Text of poem HERENo more Versecraft until October! Sorry :( BUY SHIRTS Topics discussed in this episode include: -Matthew comes for my prosodic neck (mea culpa: his reading was first foot trochee, feminine ending).-Rabbi Neil Blumofe brings up Pirkei Avot-Susan Spear and Catherine Chandler-David Yezzi!-Yezzi's new Anthony Hecht biography, Late Romance-Matthew interviews David here-Yezzi's new Selected, More Things In Heaven-Mother Carey, Mater Cara, Stella Maris-Metrical schemes and ambiguous scansions-Salty mirages-The Tao of the petrel-Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, "Following Nature"-The Post-Symbolist Method Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Text of poem here. Order Versecraft merch here!  Topics discussed in this episode include: -Matthew's new book, Midlife! -Joshua Mehigan and his books, The Optimist and Accepting the Disaster-Josh's interview on SLEERICKETS-American Naturalism-Josh's poem Down In the Valley-Sponges 101-Parapraxis, aka "The Freudian slip"-Venice by Herman Melville -The gang and I talk The Pathetic Fallacy on SLEERICKETS-Monism, Pantheism, Mysticism, oh my!-Zen and the art of microbe filtration-Everything is connected, man! -Learning how to be and not to be mortal.-The Hindu Asrama system-Accepting our disaster  Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:  E.M. Forster“The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” by Edward FitzgeraldThomas HardyW.H. Auden“Troilus and Criseyde” by Geoffrey Chaucer“Vis and Ramin” by Gorgani“Wisdom and Wilderness” by Dick DavisThom GunnYvor WintersFulke GrevilleEdgar BowersMozart vs. Haydn“The Creation” by Joseph Haydn“Requiem” by W.A. Mozart“Symphony 9” by Franz Schubert“Requiem” by Michael HaydnThe Creative and the EroticThe Spirituality of Old AgeWilliam Wordsworth“The Poetry of Sturge Moore” by Edgar Bowers (thanks Shane!)Atheism and MoralityEmbracing Nothingness “A Personal Sonnet” by Dick Davis Text of poem:A Personal SonnetHow strange this life is mine, and not another,this jigsaw... each irrevocable piece.That bad, unfinished business of my brother,dead at nineteen; my gadding years in Greeceand Italy; life lived, not understood;a sunset in Kerala, when it seemedthe sun had risen on my life for good.All this was real, but seems now as if dreamed.The presences I've loved, and poetry--faces I cannot parse or paraphrasewhose mystery is all that they reveal;the Persian poets who laid hands on meand whispered that all poetry is praise:these are the dreams that turned out to be real. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Buy Versecraft merch HERERead text of poem HERETopics discussed in this episode include:  -No Versecraft next week! :(-R.S. Gwynn-On late-bloomers in poetry-What Krishna meant-The life-changing power of the unicorn tapestries-The Amy Clampitt Residency Program and Virginia Konchan -The "Tails To Heads" Maneuver.-"The Eumenides" by Aeschylus-We're gonna need to see some Id-Pathos, Bathos, and whoever the other musketeers are...-Alicia Stallings' wonderful essay on the Parthenon,  "Frieze Frame" -I just really wanted an excuse to say "apotropaic"-Every culture on earth seems to have beef with snakes-The cultural appropriation of Chaos-You Kant always get what you want-The deep logic of tragedy-We are ourselves both god and monster. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Order Versecraft merch HERE Topics discussed in this episode include: -Varieties of Modernism: The Big Six-Formalism and Cosmic Rebellion-Wilbur's audacious sanity-The Idea Of Literary Celebrity At Key West-Accent vs. Stress -Measuring my stress levels -And isn't it ionic... don't you think? -The temptation to see ourselves in Nature-"I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" by William Wordsworth-"The Garden" by Andrew Marvell-Wilbur's version of Altered States-Or maybe, Wilbur's version of Go Into The Water-God dreams of fishes-Nature itself is the strangest thing you could imagine Read the text of the poem hereSupport the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Get Versecraft merch HERE!  Topics discussed in this episode include: -"T.S. Eliot: The Illusion of Reaction" by Yvor Winters-Les poetes maudites Tristan Corbiere et Jules Laforgue-When Eliot was taken to Pound town-The objective correlative and its problems-This is basically what East Coker is-The "Logic" of Imagery (Crane: "Well, one of us is going to have to change!")