Episode 125: The Poetics of Motherhood

The third of five episodes featuring the lectures that became Rachel Zucker’s newest book, The Poetics of Wrongness. After an introduction from Rachel this episode contains archival audio of “Why She Could Not Write A Lecture on the Poetics of Motherhood” presented at the UC Berkeley English Department on November 15, 2016 and the introduction to the event given by poet Robert Hass. In this lecture, Rachel Zucker—while teaching and mothering and preparing to record a conversation with poet mother Alicia Ostriker in the months leading up to and in the days following the 2016 presidential election—discusses the difficulty of writing a lecture on the work of poet mothers Alice Notley, Bernadette Mayer, Toi Derricotte and others, and what might or might not constitute a poetics of motherhood.

Author

Commonplace Podcast
May 11, 2024

Dear Listener,

I hope this finds you healthy and well.

I’ve decided to release the audio of my lecture, “Why She Could Not Write A Lecture on the Poetics of Motherhood” (including Robert Hass’s introduction of that event) with a short introduction by me. I delivered this lecture once—only once—at UC Berkeley, on November 15th, 2016. It was the last of the lectures I gave during my tenure as a Bagley Wright Lecturer. 

Initially I was going to try to release the lectures in order. (You can hear the title lecture “The Poetics of Wrongness” in episode 110 of Commonplace and  the second lecture in the book, “What We Talk about When We Talk about The Confessional and What We Should Be Talking About,” in episode 111), but I haven’t had the time or resources to work on the other two lectures (the lecture on ethics—“A Very Large Charge—Say Everything Poetry,” and my lecture on photography, which didn’t make it into the book). Also, I feel called to share this one on the poetics of motherhood with you now for several reasons including the wave of student protests across the country, the upcoming presidential election, and Mother’s Day.  

Re-listening to this audio—almost eight years later—I’m embarrassed by the nervousness in my voice, particularly at the beginning of the lecture. I stumble over words and, at times, speak too quickly. It meant a lot to me that Bob Hass—a poet I deeply admire and from whom I was lucky to study for one semester when I was at the University of Iowa—gave the introduction, but his introduction was, as I remember it, part of what made me so nervous. I felt, in front of Bob and what seemed to be a mostly male, mostly academic audience, extremely female, extremely unscholarly, simultaneously too young and too motherly to be talking about anything at the English Department at UC Berkeley, even poetry, even the poetics of motherhood. 

The nervousness and the embarrassment are part of this lecture and how it came into being. So is my deep and abiding care and concern for my students’ physical and emotional wellbeing and the weight of responsibility I feel around teaching. This lecture is extremely personal and yet (and so?) I wrote it in third person, and I hear in this lecture the origins of the voice of the novel I’m now writing. This lecture is written and spoken by an earlier, less confident version of me—a version of me who had just started Commonplace (I’d only released 12 episodes!), and yet this lecture feels true and current and relevant and like the most authentic words I have to offer you right now. 

For this episode Commonplace’s charitable partner will donate $250 to Jewish Voice for Peace and $250 to the Black Mama’s Bail Out which is part of National Bail Out.

Some members of the Commonplace Book Club will receive a copy of The Poetics of Wrongness. (If you are a Commonplace patron of $10+/month or if you become a member at the $10+/month level and would like a signed copy of my book of lectures, please let me know!)  

Since COVID and especially in the past year we are running at an increasingly greater loss with each episode. If you can afford to support the podcast financially, that would be deeply appreciated. Otherwise, please consider recommending the podcast to friends and students, writing a review on iTunes, inviting me to teach or lecture at your school or sending us a note of encouragement via email or social media. 

To become a Book Club member or to find out how to support Commonplace at any level please visit Patreon or our website where you can sign up for our newsletter and Commonplace School classes and where you will find a list of poets mentioned in this episode. 

Thank you to Ellen Welcker, Heidi Broadhead, Charlie Wright and everyone at Wave Books. Thank you to Bob Hass and the English Department at UC Berkeley. Thank you to my students and my sons and my teachers. Thank you to everyone who has worked on Commonplace and supported the podcast and the school. 

Some personal news: I will be traveling to Rotterdam, Netherlands for a friend’s 50th birthday party on June 15. I’ll only be there for 4 days but if you have any suggestions for me of things to go and see in the Rotterdam area or if you live there or near enough to say hello, let me know! (Or, if you happen to run a reading series and want to invite me to read while I’m there, definitely let me know!) 

Stay tuned for these upcoming episodes: D. A. Powell, Eugenia Leigh’s Bianca (a RwR episode), Sabrina Orah Mark’s Happily (a RwR episode), Lois Conner, Hanif Abdurraquib and more! (And you can still sign up for Reading with Rachel sessions here!)

And last but not least, I want to wish everyone who identifies as a mother, everyone who is always or sometimes in the role of mother or who does the work of mothering, not just a Happy Mother’s Day, I wish you a whole season of power and care and peace and strength and love, so, so much love. 

My mother, Diane Wolkstein, with my three sons (probably around 2009)

Me with my boys (2022)

Me (now the shortest person in my family) with “the baby” (2024)

Until next time,

Thank you for listening,

Rachel (& the Commonplace team)