Poetry Versus with Tony Brown Exploring Russell Edson's Satirical Poem Ape

This episode of Poetry Versus with Tony Brown continues to explore the theme of the month, satire. With a little absurdism mixed in. He'll read and discuss the poem "Ape" by Russell Edson.

Born in Connecticut, Edson studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1950s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Edson, who jokingly has called himself "Little Mr. Prose Poem," is inarguably the foremost writer of prose poetry in America, having written exclusively in that form before it became fashionable.

Edson self-published several chapbooks and later, numerous collections of prose poetry, fables, two novels, "Gulping's Recital" and "The Song of Percival Peacock", and a book of plays under the title, "The Falling Sickness" and his final book was "See Jack"