Former National Poet Laureate Donald Hall recites his poetry, talks of his life

Former poet laureate Donald Hall talks with fellow poet Elizabeth Spires about what sparked his writing as a young man (movies like "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"), his wild times with poets like Robert Bly at Harvard, and his return to his grandparents' farm with wife and poet Jane Kenyon. Spires asks Hall to read "The Ship Pounding" and "Weeds and Peonies," about Kenyon's fatal illness and Hall's grief. Hall also reads "The Wish," with the mournful refrain, "Oh, let me go," and credits Thomas Hardy with much influence. Spires, also a children's author, asks Hall about his writing for children, which he says seemed quicker to write than his poems. For more information about "The Writing Life" and HoCoPoLitSo (the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society), visit www.hocopolitso.org.