In this series, Beyond a Joke I speak with folk about things that make them laugh as a way into a conversation about writing, humour and art.

In this, the first episode in this series I speak with Anna Jackson abouta single cell from a Peanuts cartoon where Snoopy is pretending to be a cow. This turns out to be a really great way into talking to Anna about her amazing new book Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works (Auckland University Press)

Some of the things we talk about are:

Here is Allen Ginsberg reading America with an audience and beginning to play it for laughs:

And here is the reading without the audience:

And with the soundtrack by Tom Waits bringing out that elegiac note to it that it has when he reads it without an audience:

A link to the Szymborska poem

The Chris Tse poem you'll find in Super Model Minority.

The Hera Lindsay Bird poem I had in mind was MONICA.

Better off Read’s Newsletter

Ep 110: Beyond a Joke 1 - Anna Jackson talks…