John Green Reads Poetry

So many poems to listen to!

Hey, there’s a missing poem!

Hi! This website is an ongoing labor of love inspired by John’s self-proclaimed love of poetry ¹ and the mission of Ours Poetica.²

We’re working very hard combing through the vast amounts of online content John and Hank have created ³ — and continue to create! — to find every instance of John reading poetry.⁴ Most of these were short poems that used to appear as an opening segment in the Dear Hank & John pod.⁵

Check out our growing list of missing or lost poetry-related John Green media:

We have a long way to go, and are using the posts’ dates as a way to organize everything chronologically with relevant tags to make everything extra useable!

So if you have a suggestion of something we missed or would like to share a piece of poetry-related media you’ve found…

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This is also a recurring riff in many of the opening segments of Dear Hank & John
A lovely play on the Latin phrase Ars Poetica (“The Art of Poetry”)
Examples: 1 | 2
And, occasionally, someone else, such as his wife, his brother, or a poem inspired by one of Hank’s rants. Admittedly, some things are qualified as ‘poems’ rather loosely — John has read lyrics, and other nontraditional items as poetry, and that’s a wonderful thing!
Because poetry is, always, what we make it.
And are still missed by Nerdfighters everywhere!

ALL POEMS

Dear Hank & John

Or as he likes to call it: “Dear John & Hank”

Other Resources

“John Keats” by J. D. Salinger

In Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction (1955)

John’s related banter…

Speaking of uh beauty being truth and truth beauty uh being all you know and all you need to know. I also like John Keats a lot. Um and then um anytime I talk about John Keats, I got to talk about uh the poem that Salinger uh attributed to uh one of the glasses. Um I think in Seymour introduction uh John Keats. John Keats put your coat on. Um John Keats’s last will and testament one perfect line of amic pentameter. My chest of books divide among my friends.

Click to read poem

John Keats
John Keats
John
Please put your scarf on