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Episode 163: Repeat After Me
Episode 163: Repeat After Me begins with a 7-year-old’s poem that makes great use of repetition, one of the finest tools of the poet. Then, we diverge into conversations about what a poem is, why cats multiply, the myth of ownership, and various other themes. In other words, typical Wacky with Bill and Shaun!
Episode 162: Burma Shave Roadside Bait
Burma Shave signage in Galena, Kansas, along Route 66
Episode 162: Burma Shave Roadside Bait is a light episode of little ditties from back in the day and today, as we celebrate the roadside sign verse from the Burma Shave company. In the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry’s upcoming exhibit Rhyming and ROMPing on Route 66, we will have a feature on these unique and quirky verses and a way to interact and create your own.
Episode 161: Heifers Get Into Everything
Episode 161: Heifers Get Into Everything may not seem to have anything to do with the poem inspiring this episode, but that is just the way with life, isn’t it? You never know how one trail leads onto another. Listen and find out, or just listen because you need some entertainment.
Episode 160: The Things That Frighten Us
Episode 160: In this, our 4th anniversary episode Things That Frighten You, we begin with a dark poem and conversation about what makes a poem scary. It ‘s not all werewolves and vampires and haunted houses. Sometimes it’s the dread of a terminal disease, the fear of losing a child, the very real possibility of racial violence. A scary poem is specific about the evils we cannot control or that we humans do to one another. A scary poem is about . . . life.
Episode 159: Unshackled from Cash
Episode 159: Unshackled from Cash: The Immersive Experience of Live Performance brings you musings and profundity (of a sort) as we discuss poetry readings, live theater, and live performances, in general. This episode was inspired by a line from Nicole Stellon O’Donnell: “Unshackled from cash, poetry can go wherever it pleases.”
Episode 158: Sing to the Sky, Tom Henry
Episode 158: In this episode, we are joined by local musician extraordinaire Tom Henry who told us stories and sang poetic songs. He sang, “I’m just not with it. I just don’t get it.” And we don’t either, Tom. He also treated us to “Wild Cherry Wine,” and many other poetic impressions, like “When the Dream Becomes Ours.” Oh people, just listen.
Episode 157: Tom Holland is Not Squalid
Episode 157: Tom Holland is Not Squalid covers 10 vocabulary words, a host of short and diabolically pithy poems, and Shaun having allergy sneezes, while Bill attempts to keep his papers dry and clarify the meaning of “scintillate.” In short, just the kind of entertainment you need right now.
Episode 156: Wishes and Eyeore
Episode 156: Wishes and Eyeore is a poetic discussion of wishes and the desire for and the striving for. A “wish” is not a naïve thing. It is a necessary thing, an adult thing, a beautiful thing, even when it is necessarily unlovely. Does this not make any sense? Then, listen, and it will.
Episode 155: Shake Your Catoosa
Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival
Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival
Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival
Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival
Episode 155: Shake Your Catoosa is a bit about Route 66 attractions and the upcoming poetry exhibit Rhyming on Route 66 and is also about just getting out there and being amongst people, especially people you are not used to. Get out there and shake your catoosa and be alive while you’re living your life.
Episode 154: Call Me Nightmare
Episode 154: Call Me Nightmare explores 4 impromptu poems written by attendees of PopCon Indy in Indianapolis this June 2025. Your co-hosts Shaun and Bill revel in the imagery despite the brain fog of trying to learn how to line dance the night before. Trust us, it will all make sense when you listen. And if it doesn’t, that’s probably all right, too.
Episode 153: Dig a Hole
Episode 153: Dig a Hole entertains you with the mellifluous sounds of Woody Guthrie, whose birthday on July 14 is celebrated each year at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. Yes, mellifluous, and also rebellious and truth-telling. Herein are some songs and poems and all manner of talk about digging a hole for the fascists. Please excuse the hairy arm of Shaun with age spots above.
Episode 152: Down This Wildness Tonic
Episode 152: Wildness Tonic gets wild with musings about the museum’s upcoming book club on nature themes inspired by Henry David Thoreau, among others. Sandy Burford, local naturalist and volunteer extraordinaire, joins us as we discuss kleptotrichy, utility company tree maintenance, the speed of the telegraph, and actual poetry. We get wild. It is wild. You should be wild.
Episode 151: You Smell Really Odd
Episode 151: You Smell Really Odd is about a Mothman poem found in the museum, which leads us into a discussion of nightmares, storytelling, owls, fear, and the TRUTH of human existence. True that.
Episode 150: Populate Your Mind
Episode 150: Populate Your Mind is about a sad and lovely poem written many years ago and found in a box of auction items. We discuss loneliness and the remedy of populating one’s mind with poetry and books and conversation to be at peace with the feeling. Tad bits of wacky ensue, as always.
Episode 149: Trading Skyway for the Highway
Episode 149: Trading Skyway for the Highway is brought to you by a recent visitor to the museum, Michael Jones, who wrote about his own cryptid experience in this wonderful poem. Buzzards and vultures are the topic, and also death, prisons, and keeping poetry alive.
Episode 148: Thunderbird Inspiration
Thunderbird art assemblage by Roxann Yates
Episode 148: Thunderbird Inspiration begins with an art piece by Roxann Yates in our new Dear Cryptid exhibit, which inspired a poem by a recent visitor, Mandee Chapman Roash. The episode goes into the poetry of place, the specificity that leads to authenticity, and how poetry can save the world. For real.
Episode 147: Is That a Poem in Your Pocket?