-Nancy Drew And The Curious Case of Why Eliot Thinks He's A Classicist-The Dissociation of Sensibility -"Life is difficult, so like... poetry should be difficult, man!" -The fallacy of imitative form-"Sweet Caroline" just sounds better than "Sweet Jacobean"-A forbidden fruit a day keeps Dr. Jesus away-Every rose has its thorn, except Mary's-From Satan's creature to God's preacher Text of poem: East Coker IV The wounded surgeon plies the steelThat questions the distempered part;Beneath the bleeding hands we feelThe sharp compassion of the healer's artResolving the enigma of the fever chart. Our only health is the diseaseIf we obey the dying nurseWhose constant care is not to pleaseBut to remind of our, and Adam's curse,And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse. The whole earth is our hospitalEndowed by the ruined millionaire,Wherein, if we do well, we shallDie of the absolute paternal careThat will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.The chill ascends from feet to knees,The fever sings in mental wires.If to be warmed, then I must freezeAnd quake in frigid purgatorial firesOf which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.The dripping blood our only drink,The bloody flesh our only food:In spite of which we like to thinkThat we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Encountering the phantom of Crane-VERSECRAFT HAS SHIRTS NOW!! BUY HERE-The lamentable pedigree of the poete maudit-Life Savers! -Why isn't there a movie yet about Harry Crosby? -Nothing says Guggenheim fellowship like some tropical adultery-Neo-Romantics revisited -The "Logic of Metaphor" and Logonautics-Poets as caretakers of language-Cubic symmetry! -Rhymed vs. Blank verse-The mighty Marlovian line-The ocean: best wingwoman ever-Romeo and Juliet's hidden sonnet-John Donne's incredibly raunchy To His Mistress Going To Bed-Walt Whitman's Song of Myself 21-My seal of approval-As it is written, so will it be done Text of poem: Voyages II —And yet this great wink of eternity,Of rimless floods, unfettered leewardings,   Samite sheeted and processioned where   Her undinal vast belly moonward bends,   Laughing the wrapt inflections of our love; Take this Sea, whose diapason knells   On scrolls of silver snowy sentences,The sceptred terror of whose sessions rends   As her demeanors motion well or ill,   All but the pieties of lovers’ hands. And onward, as bells off San Salvador   Salute the crocus lustres of the stars,In these poinsettia meadows of her tides,—Adagios of islands, O my Prodigal,Complete the dark confessions her veins spell. Mark how her turning shoulders wind the hours,   And hasten while her penniless rich palms   Pass superscription of bent foam and wave,—Hasten, while they are true,—sleep, death, desire,   Close round one instant in one floating flower. Bind us in time, O Seasons clear, and awe.   O minstrel galleons of Carib fire,Bequeath us to no earthly shore untilIs answered in the vortex of our graveThe seal’s wide spindrift gaze toward paradise.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

The missing word at 23:18 is "ironically"Topics discussed in this episode include: -My thanks to Heights Arts for the feature! -Hopkins and Bridges: name a more iconic duo.-Sprung Rhythm vs. Syllabics-Bridges' whacky work of logometry, Milton's Prosody-18th century in the streets, 19th century in the sheets-Iambic tetrameter couplets and the Hallmark effect-No more unqualified ahistorical scansions! Mea culpa. -Robbie's vision of elision-Congrats! It's triplets. -Polytheism is the deification of allegorical thinking-Eros only wants one thing, and it's disgusting-Not in my good Christian poem! -To be pagan is to be unconscious of fallenness-A terrifying force of nature has never been sexier-The raison d'etre of Anna and Emma-Eros and Psyche-It's all more and less than you think.  Text of Poem: ErosWhy hast thou nothing in thy face?Thou idol of the human race,Thou tyrant of the human heart,The flower of lovely youth that art;Yea, and that standest in thy youthAn image of eternal Truth,With thy exuberant flesh so fair,That only Pheidias might compare,Ere from his chaste marmoreal formTime had decayed the colours warm;Like to his gods in thy proud dress,Thy starry sheen of nakedness. Surely thy body is thy mind,For in thy face is nought to find,Only thy soft unchristen’d smile,That shadows neither love nor guile,But shameless will and power immense,In secret sensuous innocence. O king of joy, what is thy thought?I dream thou knowest it is nought,And wouldst in darkness come, but thouMakest the light where’er thou go.Ah yet no victim of thy grace,None who e’er long’d for thy embrace,Hath cared to look upon thy face. