Soapbox Where I Can Shout It Podcast

Ben joins me to talk briefly about one of my all-time favorite poets, Francisco X. Alarcón. We read “Ode to my Shoes” and “Words Are Birds.” Alarcón’s work, both for grown-ups and children, reveals something about poetry which is so spcieal to me that we kind of hear in the impromptu poetry-by-way-of-playing-choo-choo-trains in the basement with Ben, that poetry, an important tool for capturing th...

Another late nite episode. In honor (?!?) the heaviness of my own eyelids, the utter lack of inspiration, two songs of going to bed, by two classics, from two perspectives occasionally at odds, the wakeful grown up in the anxious “To Sleep” by John Keats and the excitable kiddos, as was Ben this evening, in “The Children’s Hour” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . This is a public episode. If you woul...

This evening I was honored to participate in the ODU World Student Club’s second annual Global Gala, where I read “To a Young Poet” and “To Our Land” by Mahmoud Darwish, and “A Palestinian Might Say” by Naomi Shihab Nye. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Yesterday the immortal Bard shared a birthday with sweet Desi, so today we celebrate William S. with Sonnet 18 and I get gross and sentimental about Rachel. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

A sad poem about my boyhood dog, Maggie, “Puppies on Holiday” and a newer poem called “Dog tracks in the tall grass.” A return to Mary Oliver’s Dog Songs : “The Poetry Teacher” and “Percy Speaks While I am Doing Taxes” Dog tracks in the tall grass Dog tracks in the tall grass serpentine reverie; love letter – not from sky to ground, too many poems written with green & dew tipped blades tickling th...

Celebrating some Emily Dickinson just for fun. We read “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” , “A Bird, came down the walk” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” . Great stuff, enjoy, and enjoy the brevity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Getting ready to start gardening? Consider a red wheelbarrow , on which, I’m told, so much depends. A terribly short episode today - go listen to the 50 minute monstrosity on Coheed & Cambria that came out yesterday afternoon if you haven’t already, and of course, see you tomorrow for more poetry. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b...

Coheed & Cambria's 5th album, the end of 'guilty pleasures,' and the beginning of obsession, fifteen years later. An origin story and a track by track review of Year of the Black Rainbow. This is the podcast version of today’s newsletter, read the full essay here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.s...

Today is Easter, the culmination of the Lenten season for Catholics, and today’s pod features one of the great spiritual and Catholic poets, my high school English teacher Mrs. Schmitzer’s favorite (such that she wouldn’t teach his work lest us a******s ruin it for her) Gerard Manley Hopkins. The poem fits the day: “Easter.” We heard selections from the hymn “Were You There,” a bit of delayed clos...

A quick one today: Bruce Snyder’s “Map,” from the book Paradise, Indiana . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

I was so excited to invite Mia and Claire, the hosts of the Pretty Undone Podcast to come on and talk about the poetry of faith, Lent, and Good Friday. Our conversation was so fun and I hope you enjoy it. Give them a follow and subscribe to their pod where ever you subscribe to pods. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,...

Two poems from Jim Daniels’ Having a Little Talk With Capital P Poetry, the titular piece and also “Ariel View of Warren, Michigan.” One poem by me, possibly influenced in some oblique way, by Daniels’ “Ariel View,” its “An Aerial Photo of the Cincinnati Subway.” An Aerial Photo of the Cincinnati Subway all those poems I wrote about living in the sky were wrong , all those would-be-blues sang ears...

“Elegy” by Natasha Trethewey, from her 2012 book Thrall . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Two originals from maybe 2016 or 2017. Ode to the Front Porch Birds 1 This poem is an apology because this poem is about me, sorry small bird with your ruffled plumage, your first flight. That’s real impressive. Eat worms, chew straw, suck teeth you little beaked b***h. It is five AM. I am thinking about Death. Go back to sleep, Mother bird will be home soon. 2 To my credit, your front door is abo...

A new album by Bon Iver came out on Friday, but wrapped up in all the Jack Whiteness of this past weekend, I’m only getting to it today. To celebrate, we hear from another great poet taken up in Wisconsin (by way of Kentucky and Iowa), the delightful and austere Max Garland, and his poem “The Postal Confessions.” There’s something interesting to discover between the poem and the intense connection...

We had to talk about Kerouac at some point on the podcast. This being the second weekend I’ve dragged four wheels and my sleepy ass up and back to Detroit, I figured it was time. Here’s two haiku and a passage from “October in the Railroad Earth” Okay here’s a poem I wrote during my senior year manuscript project at Otterbein, too. December in the Railroad Earth The sharp reflections of the moon g...

Celebrating a concert date night with Rachel on the podcast with the poetry of Mr. Jack White. “Alone in My Home,” from the album Lazaretto . “We’re Going to Be Friends" ,from The White Stripes’ album White Blood Cells . “Courageous Dream’s Concern,” poem. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack....

Content warning: the poem “Animals” (third in the episode) contains graphic depictions of violence towards animals. Today being the last Friday in Lent before Holy Week (the actual last Friday in Lent is “Good Friday,” an even more somber observation of the Lenten spirit, categorically different than the regularly somber Fridays of the season) and I am thinking about fasting. I am also thinking ab...

Two poems from Catherine Pierce’s The Tornado is the World for your tumultuous spring weather enjoyment. “The Mother Warns the Tornado” and “On the Origins of the Tornado,” both included in Pierce’s monograph, also published here at The Kenyon Review. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Another side-by-side, today, the great Robert Frost’s “Birches” and a poem I wrote about listening to a recording of Robert Frost’s “Birches” back in summer 2023. “Listening to Robert Frost’s “Birches” on a Walk” Listening to Robert Frost’s “Birches” on a walk in the woods of my adolescence – not figuratively – walking the actual geography of it, floating more like hearing Frost’s voice warble in...

Today’s poems, all linked to a meandering theme, are “Night Journey” by Theodore Roethke , “Bluebird” by Charles Bukowski , and “Unexpected Things” (unpublished) by Tony DeGenaro. In the episode I talk about Joe Camerlengo’s music , please check it out, especially Can’t Wait , which was my #5 album of 2024 ( Joe’s lifetime EP is an early contender for 2025… ). Here’s the text of “Unexpected Things...

… let’s do some Shel Silverstein! Today we read “The Homework Machine” and “Invitation.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is a modern epic of a poem , a dirge, a meditation of death and loss and destruction. Enjoy all 434 lines of what wikipedia calls “one of the most important English language poems of the 20th century.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

This is a busy birthday week, first Rachel (April 2) and now my older brother, Steve! There aren’t a ton of older brother you admire poems (maybe a niche market I can corner?) and there aren’t very many kind lawyer poems, so I’m appealing to one of my brother’s best interests: his lovely corgi, Moneypenny (there are also not very many James Bond poems, oddly). Happy birthday, Steve! This is a publ...

e.e. cummings double-shot! “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” “[anyone lived in a pretty how town]” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com