Episode 147: Is That a Poem in Your Pocket is about Poem in Your Pocket Day and so much more. We discuss binary thinking, haiku, the cathartic nature of poetry therapy (“let it bleed”), and so much more. A few jokes. A new way of looking at poetry.
Episode 146: The Body Song of Spring
Episode 146: The Body Song of Spring is our 2025 spring episode with poetry, jokes, line completion challenges, and a lot of wonderful info. about the season–all packed into a 30-minutish time of endless original loveliness. We do not exaggerate or kid. Well, not right at the moment anyway.
Episode 145: Every Mother is a Wendigo
Art by Bill Guthrie
Episode 145: Every Mother is a Wendigo begins with a stellar impromptu cryptid poem left in the museum last weekend. Monster talk and hifalutin stuff also ensues. Simply another of the best half-hours of podcasting anywhere. Humility is overrated.
Episode 144: Cruisin’ with Cryptids
Episode 144: Cruisin’ with Cryptids continues Bill’s cool poems about cryptids, plus other things about secretive beings and critters in the concrete pond and such. Send us your cryptid poems! Enjoy!
Episode 143: Cryptid-Cast Critters
Episode 143: The Critters of the Cryptid-Cast is an intro episode about the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry’s new exhibit DEAR CRYPTID. Bill reads a series of cryptid-cast poems he has written for this episode. Facts, craziness, poetic loveliness ensue! NOTE: We experienced technical issues at the end of this episode, so it ends abruptly, but we will have a part 2 next time!
Episode 142: Old Mother Hunt Had a Rough Cut Punt
Episode 142: Old Mother Hunt Had a Rough Cut Punt is all about tongue twisters, alliteration, and the ways that the sounds of words allow us to engage, to laugh, and to determine who we are in the whole shape of the universe. We do not exaggerate. Listen up.
Episode 141: Poetry From Your Face: Out Loud!
Episode 141: Poetry From Your Face Out Loud! This episode details the recent Poetry Out Loud recitation competition at ROMP, the high school contestants and the poems, the reasons for reciting, and more. Some cryptid stuff, too, of course!
Episode 140: THE WAY
Episode 140: The Way is about “Do,” the belief in “the way of,” the path,” the “road” or “passage” that one takes in order to live a full life, to learn, to be skilled and enthusiastic in a discipline. We try to be good at it, and we fail, and we just keep working at it. Lots of stuff about poetry and art and New Year’s visions, too. Enjoy.
Episode 139: White Leg in the Water
Episode 139: White Leg in the Water is about ekphrastic poetry, about murals and our mural artist and podcast co-host Bill Guthrie’s work on the museum mural, about how we don’t notice a lovely man falling from the sky into the water, how art seeks poetry and poetry seeks art and about . . . everything that makes life beautiful and worth living. I kid you not.
Episode 138: Roundhouse Kick in the Face by Time
Episode 138: Roundhouse Kick in the Face by Time is about the many ways that we experience the concept of TIME, both in our real lives and in real poetry. Learn how not to be kicked in the face by time. Learn how poetry will save you.
Episode 137: Poems in an Encyclopedia
Episode 137: Poems in an Encyclopedia covers, well folks, it covers a heck of a lot in its 30-minutish time frame. We kid you not. There is a wealth of nonsense and learning in this thing: word origins, science, the purpose of poetry, black holes, Chuck Norris, teachers with apple blossoms, shy folks, magic. I mean, it’s a cavalcade of chaos and beauty. Just listen. Thank you, to the late Kevin Vaughn for the poetry.
Episode 136: Just Because!
Episode 136: Just Because! was inspired by a donation and a unique poem that went with it–both mailed to the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry. What mundane words: “Just Because.” How wonderful, varied, and inspiring they can be? Check it out and see.
Episode 135: Fray Boggards
Episode 135: Fray Boggards is a bit about creepy frogs but also about dark and scary poems and the places from which the best scary poems arise. A phantom exists in the podcast room, as well.
Episode 134: Uh Oh, UFO
Episode 134: Uh Oh, UFOs begins with a post-it note poem written and folded into a jewelry box and left in the museum for us all to ponder. “When I was 8″….do you remember when you were 8? Do you know what flies through the skies above us? Let’s discover it in poetry and wackily informative conversation.
Episode 133: Church Gum
Episode 133: Church Gum is about precisely that, and nothing more. Church. Gum. Ah . . . just kidding. It’s about getting through church and the gum at the bottom of your grandma’s purse and prose poems and Chuck Norris and yeah . . . the whole universe of things that matter. How can you resist? Listen.
Episode 132: I Beg Your Pardon
Episode 132: I Beg Your Pardon asks you to consider the rose garden, as Lynn Anderson would so want you to. Well, sort of. Roses and their cliched existence in our history and as symbols in our poetry: That’s what we tackle. Well, sort of. It’s all coming up roses–LISTEN!
Episode 131: Anatomy of a Human Book
Episode 131: Anatomy of a Human Book takes you on a journey into the human as book, anatomy as metaphor, the spine as paper or . . . something else. What is it like to be a book? What kind of innards do you have? What happens when someone steals them? These questions and more are not answered in this podcast. Listen anyway.
Episode 130: Cats Don’t Have Our Tongue is obvious when you listen as . . . we have a lot to say about cats and deliver a CATastrophic amount of poems about the cats you posted on the WPL Facebook page. Cat-lovers and poetry-lovers everywhere, unite! And . . . please listen.