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:-Fallout from last week-The poetry-prose spectrum, and those pesky in-betweeners-Amphibrachs for days-Parallelism, and how to sound "biblical"-The universal accessibility of beauty-Rain on a sunny day is called WHAT?-The feminization of landscape-Hopefully the only time I'll mention Kanye on this show.-Hopkins cameo!-Totally tubular priests-If it ain't Baroque...-My excursion to the Virgins-The myth of the Noble Savage (Rousseau sucks eggs)-It always comes back to Adam and Eve-Spacetime as a fresco of divine art -Toggling between the cosmic and the moral world Text of lyric: May my enemy be assuaged by these waves because they are beautiful even to his evil, may the drizzle be a benediction to his heart even as it is to mine; they say here that the devil is beating his wife when the sun shines through the wires of fine, fine rain. It is not my heart that forgives my enemy his obscene material desires but the flare of a leaf, the dart of a mottled dove, the processional surplices of breakers entering the cove as penitents enter the dome to the lace of an altar; beauty so shaping neither condemns nor saves like the tenets of my enemy’s church, the basilicas of tumbling cherubs and agonized saints and riots of purpureal cloud; though I have cause I will share the world’s beauty with my enemies even though their greed destroys the innocence of my Adamic island. My enemy is a serpent as much as he is in a fresco, and he in all his scales and venom and glittering head is part of the island’s beauty; he need not repent. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Apologies for the sirens around the thirteen minute mark. I should've stopped up my mic with wax! Topics discussed in this episode include:-Welcome back everyone!!-A litany of my recent international escapades-Spoiler: Poetry is Versecraft (cue flame war)-Problem 1: Non-metrical gatekeeping-Problem 2: The mystical word-sorcerors want their poetry back -Descriptive vs. Prescriptive definitions (an MBS favorite) -Who gave me the right??-The great "Poetry" robbery-Problems with "Formal Verse"-I'm not more radical now, just more honest-Why is everyone afraid of prose? -Aristotle's genres: Epic (or Narrative), Drama, Lyric-The messy problem of Lyric-Mode vs. Genre-Mode vs. Style-Belletrism, or Logonautics-50 Shades of Poetry -Achieving distinction, becoming distinguishedSupport the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:-Versecraft will be on hiatus in June. See you again in July! -The wonderful educational resources available to Classical musicians-The not-so-wonderful educational resources available to poets-Why MFA programs don't cut it-If creative writing "can't be taught" then poetic education becomes a joke-No standards = total subjectivity = no legitimate curricula-Recieved techniques are optional to use, but they are not optional to learn.-The "World of Versecraft" program-David Rothman's book, "Learning the Secrets of English Verse " -The core five: Independent Study, Classical Languages, English Literature, Poetic Technique, and Literary Criticism/Philosophy-Why an independent study model is superior to a workshop model-A defense of teaching Classical languages-The curriculum at Helicon Conservatory of Poetry-A call to action Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:-Matthew's episode A Winter's Tale Pt. 2 -Alice's episode Grilling Elijah Blumov -Why Metal is NOT Rock -"Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath-"Mars, The Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst-Neoclassical Metal and Symphonic Metal-Portrait of the Artist As A Young Dork-"Stand Up And Fight" by Turisas-"Twilight of the Thunder God" by Amon Amarth-"Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden-The sacred bond of Metalheads-Where Classical, Metal, and Poetry converge-"Bells of the Black Basilica" by Tyranny-The Tale of Bill and Fran-The Self-Grilling of Elijah Blumov-Rime Riche, Rime Sufisante, Rime Pauvre-Romain Rolland and the Oceanic Mind-Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents -Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde-Schopenhauer's Aesthetics -What people get wrong about Stoicism-Why Metal vocalists sounds like that-Rainer Maria Rilke's "The Panther"-We are a microcosm of the dying world-The Birth, Death, and Life of Tragedy Text of poem:Funeral Doom MetalFlooding chords submerge the arid minduntil it knows itself as oceanic—the crushing weight of death, of fate, of time,is bound to sound, and so is purged of panic.Stoic longing, without hope for hopes,when beautified, becomes a kind of peace—the demon of the soul wails in its ropes,and mimics pain so its true pain will cease. Slowly drowning, slowly marching towardthe end of all, the universal doom,the artist recognizes a rewardin the contemplation of the coming tomb,and becoming, out of drowning, his own ocean,at home within the tragedy of motion. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Tech woes: Audio cuts out briefly at 11:56. Sorry! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Please send all your John Forbes and Jane Kenyon hate mail to Alice at poetrysayspod@gmail.com -My upcoming Poetry Says episode on Gwen Harwood and my role as the prosodic gadfly/mustache-twirling villain of contemporary poetry. -Read my poem "The Virtue of Corinthian Columns" here .-Read my poem "Thalassic Hymn" here . -The show will be on hiatus in June! Sorry :(-Let's get Versecraft in the classroom! -Join my bookclub forum on "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea" here-Alice's brilliant episode on Australian poetry culture, Funny Ha Ha -Cultural Cringe -Be the Poseidon of the tides of fashion-The Curious Case of the Third Foot Trochaic Substitution-Counter-factuals reveal the actuals.-A bit of ribbing-It's about time we talked metonymy-Pride and Punishment-Eliot's "The Wasteland," and the line he stole from Tennyson-Hypallage returns!-Not Donald's justice, but God's justice.-"Hell is more than half of paradise" -Adam has no rizz.-Theravada vs. Mahayana Buddhism-All you need is love, and whatever else Aristotle said.Text of poem:Paradise SavedAdam, indignant, would not eat with Eve,They say, and she was driven from his side.Watching the gates close on her tears, his prideUpheld him, though he could not help but grieve,And climbed the wall, because his lonelinessPined for her lonely figure in the dust:Lo, there were two! God who is more than justSent her a helpmeet in that wilderness.Day after day he watched them in the wasteGrow old breaking the harsh unfriendly ground,Bearing their children, till at last they died.While Adam, whose fellow God had not replaced,Lived on immortal, young, with virtue crowned,Sterile and impotent and justified.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Tech woes: There's some static at 10:36 where I say "end rhyme." Sorry! Topics discussed in this episode include:-Wonderful exchanges with David, Robert , Quartez , Jack, Cameron , and Kevin.-The Iowa Writer's Workshop-Philip Levine's The Bread of Time -Rhythmic modulations (a spondee it ain't!)-This is the literary device. This is the moment. This is anaphora.-Adam and Eve are unfazed by your divine glory. -Proverbs 9:1-False Utopias -Poe's The Imp of the Perverse -Felix Culpa Redux-Virgil's Georgics-Goated bible verse Isaiah 45:7-Blake's The Tyger -The Chronic(what!)cles of Narnia-Ersatz fruit would be a good band name-Satan is the god of this world-The burden and blessing of intelligenceText of poem:The Wallfor J.B. The wall surrounding them they never saw;The angels, often. Angels were as commonAs birds or butterflies, but looked more human.As long as the wings were furled, they felt no awe.Beasts, too, were friendly. They could find no flawIn all of Eden: this was the first omen.The second was the dream which woke the woman.She dreamed she saw the lion sharpen his claw.As for the fruit, it had no taste at all.They had been warned of what was bound to happen.They had been told of something called the world.They had been told and told about the wall.They saw it now; the gate was standing open.As they advanced, the giant wings unfurled.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Mea culpa: Line 9 also differs from lines 2 and 13 by containing a first foot trochaic substitution. Topics discussed in this episode include:-Listen to my new episode with Matthew here ! -Check out Ethan McGuire's work here and here.-Check out Brian Brodeur's work here.-The Black Arts Movement-Brooks vs. Hayden-ANOTHER hybrid sonnet?? (No!)