpse into the various activities of the festival, but also shares with us his thought-provoking conversations with each of the featured artists. The programming is beautifully done, and probably even more exciting by virtue of the skillful editing than if we'd been there to see and hear it in person.

Time and space do not permit a review of each of the programs. Suffice it to say that, no matter what order you view them in, each one will be better than the one before or the one after. The artists will surprise and delight you, and sometimes they'll make you cry. This set is a collector's piece.

Excellent marteials for teaching and learning poems in Colleges and Graduate Schools. Tapes provide students with a different view from ordinary classes.

My husband, Ken, and I happened to see one episode of the original series of "Bill Moyers: The Language of Life" on PBS in the mid-1990's. He spends two days (or more) at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival talking to poets and recording their readings in front of a live audience. There are some amazing writers he presents here. Naomi Shahib Nye, Robery Bly, Robert Hass, Lucille Clifton, Adrienne Rich, Coleman Barks, Sundiata Sekou, Carol Forche, Claribel Alegria, David Mura, Jimmy Braca, to name just a handful. We got the audiocassette tapes right away, which I couldn't get enough of. I recently bought the dvds this year. Since my retirement, I'm interested in writing - I gravitate to poetry. This series puts you in the middle of it all. Wonderful fresh interviews with the poets and equally meaningful and insightful readings by the poets of their own work. Gets my juices flowing every time I want to sit down to write. It is that inspiring. I like pretty much everything Moyers does - his interviews are always engaging, sometimes gripping. This is one of Moyers's best works, in my view. Too bad PBS never aired this series again... At least we have the dvds to remember. I recommend it for all poets and lovers of poetry. You will fall in love with language again and again.