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:

Lost Media (help us out)!

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…

Let us know!

—

  1. This is also a recurring riff in many of the opening segments of Dear Hank & John
  2. A lovely play on the Latin phrase Ars Poetica (“The Art of Poetry”)
  3. Examples: 1 | 2
  4. 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.
  5. And are still missed by Nerdfighters everywhere!
ALL POEMS

Related Resources

Dear Hank & John

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

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Prose poem by ‘Leon Muss’

Who is ‘Leon Muss’?

Ep. 052 is the start of this recurring alter ego of John, a playful rib on Elon Musk:

J: I’m very excited Hank to find out whether there’s going to be a human on Mars by 2017, and indeed to have our listeners to suggest stakes in this bet. It finally gives me something that I can get excited about: Preventing human beings from going to Mars by 2027.

H: *laughing* Oh god.

J: I’ve finally got a mission in life: I’ve got to sabotage Elon Musk’s mission.

H: No, no… yeah.

J: I’m gonna become the anti-Elon Musk. I’m gonna start like advocating for decreasing the amount of money we spend on space. Who wants to go to space when we’ve got a great planet right here?

H: Can we call you like Leon Mush? *John cackles* The anti Elon Musk: Leon Mush.

J: *still chuckling* Oh man, I’m starting a twitter right now twitter.com/leonmuss where I’m gonna do nothing but destroy Elon Musk’s whole life so I can prevent him from sending people to Mars and win some stupid bet with you.

The brothers’ related banter…

John: You know if I could just read one short poem, Hank.

Hank: Oh, okay. Well that’s usually how you do it.

John: Do you know- do you mind?

Hank: Yeah, don’t do two.

John: I won’t do two. I’m just going to do one short poem for the day. It’s a prose poem.

Hank: Is it by Leon Muss?

John: It’s by Leon Muss! (wheezes)

Hank: (outright laughter)

John: (high pitched giggling) (wheezing) He writes- (breath) It’s a poem by Leon Muss. It’s on his twitter @LeonMuss4Earth … (giggles) (breath)

(Reads tweet)

Hank: (laughs) Good. Great. That’s beautiful.

John: You’re welcome for the short poem. (burst of laughter) I have already had more fun in this podcast than I usually have ALL WEEK LONG.

tumblr
https://www.tumblr.com/dearhankandjohnpodshortpoems/161182151119/053-people-often-ask-me

Dear Hank & John | Ep. 053

Click to read poem

People often ask me, ‘Leon Muss, should we send humans to Mars?’ And I always tell them, ‘Yes. In 2028 and not a day sooner.’

A screengrab of the original Tweet
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