-Rhythmic motifs-William Cowper's Light Shining Out of Darkness , The Task, and The Iliad. -The Sermon On the Mount-For clod's sake-More rhymes, more furious-Psalm 23-In Bright Mansions -Christian Wiman's article, Mortify Our Wolves-The Sermon, Remounted.-Nietzsche's "The Gay Science"-I'll mortify these puppies my damn self.Text of Poem:“God Works In A Mysterious Way”But often now the youthful eye cuts down itsown dainty veiling. Or submits to winds.And many an eye that all its age had drawn itsbeam from a Book endures the impudenceof modern glare that never heard of tactor timeliness, or Mystery that shroudsimmortal joy: it merely can directchancing feet across dissembling clods.Out from Thy shadows, from Thy pleasant meadows,quickly, in undiluted light. Be glad, whosemansions are bright, to right Thy children’s air.If Thou be more than hate or atmospherestep forth in splendor, mortify our wolves.Or we assume a sovereignty ourselves.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Content Warning: Abortion, dead fetusesMea culpa: Ugh, I should've said "volta italiana." What a philistine I am. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Lake View Cemetery and the Haserot Angel -Getting called out from beyond the grave-Come see me read!  -Brian Brodeur!  -My Great-Uncle, Elton Glaser -Buy Brian's latest book: Some Problems With Autobiography -Wins and almost-wins in The Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Contest. -Yet more ways to make formal poems sound contemporary -The art of rhymes that don't rhyme -Another hybrid sonnet? -The triumphant return of the pyrrhic-spondee. -When Facebook stalking is part of podcast research-Radford's Meat Market is real. -The dark truth by which we see-The haunting of Brian Brodeur-Is guilt itself a crime?-Displacement Activity -Verbal dentistry-How joy is deepened by suffering-A dripping bag of redemption Text of poem:To An AbsenceThe kid in latex gloves at Radford’s beefbrown-bags my five-pound brisket, saying, “Dude,have a blessed day.” I do the math—you’d bea teenager, his age. Across the counter,the brisket drips (the kid grinning, “My bad”),but all I feel for you is gratitudefor the life your death allowed—my wife and daughterI’d like one day to see I might deserve. And would deserve, I think, if I could livewithout the guilt I tongue like a decayedincisor I’ve refused to have removed—afraid what joy I’ve known might disappear without a counter-pain to root it here. The kid says, “Wait,” and stamps my brisket PAID. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Note: At the 19:27 mark, a word cuts out. That word is "specious!" Topics discussed in this episode include:-Make symposia happen!-Hey mom, I'm on Sleerickets !-Also on Sleerickets here ! -The Inhumanism of Robinson Jeffers-Aspects of Metaphysical Poetry-The 20th century Donne revival -T.S. Eliot's essay The Metaphysical Poets -The Dissociation of Sensibility -Intellect as decoration-The life and times of Johnny-Donne's treatise on suicide, Biathanatos -Hybrid sonnet redux-Metrically, Donne likes it rough-There are such things as stupid questions-Casuistry! -Pascal's Provincial Letters -Louis Martz's The Poetry of Meditation -Another Jesuit poet? -Consequentialism-Eliot's Objective Correlative-Apophasis-Hypallage returns!-"Chug your own blood til you forget what I've done"-To forget is to be merciless-Not a saint, but our favorite sinner Text of poem:Holy Sonnet IX If poisonous minerals, and if that treeWhose fruit threw death on else immortal us,If lecherous goats, if serpents enviousCannot be damn'd, alas, why should I be?Why should intent or reason, born in me,Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?And mercy being easy, and gloriousTo God, in his stern wrath why threatens he?But who am I, that dare dispute with thee,O God? Oh, of thine only worthy bloodAnd my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,And drown in it my sins' black memory.That thou remember them, some claim as debt;I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

