Ms. Lyric's Poetry Outlaws

In which I bring in Tony Hoagland and Oscar Wilde, Wordsworth and Purdy to chat about why and how to revise, wildly.

Interesting that this is episode 41 and that’s how old Chris would have been now had he not died at 29. This poem was written to commemorate what could have been our 21st anniversary today though he died before our 9th. The bench isn’t ready to be installed yet actually but the poem is :)

Which I chat about, despite feeling like caca, and then read Galway Kinell’s wonder-full piece Daybreak.

And I also gripe a bit about people wanting me to mentor for free and then, at the end, recite a new villanelle I wrote based on mature love not wrenching grief.

And the impossibility of translation! Robert Bly tries and it’s better than nada but it all falls flat compared to the intricate sounds of Swedish. I read the first part of the three in my just-learning Swedish accents and then all three in English. Be kind ;)

In which I psychoanalyze myself in relation to why I’m useless and then define it and read a Gunnar Ekelof poem on his own uselessness.

A long narrative poem grounded in truths that should still be required reading today for its delectable (and sometimes tongue twisting) sonorities. And for what it says about living life to the fullest.

In which I ask why suffer for one’s art? And then read a poem of a former suffering. Phew. That’s done.

A lil bit of a grrrrr here first on why secret poets are judging a magazine’s poetry contest (does it have anything to do with identity politics over art? Seriously!) and then the sonnet and a combinative example of the form Joe Rosenblatt and I published in Dog (2008).

1941-2022. Renegade writer and exister on the edges. I chat about his life and excerpt from some interviews and end with a poem about hitting the road. Wild travels Len.

I wonder about rhythm vs meter and then I recite the Robinson Jeffers’ poem Return.

1926. Parts 1-4 minus the final Lament just because I wanted to only read four parts to give you a sense of her intensely lyrical narrative style. Someone also says “Ok” and I recorded it in a closed bathroom so it’s delightfully echoey ;)

In which I question my questions and read excerpts from an interview with Sylvia Plath and conclude with a poem about an apple.

From the 2018 same-titled slim and stirring volume of poems. RIP Richard (1960-2022)

From her 2003 Tin House collection “shattered sonnets love cards and other off and back handed importunities.” A wild piece of Berryman, Roethke, Joycean muckery w foul language! ;)

In which I define the art and give valuable pointers. Or just ramble about in my weird head ;)

For the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation a poem from Ruffo’s 2019 book out from Wolsak & Wynn called Treaty#. Recite Indigenous works today and whenever you can.

From her 2010 collection of six long poems called Heavenly Questions. Stunning elegy. And yes I have a cold.

It’s all about poetry, the poem. Sometimes I don’t want to talk. I just want to recite. This poem is majestic and from 1923.

I ramble. I talk about my cat. I wonder why I wrote some things that seemed meaningful at the time. It’s disorder about order! Enjoy.

And I talk of Roethke and defamiliarization and my headache too.

I forgot to say the Christakos book came out in 2021 from Palimpsest Press. Marrow review out next week. And here she “reads” with Lilburn from 1994. After a quote on looking. And an addendum on muses. Seeing is all.

What’s the difference between a muse and inspirations? Why have I had male muses? Are muses essential or detrimental? Find out here ;)

I speak of the resistance to poetry and how line breaks are part of this and also talk about love.

With a notion about a philanthropy of infrastructure rather than fame, a quote from Anne Waldman and a draft of a poem giving courage if not hope ;)