Episode 129: Poetry in the Wild
Episode 129: Poetry in the Wild begins in a gas station where we ponder the Little Debbie Red Velvet Creme Filled Cakes that we aren’t supposed to eat though the alliteration of “Little Debbie can destroy your diet” is very appealing to us, and it ends with a note about tomatoes to Billy that is poetry of the best wild kind. Bunch of other stuff in between, too. LISTEN!
Episode 128: Poetry at the Post Office & Vet Clinic
Episode 128: Poetry at the Post Office & Vet Clinic includes post-Independence Day thoughts that have us traveling to both a post office and a veterinary clinic. Go figure! Enjoy another 30 minutes of wacky right here!
Episode 127: Prediction Machines, Bigfoot & a Hip Campus
Image from Queensland Brain Institute
Episode 127: Prediction Machines, Bigfoot & a Hip Campus discusses the brain, the mind, memory and perception and a bunch of things that have to do with our noggins. Oh, and some Emily Dickinson in there, of course. Bill and Shaun are joined by Bill’s great-nephew Evan, who is very good at cutting through the nonsense. Brain jokes and sketchy knowledge of a variety of things ensue. NOTE: JW Ocker is the author of The United States of Cryptids, mentioned in the podcast.
Episode 126: Down the Dirt Roads
Episode 126: Down the Dirt Roads is a different kind of WPL episode, as Bill is out of town, and Shaun welcomes Faith Phillips, author of a book that will be the first one in the poetry museum’s fall CRIME, SHE SAID book club. We discuss growing up and walking down the dirt roads in Oklahoma and a true crime case here that she wrote the book Now I Lay Me Down about. The book will soon be a multi-episode true crime documentary.
Episode 125: Swept Away in a Sweeping Sweep takes you on a journey through three poems recently left in the museum. Discussions about the muses, the sport of curling, line graphs, and more ensure.
Episode 124: The Cryptids are Coming!
Episode 124: The Cryptids are Coming! Rot-ro! It’s true, Scooby Doo, the 2025 exhibit at the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry will be about cryptids, the hidden creatures of our imagination, folklore . . . and occasionally, real life! Shaun and Bill discuss Bigfoot, Chuck Norris (not a cryptid . . . or . . . hmm) and more in this episode.
Episode 123: On Not Vegetating in an Earth Corner
Episode 123: On Not Vegetating in an Earth Corner takes Mark Twain’s advice about travel and applies it to . . . traveling! and poetry! and pigs on the beach! and . . . well, just give it a listen!
Episode 122: Closets I Have Known
Episode 122: Closets I Have Known is certainly about closets. Would we steer you wrong? Sweep you away? Lock you in? It’s also about brooms and witches. And brooms. Sweep. Sweep. Sweep. Poetry and bad jokes, of course, abound.
Episode 121: Responding to Advice with Horse
Episode 121: Shaun & Bill are joined by Gallery America’s Robert Reid on a journey through couplets, spells, curses, advice, empty truck beds, limericks, and lots of stuff about barns. Also, we offer you tips on how to handle advice from 3-year-old Kate and her tent sign.
Episode 120: The Magical Petri Dish
Episode 120: Magical Petri Dish steers you headlong into a discussion of community message boards and the poetry and tragedy therein. Get ready to laugh or suffer or both.
Episode 119: The Mystery of the Second Person
Episode 199: The Mystery of the Second Person explores the case of the floating, ambiguous, ethereal, significant, impactful, and multifarious “YOU.” If you don’t know what we mean, YOU are who we mean. Yeah, something like that.
Episode 118: Cardi B Poetry
Episode 118: Cardi B Poetry isn’t about her, but it’s a shameless attempt to get people to this website to listen to 30-frickin’ minutes of high-class entertainment about cards, not WAP. Yep, you read that right: CARDS. GREETING CARDS. It’s something people used to do. And verse ensued and some poetry, too . . . sometimes, not too often . . . but here and there.
Episode 117: What the Nose Knows
Episode 117: What the Nose Knows explores the olfactory element of our lives, as it is found in poetry and in the wild and perhaps in wild poetry. We have a variety of smell tests, some bad couplets, and a few wonderful poems by Crystal Wilkinson, William Carlos Williams, and Emily Dickinson. Follow your nose and let your ears enjoy this 1/2 hour of nasal knowing.
Episode 116: Bony Sodden Hulk
Episode 116: Bony Sodden Hulk features your favorite February furry creature, the groundhog, just in time for Groundhog Day. No, he’s not a bony sodden hulk . . . well, not yet anyway. We’ll all be there someday. Please to enjoy this entry with groundhog poems and lore and a wonderful impromptu limerick from Bill!
Episode 115: Bring on the Belly Laughs
Episode 115: Bring on the Belly Laughs celebrates Global Belly Laugh Day with poems by Billy Collins and a special hairdresser/jill of all trades guest Sandy.
Episode 114: Poetry Out Loud & Zesty
Episode 114: Poetry Out Loud & Zesty takes you into the world of poetry memorization and recitation, but wait, don’t run away . . . It’s an entertaining episode, too, wherein Shaun cracks Bill up and vice versa and the sublime and the ridiculous interact, as is the way that life is supposed to work after all.
Episode 113: Boldly Fruity Acts of Barbarism
Episode 113: Boldly Fruity is a potpourri episode where hosts Bill and Shaun walk in not knowing what the other is going to discuss. A paper bag full of gum, a writer’s toolkit, various poems and barbarism ensue.