PSA: No Versecraft next week! Sorry :(  Also, the audio is a little crackly in the beginning, but smooths out after a few minutes.  Topics discussed in this episode include: -Why the 1920's be like that-The Modernist rogues gallery-Flapper Poet Girl Gang-The Neo-Romantics-Contribute to the Make Versecraft A Legitimate Side Hustle Fund-Hag Pesach Sameach, y'all-Who knew 1899-1988 was such a tongue twister?-Jesus Louises! (Bogan and Gluck)-Crackpot critical savant Harold Bloom-Cool contempo skalds Annie Finch and Shane McCrae-Romantic-Metaphysical-Symbolist melange-Rules are meant to be broken, apparently-A case for Sam Spade-"The Clouds" by Aristophanes-Insert "Second Coming" reference here-Classic heart vs. mind situash. -I'm not philosophically vain, I'm metaphysically conceited! -Young millennial nostalgic fav Fantasia 2000 -The Myth of Phaethon-I like my air medium rare-Sympathy for the hapless mind-The mind takes credit for the heart's work-A devotional poem? -The big homie John "Spank Me Daddy" Donne-The smaller homie Francis Thompson-Pros and cons of Romanticism-Modernism = Wacky Romanticism-Post-Modernism = Wacky_R0mant1c1sm.jpg-Aeschylus is never wrongText of poem:Send Forth the High FalconSend forth the high falcon flying after the mind   Till it come toppling down from its cold cloud:   The beak of the falcon to pierce it till it fallWhere the simple heart is bowed.O in wild innocence it ridesThe rare ungovernable element,But once it sways to terror and descent,The marches of the wind are its abyss,No wind staying it upward of the breast—Let mind be proud for this,And ignorant from what fabulous cause it dropt,Or with how learned a gesture the unschooled heart   Shall lull both terror and innocence to rest.Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:-Ernest Hilbert! -Robinson revisited -Sorry Matthew, it looks like I actually have the more controversial podcast. -You can listen to the Comedy Central Roast of Versecraft here. -The paradox of relativism-How (evaluative) Lit Crit works -Ernest's Heavy Metal poem -Buy Ernest's new book here -The Hilbertian sonnet-A New Formalist style -The horror of logistics-Late Summertime Blues-The Myth of Icarus-The Poetics of Grammar-The blessing and curse of the forbidden fruit-The last rites of "Last Rites"-Make lasting memories, then let them go. Text of poem:Last Rites I’ve known beauty almost impossible                                    to believe, nearly always lost amid                                         all the usual distractions. Deadlines loom.                 Taxes come due. Birthdays pass. Debts double.                     But once a bright and late summer sun filled             the air, angling astonishingly through a room                         filled with music, some old heart-aching song,                      and there was my son, not yet two years, coming      across the floor toward me with arms outspread,                   his face big with a smile, and he was so strong                      and new, unworried blue eyes, becoming                               ever giddier, unbalanced, lunging ahead,                                hoping to fly in that warm light with his father,                     to hug me as if for very life, and I wished I could                  stay there always lifting him, laughing, and such                  light linger as if we’re still together,                           and I will tell you it hurt it was so good,                                and I know I’ve had that. I had that much. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Topics discussed in this episode include:-Quotable comebacks-My listeners down under! -Everyone should know about Ern Malley -A hearty thanks to my very first patrons! -You too can nourish the fiscal integrity of the show here. -Candidate for American poetry GOAT, Edwin Arlington Robinson. -Adventurer, soldier, and fairy god-fan Kermit Roosevelt.-The Tom Bradys of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry-Killer Robinson poems Aunt Imogen, Rembrandt to Rembrandt, and Lancelot.-The Troubadour effect-Red vines, but not the sweet kind-There's always a woman.-A dead woman. -A wailing demon-lover.-Heeeeeerrree's Milton! (Take a shot)-The suicidal tendencies of a pantheistic God -Paul Valery's "Sketch of A Serpent." -"This creation thing is really killing me"-- God-"This Jesus thing is really killing me" -- God-Inferno XIII -Dante's "Contra Passo"-Inferno III -The Golem-Luke has the gall-The Galenic theory of humors-Orpheus and Eurydice in reverse-But is it an evil poem?Text of the poem here. Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraftSend me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.comMy favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)