Ms. Lyric's Poetry Outlaws

I chat with Chris in my front yard about renegade sonnets, reckless Can lit behavior, the past in Vancouver and Canada's poetry scene (resonating with the Past Lane homage!), selling art on the streets and the ache for crowds again. Thanks for the engaging ramble! And the listening hibiscus relished it too :)

Part off the cuff and part read from a little memoir of the days I knew Pat Lane (1939-2019), this is the Season 2 homage episode to a renowned Canadian poet I once had the fortune to work with. I also read The Far Field, a poem from his 1991 book Mortal Remains. And excuse myself first for trying to recall too many titles from memory. Ahhhhh memories. Enjoy this renegade!

A master of anaphora and refrain, listen to Levine speak about the origins of this sonorous political poem and then its recitation. The final piece from the Jorie Graham anthology Earth Took of Earth (1994). And it's a sunny Wednesday.

A famous piece from Mr Lunch Poems in the Graham anthology. O Hara's compositional style might seem easy to mimic but it isn't. Unlike most Instagram word machines! In remembrance of Billie Holiday.

It's not addressed to you, this poem. But listen to it anyway! Mr Justice from the Graham anthology. We have a few more from there this week and then, onwards to an homage! Happy rainy Monday.

It's Friday the 13th! I speak of the relentless insufficiencies and inevitable ineffabilities of trying to articulate any good poem. Then read a piece about supposed freaks from the Graham anthology. Seems about right.

I start with a Graham quote about the prevalence of water in her anthology selections then discuss and read a piece on wings and a woman's self identity. Enjoy!

Chain gangs? Ghosts? A watery feeling? Is it Wednesday??? Dickey was a tough guy but he wrote some moving poems. Like this one, from the Graham anthology Earth took of Earth. And happy dead birthday Frank who died in 03 at 28.

O that Henry! We are back to the Graham anthology with Berryman's most enduring and creepy persona poem. Also it's haunting. We all have our own Henrys. Mine's a ravenous squirrel!

This is a Listener's choice poem requested by Andrew Boden. One of my early faves too. Life, it brings so many challenging decisions. Even in my interpretations, I stumble. Happy Monday!

How about some good old weird cummings today in his love mode. One apparently not comprehensible by some students! I also talk of the obvious ineffabilities within poetic articulation and read more bits of Graham's anthology intro from which this piece comes. If only YOUR partner was this romantic....right?

Another gorgeous poem from the Graham anthology in which Ms Emily defines death while remaining elusive. She never fails to stun. Like my mother. Whose birthday it is!

The first piece I'll be reading from the Jorie Graham anthology Earth Took of Earth (1996). An oral dance of seasonal rhythm. Recited amid occasional beeps of construction. Shall I pick it up? Shall you?

Welcome back to my awkward lil podcast of fiercely poetic things! Starting this season with a new random series on aspects of the art world that irk and how this connects to what poets require to make poems. It all began with a Van Gogh exhibit..... enjoy!

It's the final and eightieth episode of Season One that I recorded between March and June of 2021. Here we have a summation of the past 79 episodes, a looking forward to things I might do with Season Two when it gets going again in August and one of my recent poems in notebook form, The Metal Nest, read to do homage to the tenacity of sparrows, an endurance we have all needed this year. See you ne...

Ok I say it's the final episode of Season One but I AM doing an episode 80 tomorrow with a wrap up, a look ahead and a recent poem of mine! This however is the last Dennis Lee piece for now! Such rollicking tongue fun :) And it's a hot Friday.

Another funny serious poem from Alligator Pie (1974) that tells you how to console nonsensical (or real?) monsters. Happy birthday to Dante who also loves words.

Another children's author three parter where I talk about my love for Dennis Lee's work, especially in Alligator Pie and the early books from the 70s, meeting him as an adult and the way things have become more sadly PC. Then I recite from memory Suzy Grew a Moustache and from the text, In Kamloops. A poem from which I learned Canadian geography. It's Wednesday! And sunny.

During my back yard summer series of the 94th street Trobairitz event, local Edmontonian poet Paul Pearson reads his piece Man Ray and the Jewels of Opar and we chat (and laugh. And death-heckle) about the duty to inclusiveness, multiplicities of voice, Pat Lane, how to make a living as a poet (hint. Be rob mclennan ;), the Olive series, growing up in the backwoods and why he doesn't like punctuat...

The last of three Silverstein pieces. It's a little subversive. Our world. So confusedly PC and full of cancellations without context. Alas. Happy Monday! It's the final full week of Season One of the podcast pre my July getaway!!

Let's start Friday all hyper-like with a fun sound poem by Shel that gives us options and choices for our actions and decisions in life! I'm gonna fly, myself.

The first of three poems I'm reading from the American kids' versifier Shel Silverstein. It's Backwards Bill who acts like the world does today! With a chat about the importance of the imagination and rhyme. And a bonus poem about wavy hair!

Today I have a blast in my bird-full garden chatting with the eminent and enjoyable Edmontonian poet Alice Major. She reads a haibun about astronomy, we chat scientific lexicons, the poetry fest, the League of Canadian poets, memory, the importance of community and the validity of being kind. The magpies concur! Join us. It's fun...and educational!

Today I remember PK Page (1916-2010) whom I met several times in the 90s. I talk her bio, influence, graciousness, her ear, then amid lulling tune interludes I recite one of her famous pieces T-bar from the 50s and a later one, a villanelle, The Castle. Thanks stunning being of language and grace.

The creator of Vigilance magazine, among many other revolutionary acts, and a long-term art compatriot of mine, Ms Moe asks me what poetry has to do with revolution! Apart from reading the segment from Stephen Spender, I stutter totally off the cuff, in the windy yard, for 10 minutes worth of pondering how revolution does and may not happen through the most lyrical form of language. To thinking!!!...