Episode 112: Message in a Bottle to Jupiter
Episode 112: Here you shall learn all you would want to know about messages in a bottle, or at least, a lot of cool stuff about them. Throw one in the Crutchfield Relief beside the poetry museum, and we’ll be happy! Sign up with NASA and send your name in a bottle to Jupiter!
Episode 111: Purrfectly Familiar
Episode 111: Purrrfectly Familiar delves into the concept of the witch’s familiar and the various animals that have served this purpose, or at least, served it in someone’s eyes enough to make the woman A WITCH! Crocodiles, ferrets and hedgehogs are all welcome, along with the traditional cats.
Episode 110: Make Art and Eat Cereal
Episode 110: Make Art–Eat Cereal takes you on a journey to a child’s yard sale art stand to the origins of creativity, into cereal and foxes with tails on fire and creative play as a necessary component of everyone’s lives. All in 30 frickin’ minutes. Be in awe.
Episode 109: Feeding Two Birds with One Scone
Episode 109: Feeding Two Birds with One Scone answers the age-old question of why we ever considered killing them instead. Tune in to hear how the poetry of language shall be ignored to our utter destruction as a civilization. Or just listen to the bad jokes.
Episode 108: Potpourri for $200, Alex
Episode 108: The Case of the Putrid Pot is our first potpourri episode, wherein neither host knows what the other is going to discuss before recording starts. Thus, you will hear about A.E. Houseman, Edwin Way Teale and nature poetry and the case for the poet/Jack the Ripper suspect. A potpourri for the senses!
Episode 107: The Voluptuous Texture of Spells
Episode 107: The Voluptuous Texture of Spells takes us into Wendy the Good Witch’s Chant Closet at the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry, where we explore 3 chants left by visitors and also discuss wart spells and brooms and Hecate. All in 30-frickin’ minutes. It’s incredible, really.
Episode 106: Barbie Boxed In
Episode 106: Barbie Boxed In delves into the shadow box art tradition, particularly those created by artist and podcast co-host Bill Guthrie for the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry’s current exhibit Her Kind: The Witch in History, Popular Culture & Poetry. We chant about ekphrastic poetry and Barbie dolls, sailors and avatars and so much more. Please to enjoy.
Episode 105: Queen of Mystery & Magic
Artwork of Marie Laveau by Alysha Little
Episode 105: Queen of Mystery & Magic allows us to escape to New Orleans for a time to explore the poetry surrounding Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen, who lived a life unlike many popular stories about her have led us to believe.
Episode 104: A Woman Ferocious and Untameable
Baba Yaga artwork, digital watercolor by Alysha Little, made for ROMP’s exhibit book Her Kind; The Witch in History, Popular Culture and Poetry.
Episode 104: A Woman Ferocious and Untameable delves into the folklore of Baba Yaga, the Slavic witch of folktale, literature and popular culture. We have frequent mentions of cannibalism also, without actually using the word “cannibalism.” We do not have the courage that Baba Yaga has! But you do so LISTEN!
Episode 103: An Improper Witch
Episode 103: An Improper Witch is a fun little ride through the pop culture favorite “Bewitched,” starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens. We start with a poem about her and go into some trivia and key moments from the show that are bewitchingly poetic.
Episode 102: She’s a Witch!
Episode 102: She’s a Witch! is the first episode in our series about witches that will accompany the opening of the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry’s exhibit on witches. In this episode we discuss Mother Shipton, and Bill also gives you his Top Ten Witchy Songs!
Episode 101: A Little Comma-Raderie
Episode 101: A Little Comma-Raderie is a celebration of National Punctuation Day, which we turned into National Punctuation Week. Shaun, Bill and special guest Kathleen discuss punctuation in poetry, sing a punctuation song, and debate the Oxford comma. It’s scandalous stuff, but don’t take our word for it. Listen! The song at the beginning and end “Punctuation Blues” is by Jonathan Taylor Brittunculi.
Episode 100: Excess Fowl Who Came to Earth
Episode 100: Excess Fowl Who Came to Earth involves a hullabaloo for our podcast’s 100th episode, including special guests Verla Fletcher and Les Kern, a discussion of the town’s Goose Grab and a review of the county police blotter, with poetic emphasis on Rocklahoma and a new version of our state song. It’s exhaustive . . . and highly entertaining. The wonderful Marea Breedlove also filmed a video of the podcast, which you can watch at the link below.
Episode 99: Haiku Hit-Me Stance takes you on a journey into the world of tai chai, taekwondo, haiku, poetic truths and truths of everyday life. That’s right, dear listeners, this is some heady stuff, short on the wacky this time, but long on the enlightening bliss! Special guest: Master Paul Flaherty.
Episode 98: The Dude Inside of You
Episode 98: The Dude Inside of You is about a dude hand poem left in the museum and much dudeness and macaroni, Yankee Doodles, bad singing, and the eternal ponderings of the universal human encased in skin with meat and skeleton.
Episode 97: Fruit of the Unenclosed Land
Episode 97: Fruit of the Unenclosed Land is a collage of broken things, with some fruit and goblins thrown in there, plus some anaphora and assonance and other a-words, such as acorns, along with a defense of pockets. Really, does it matter what we say in this description? Thank you to our fans Nora and Verla for the poem suggestion!
Episode 96: To Ramble About Plundering
Episode 96: To Ramble About Plundering includes discussion of one of the best poems we have received at the museum in quite some time. Check out Holly Van Auken’s “In Its Time” and then tolerate Bill and Shaun getting into aesthetics, strip malls, Barbie jokes and more.
