My poem on NPR’s All Things Considered

I woke up today to a message in a WeChat group from an old friend saying she heard me on the radio.

And indeed, one of my poems did make it on the radio — specifically, NPR’s All Things Considered, which is running a monthlong contest on Twitter in search of Twitter-length poems that they then read on the air in commemoration of National Poetry Month. It was Richard Blanco — President Obama’s Second Inauguration poet — who chose my poem, Career Path, for Sunday’s segment. Here it is (click for transcript of the segment, or listen in this embed):

Yes, that’s me reading the poem.

Career Path

They said art was misery
so I sought it —

but it’s not like you think,
not rejection

of comfort, self-
mutilation;

it was accepting
who I am

is the person I will live with
for the rest of this path,

which I’d prefer end
some place I imagine.#NPRPoetry @npratc

— Anthony Tao (@anthonytao) April 2, 2019

Deepest thanks to Richard Blanco and All Things Considered‘s Emma Talkoff, who initially reached out.