VS (Poetry Foundation) · Poetry Foundation

Omotara James vs. The Speaker

April 29, 2025·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

Omotara James dismantles the 'poetry can't save the world' cliché by connecting it to Black women being expected to be saviors.

Charlie gets the first shout out. A stray puppy, a wrong name, and April Fool's nerves keep the opening loose before the hosts settle into their usual affectionate needling. Then the mood changes. The guest talks about the pressure of writing poems that can face trauma without using a reader's trauma as fuel. Sound alone will not do it. A poem can pop, provoke, even feel finished, and still miss the part where it makes room for the person receiving it. That changes what revision is for. Drafting starts with the speaker, but revision is where the reader enters: through audience, ethics, structure, and the relationship the poem is asking for. The host catches the point and gives it sharper language. When should the reader arrive in the making? How much responsibility can the poem carry before it turns its subject into damage on display? The guest is blunt about that line. She is not trying to make hard work soft, but she will not join in the exploitation of someone's trauma either. Meaning has to be shared. Trust is not assumed; the poem has to build it, lose it, and sometimes learn its way back. That work begins inside the speaker, with the question of whether she can meet herself clearly enough to reach another person. The conversation stays warm, but it does not let itself off easy. By the end, Charlie returns, the hosts laugh, and the close feels less like a wrap-up than a gentle walk back out of the room.

As heard by us

A thoughtful VS conversation on Omotara James, the speaker, revision, and the care a poem owes its reader.

Omotara James' visit to VS is strongest when it turns a familiar workshop question into an ethical one: what does a poem owe the person reading it?

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a poetry conversation that treats revision like ethics, not housekeeping.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from VS (Poetry Foundation)