Episode 95: Barbie’s Accumulating Emergencies
Episode 95: Barbie’s Accumulating Emergencies borrows a phrase from Adrienne Rich, invites a Barbie Manifesto, discusses creativity in the young and rhapsodizes on the importance of creativity and nurturing the fragile growing mind. Yes, we did all that in 30 minutes. Listen and find out.
Episode 94: Picnicking in Cemeteries
Episode 94: Picnicking with the Dead is about cemeteries and poems about cemeteries and fears of being buried alive. Bad jokes from both Shaun and Bill., the Master of Metaphor who gets his appropriate birthday present. Enjoy!
Episode 93: Tunnels I Have Known
Episode 93: Tunnels I Have Known begins with a perfectly lovely poem written in cursive on blue paper and left on the NATURE wall in the museum and then becomes something about tunnels of love because Shaun can’t get over Bruce Springsteen. Bill poses questions he knows the answers to, and more subtle wacky ensues. Enjoy.
Episode 92: WWBD
Episode 92: WWBD delves into the quandary of What Would Burt Do, meaning, in terms of swimming. What would Burt Lancaster of the 1968 film “The Swimmer,” based on the sublime story by John Cheever, do in a situation? Or, in other words, what would a group of folks who gathered to celebrate Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s birthday in the hamlet of 1,400 people, Locust Grove, Oklahoma, have to say about swimming, inspired by the Yevtushenko poem, as read by Zhenya Yevtushenko, his son? I think those were questions. Listen and find out what the heck all this means!
Episode 91: Flirting with Self-Actualization
Episode 91: Flirting with Self-Actualization is about travel and maps, floorplans, blueprints and the poetry within all of that mess. It sounds hifalutin’ but it’s just our usual nonsense, profound, but nonsense nonetheless. Enjoy!
Episode 90: One-Cylinder Guitar Picker
Episode 90: One Cylinder Guitar Picker is about Woody Guthrie, the Poet of the People, from Okemah, Oklahoma, whose birthday is July 14. We discuss songwriters who are poets and poets who are poets and Bill masterfully completes some WG quotes, and there’s only a tad bit of profanity. Lots of crickets though. Some polk greens, too.
Episode 89: Yelling Expletives For Over An Hour Continuously
Episode 89: Yelling Expletives For Over an Hour Continuously takes us back to the Police Blotter in our county paper and a trip through memories, poetry, crime, stolen grills and a quarrel about numbers at Cooper’s Bridge. ALSO: Special guest Robert Reid from OETA, the man behind Gallery America, talks about the show and his new podcast and plays along impeccably with us.
Episode 88: Summertime Tootsie Wootsie
Episode 88: Summertime is exactly what it sounds like–all things poetic, muddy and salty within the purview of summertime. What is your summer song? What is your summer self? Find it in this episode, while we walk with our tootsie wootsie in the good ole summertime.
Episode 87: Round Barn
Episode 87: Round Barn is about a red round barn, a rondelet or two, singing pigs, electrical outages, the Nelson brothers and guzzling things. Just go with it, folks.
Episode 86: Totally Poetry Tulsa is our second episode with special guest Zhenya Yevtushenko, who talks with us about poets and poetry happenings in Tulsa, just a short lovely drive from our podcast home. He also shares some of his wonderful poetry with us.
Episode 85: Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Episode 85 boasts a special guest, Zhenya Yevtushenko, the great poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s son, who talks about his dad, reads his poetry, and discusses his legacy. and his life in Tulsa and points beyond. The opening music snippet is from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 based on Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar,” with Oleg Tsibulko conducting the Russian National Orchestra.
Episode 84: Off the Beaten Path
Episode 84: Off the Beaten Path explores the most misunderstood poem in the world, diverges into misunderstood song lyrics, and includes a multitude of poetic ways of seeing what a “path” is and which one you are on. There’s a little bit of wacky to satisfy the “wacky” in our name, of course.
Episode 83: She Seen Gunholes
Episode 83: She Seen Gunholes takes us into the wacky world of incident calls reported in our local paper in the POLICE BLOTTER column. Of necessity, the entries are heavy on nouns and verbs and guess what else is . . . poetry. We have found our calling.
Episode 82: Old Bobi the Dog
Episode 82: Old Bobi the Dog is about the oldest living dog and dogs we have loved, dogs that are suitable for poetry . . . or not. Dogs who hide under trailers. Dogs named Toby Keith. Dogs everywhere. Dog Dog. Arf!
Episode 81: Plague Doctor Rat Taxidermy
Episode 81: Plague Doctor Rat Taxidermy is precisely what it sounds like, a foray into the world of taxidermy, well, sort of, and literary taxidermy, cool plague doctor rats and all things stuffed or stuffing. ALSO, be sure to enter the Literary Taxidermy Contest and win a free WPL t-shirt! Enjoy! Taxidermy by Down South Taxidermy and Oddities.
Episode 80: War Monster
Episode 80: War Monster steps back to let the Poppy Lady speak. She stands in the museum in the theme area about WAR. Write your war experience haunting you on a red poppy card and offer it to her. We read some of the offerings.
Episode 79: Lizards Will Be Running
Episode 79: Lizards Will Be Running was originally titled Skinks in May, and it is about skinks and about May and about skinks in May, but it is about so much more, dear listener, so very much more. Enjoy! Opening bird song recorded by Bill Guthrie.
Episode 78: Reba Has Pockets!
Episode 78: Reba has Pockets may or may not mention Reba McEntire, but it is all about pockets, particularly POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY, and we are quite sure that Reba would stuff a poem in the pocket of one of her pairs of REBA jeans!
