In this witty and reflective episode of Quintessential Listening Poetry Online Radio and YouTube, Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram engages poet and historian Alexander Poster in a quintessential poetry podcast conversation exploring his creative journey, literary expression, and the unexpected path that led him to poetry later in life. Living less than a mile from the U.S. Capitol, Alexander works as a historian for a labyrinthine federal agency—a role he describes with characteristic humor as that of a “good, grey bureaucrat.” Despite surviving a nasty case of COVID‑19, none of these experiences, he insists, inspired his writing one bit.

A fan of Cormac McCarthy, melancholy 80s and 90s music, and—surprisingly—marine mammals, Alexander brings a dry, self‑effacing wit to both his life and his work. His wife affectionately refers to him as a “cynic ...