Episode 77: Hunt and Peck
Episode 77: Hunt and Peck begins with a wonderful ode to typewriters by Zhenya Yevtushenko and proceeds to give you a bunch of useless information about typewriters. Qwerty Qwerty Qwerty . . . Guffaw! Guffaw! Guffaw!
Episode 76: 76
Episode 76: 76 is not an episode where we couldn’t think of a title. It’s actually episode #76 about the #76. We have our reasons, both poetic and popular. Then again, we are full of snot and Grenache, too.
Episode 75: Oklahoma Bookshelf
Episode 75: Oklahoma Bookshelf delves into a imagery-filled Oklahoma found poem by a local writer and podcast fan and includes numerous bad Chuck Norris jokes and Bill’s attempts to deflect Shaun from continuing to make them. Also, some great poems by some Oklahoma poets now on display in the oklaPOEThoma exhibit in the museum.
Episode 74: Trash and Treasure
Episode 74: Trash and Treasure is about precisely that, or more imprecisely, about women and how you can’t put them on a pedestal, nor can you bury them under it. Can we just learn how to be decent human beings? No. Okay . . . well, let’s just read some poems and tell trashy jokes then.
Episode 73: Stalked and Branded
Episode 73: Stalked and Branded is a sort of continuation of Episode 72, where we discuss more poet stalking information around the Ruth Finley case, plus other poets as stalkers or stalkers as poets and carving poems in desks. Oh, also a branding or two.
Episode 72: Poet as Stalker
Episode 72: Poet as Stalker diverges from the normal WPL path and into serial killer/stalker territory with a true crime case not far from home. When poetry is therapy, when it is threat, when it is . . . therapy once again. And in the midst of it all: Blood and railroad tracks.
Episode 71: Agent Hunger and the Flaming Ducks
Episode 71: Agent Hunger and the Flaming Ducks is the working title of a new fantasy novel about a world where a secret agent is aided by a band of pyromaniac fowl in a land devastated by a poultry apocalypse . . . just kidding. It’s about the poetic symbolism of fire . . . and ducks.
Episode 70: Love Is . . .
Episode 70: Love Is . . . begins with a knock knock joke and concludes with a fart joke. In between, there is Shakespeare and the biology of truth and trust as explained with a cell diagram by Dr. Bill, and through it all . . . ah! . . . the power of metaphor!
Episode 69: Rhianna is Pregnant
Episode 69: Rhianna is Pregnant is perhaps not about Rhianna, but you will just have to listen to find out. You may discover it’s about the poetic things that people have left in the world for others to see . . . or perhaps not see. Or maybe it’s about the little known news that Rhianna is pregnant.
Episode 68: It’s the Real Thing
Episode 68: It’s the Real Thing is not about a Coca Cola ad, which you would not even think about anyway if you are under the age of 55, but it is about hands, hand in hand, fingerprints on one’s hands, Ma Barker’s gang of outlaws during the Depression and . . . hands, particularly Nancy June’s hands and her lovely poem.
Episode 67: Lady Gaga Scarecrow
Episode 67: Lady Gaga Scarecrow is actually about scarecrows, which we dare to discuss in winter, as this poem left in the museum pissed off Shaun but then it was all right and then, it becomes a pretty good poem or “pome,” as the case may be. Bill reads it 3 or 4 times. We lose count and then we talk about Lady Gaga in her lampshade dress and stuff like that.
Episode 66: Murder Poets
Episode 66: Murder Poets is really only about one murdering poet, but it’s also about a poet writing about that murdering poet and . . . also Barbie and Ken. In all seriousness, we celebrate the winning poem from our Okie Outlaw Poem Contest, which Bill McCloud wrote: a lovely lyric about Bonnie Parker, herself a proclaimed poet. Reba McEntire also enters the picture, as does the town of Chickiechockie.
Episode 65: Fallen Woman
Episode 65: Fallen Woman takes you on a journey to the roadside haunts of a female in distress, a Precious Moments doll (to be honest), rescued by Bill and the instigator for Frankenstein-like transformation and poetry and tales of empathy of those who cannot suffer a naked baby doll. Yeah . . . that about covers it.
Episode 64: Rodeo Clown
Episode 64: Rodeo Clown has us tripping through the land of Couplets and Clowns, of the rodeo kind, in particular. Learn about the history of the rodeo clown, the joys of the couplet and hone your clown joke skills, while riding in a barrel through the 30 luxurious minutes of this episode. You know you want to.
Episode 63: Wooly-Headed Decline
Episode 63: Wooly-Headed Decline takes its name from a computer-generated poem about loss. Never fear: Real poems are also a part of this episode, along with restless shadows, brain dissection, losing one’s marbles and general cluelessness involving the meaning of the lyrics in Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”
Episode 62: Abject Terror
Episode 62: Abject Terror takes its title from Professor Darren Hick’s response when he realized his students were using a program that writes essays for them. Thus, this is not a Halloween episode or a Poe or King story, but it could be–depending on your sensibilities. Bill and Shaun discuss computers writing poetry and the end of the world as we know it.
Episode 61: Fish are Biting Today
Episode 61: Fish are Biting Today details the inner workings of the fish mind, a wonderful poem by a visitor to the museum and a wonderful poem by Elizabeth Bishop, a memory of floating turds and various and sundry other memories. Do tell.
Episode 60: Being Nobody
Episode 60: Being Nobody begins with Chuck Norris, goes into Bruce Lee, and ends with a lovely Christmas poem, and in between we have a poem about just existing and Emily Dickinson sits in the corner and does her Nobody act for all the world to see. Or something like that.
Episode 59: How Still
Episode 59: How Still is about the Brady Bunch, paper dolls, asses, and Mrs. Santa Claus. Actually, it’s about a perfectly lovely Matsuo Basho haiku sent to us on a postcard from Japan in the year 2013. And it’s also about the Brady Bunch, paper dolls, asses . . .
Episode 58: Antique Doll
Episode 58: Antique Doll is about dolls. And Ukraine. And candles in the window. Tickle Me Elmo jokes. Dolls vs Action Figures. It’s about all of these things and more. It’s about life. And poetry. . . . And stuff like that.
Episode 57: Sibling Situations
Episode 57: Sibling Situations dives into the sibling battles and joys and times your sister tied a bully to the tree or locked the other sisters in the cellar. Oh, not your experience? Well, enjoy these sibling poems and situations vicariously then!
Episode 56: Mushroom Message
Episode 56: Mushroom Message relays the messages and dream interpretations one might associate with that friendly fungus, the mushroom. Shroom, shroom, shroom. Someone left us a great mushroom poem in the museum, so here we go…….Opening music from Walter Jahn’s YouTube channel.
Episode 55: Poems in Movies
Episode 55: Poems in Movies is not a regular Wacky Poem Life episode, as Shaun flies solo and talks about a trio of movies in which poems play some sort of role. It’s a bit rough, a bit philosophical, a bit personal and doesn’t really go anywhere . . . but maybe you’ll like it anyway!
Episode 54: Crawl Outside
Episode 54: Crawl Outside encourages you to do so, especially if it’s out a window, especially if it might be uncomfortable and you might land in the Rose of Sharon bushes and then have to go get a massage. Opportunity waits out there, so says our poet of the week, so says Oklahoma’s favorite son Will Rogers, whose birthday is the day this podcast was recorded, November 4. Crawl outside, crawl into this episode, which begins with a recording from Rogers himself.
Episode 53: Halloween Teeth
Episode 53: Halloween Teeth covers a delightfully ghoulish Dark & Scary poem contest winner that has us theorizing about odontophobia and philia and macabre thoughts of the season, along with a particularly distasteful Poetry Court poem.
Episode 52: What is Poetry?
Episode 52 marks 52 weeks of Wacky Poem Life. For this 1st anniversary show, we went live on Facebook and took an hour to talk a bunch of nonsense about rabid coons, squatters, Beowulf, Bill’s tattooed fingers and . . . oh yeah, our theme: What is Poetry? Please to enjoy.
Episode 51: Two Heads
Episode 51: Two Heads is about two heads. Two heads speak to us. We are two heads. Two heads are better than one. You get the picture. Head on over this way and listen!
Episode 50: Darkness Descends
Episode 50: Darkness Descends describes how one can almost get lost in depression and darkness, but light can shine through with pinpricks that grow and enlarge, as hope does. Poetry Court takes on an Instagram poem with both prosecution and defense equally prepared! Cast your vote below in the COMMENTS.
Episode 49: Slightly Used
Episode 49: Slightly Used has Shaun and Bill reminiscing about dust and the patination of all things over time, including the skin off Shaun’s arm. Weigh in on Poetry Court in the comments below to tell us who won–prosecution or defense!
Episode 48: This Hand
Episode 48: This Hand takes an almost-concrete poem about devastating loss that was left on the museum’s “wall of love.” For all of us who have lost our animal friends, this poem strikes home.
Episode 47: Oklahoma Acrostic
Episode 47: Oklahoma Acrostic is a poem on a postcard sent through the postal mails, which recalls Oklahoma memories and weird state “flowers.” Obvious Bill resees poetry, invents rhyme-sniping, and Shaun has her work cut out for her in Poetry Court.
Episode 46: Super Cowboy
Episode 46: Super Cowboy is about a poor ole cowpoke doing all his chores and always hoping a cowgirl will show up somewhere on the range. Jim Reeves starts us out and a really bad poem rounds us out . . . or up.
Episode 45: On the Way
Episode 45: On the Way takes a road trip poem left in the museum years ago and we explore anthimeria and treasures to behold far beyond a pirate’s bounty. Bill creates a brilliant podcast convention poem.
Episode 44: Some Creepage
Episode 44: Some Creepage highlights a magnet poem and a defense of magnetic poetry against elitism. Attorney Shaun puts on an insanity defense in this episode’s POETRY COURT.
Episode 43: Cow Path
Episode 43: Cow Path describes a wonderful little poem left by a teenager in the doll’s eye closet at the museum. Much talk of cow patties, poison, and fraudulent poems then ensues.
Episode 42: Forbidden Ukrainka
Episode 42: Forbidden Ukrainka describes another postcard the poetry museum received from the Ukraine with an inspiring poet on it. In Poetry Court, Judge Guthrie gets overwhelmed by “babies.” An episode of tragedy and comedy.
Episode 41: A New Sensation
Episode 41: A New Sensation is a workout of poetry and exercise–and Shaun has a surprise for Bill, who gets new freedom. POETRY COURT passes judgment on entwined memories of yesterday.
Episode 40: Moon and Sun
Episode 40: Moon and Sun describes a sister poem about the ways the moon and the sun are perhaps two sisters or are perhaps golden apples or silver apples, and Bill attempts to defend a very bad love poem in Poetry Court.
Episode 39: Yard Kill
Episode 39: Yard Kill describes a wonderful haiku and the 2nd session of Poetry Court, wherein Judge Bill decimates the criminal poem with an excellent decision from the bench.
Episode 38: A Lesser Divide
Dandelion photo wall in museum, photos by Sula Robertson
1st installament of Poetry Court in this episode
Episode 38: A Lesser Divide describes a one-line poem that inspires the reading of some one-line poems by Joe Brainard and also includes the first installment of Poetry Court where Shaun overuses the gavel and Bill makes a valiant defense.
Episode 37: Poetry Parks
Episode 37: Poetry Parks is not really about parks but includes poems by the Parks’ family who left their work in the museum. The family that writes poetry together . . . well, they’re just cool.
Episode 36: Got Stuck
Episode 36: Got Stuck is a mildly wacky episode about the poems that have gotten stuck in our heads through the years, the ones haunting us, such as David Baker’s “Haunts,” and William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark.” Also some bad jokes, as usual.
Episode 35: Dog Dog
Circus (Courtesy of OK Historical Society)
Circus (Courtesy of OK Historical Society)
Mabel Hackney Tompkins on Skyrocket (Courtesy of OK Historical Society)
Circus and Nellie the Diving Dog (Courtesy of OK Historical Society)
Episode 35: Dog Dog reveals a post-it note poem to a magnificent dog of yesteryear. Dog jokes and stories ensue.
Episode 34: The Stray
Episode 34: The Stray reveals a poem written and posted in the old museum’s secret corner, where snakes and mice lived and so did things that made this writer question “the mirror of my very soul.” Not to worry: There are some bad jokes in there, too
Episode 33: Tin Roof
Episode 33: Tin Roof explores two wonderful impromptu poems written in the museum recently that celebrate ROMP’s 10th anniversary and the gift of TIN. Tin! Tin! Ten!
Episode 32: I Try
Episode 32: I Try was taped at the beginning of June, Pride Month, and explores a beautiful poem recently left in the museum that ponders the question of a woman’s duty to the women she loves.
Episode 31: Where is Peggy?
Episode 31: Where is Peggy? is our first True Crime/Poetry podcast, although a crime may or may not be involved. What happened to the museum’s Peggy the Personification Pig, ambassador to the world on all things personification? She has been missing since 2014. Help us bring her home.
Episode 30: Pepper Martin highlights a 1930’s major league baseball sensation Pepper Martin, whom we learned about from a poem by Glenpool poet Gordon Bryan. Play ball! And poetry! And baseball haiku!
Episode 29: You are Bare
Episode 29: You are Bare describes a poem with bare bones imagery that asks you to bone up on your knowledge of things that are close to the bone. Sorry, but those are the bare facts, folks.
Episode 28: Serve Darkness
Episode 28: Serve Darkness takes a black out poem created atop a 19th century lament about the moral state of education but doesn’t ask that you, too, “serve darkness.”
Episode 27: Dissected Words
Episode 27: Dissected Words delves into the depths of spaces where words do or do not go and the effect their absence or presence has on us . . . plus, we practice several weak jokes, of course.
Episode 26: Shadow Box
Episode 26: Shadow Box describes a poem evoking experiences related to objects that bring to mind memories, fading over time. Bonus: Bill and Shaun tell each other bad jokes that neither one gets.
Episode 25: Mockingbird Song
Episode 25: Mockingbird Song begins with a mockingbird singing in Shaun’s yard and diverges into Charlton Heston screams, new sound board shenanigans and other lovely nonsense.
Episode 24: Ukraine Testament
Episode 24: Ukraine Testament describes a postcard the museum received from Ukraine in 2014 and how the poetry and sorrow of it has arrived here in our present times.
Episode 23: A Secret
Episode 23: A Secret takes you to the museum’s old secret corner where visitors left their secret poems, one of which we share with you.
Episode 22: My Rooster
Art assemblage rooster for sale, $100, by Roxann Yates. Contact ROMPoetry@gmail.com
Photo from Oklahoma Historical Society/Oklahoma History Center traveling exhibit Where They Went
Episode 22: My Rooster defines rooster in poetic and otherworldly terms and Foghorn Leghorn makes several appearances, as do other poetic characters of his ilk.
Episode 21: Wild Bergamot
Episode 21: Wild Bergamot describes a poem written from a Firewheel of Fortune card, Shaun’s tummy ache, Bill’s accents, dollops and sound effects and a visit with Earl Grey.
Episode 20: Moonrise Story
Episode 20: Moonrise Story describes a block assemblage poem, bursting balloons, grandma’s lilacs and scent memories of Mennen and Hai Karate!
Episode 19: Ties Break
Episode 19: Ties Break concerns ponderations on the mutability and stability, the integrity and authenticity of human life on this great planet of ours, and there are also a few jokes.
Episode 18: Climb a Giant
Episode 18: Climb a Giant explores a magnetic poetry poem with large and lovely archetypes that brings up images and memories of childhood fables and musings on the moon with Fe Fi Fo Fum and Phooey.
Episode 17: Still Learning
Episode 17: Still Learning discusses a “strikeout poem” that was written for the 19th amendment centennial exhibit at ROMP. It’s a lovefest of the ladies for 35 minutes. Enjoy.
Episode 16: Crocodile Couplets
Episode 16: Crocodile Couplets allows us to discuss couplets left as a sacrifice to Cora the Crocodile, whose domain included the treehouse at the first poetry museum site. Also, there’s some Valentine’s Day stuff.
Episode 15: Cannibal Lampshades
Episode 15: Cannibal Lampshades explores the inevitability of lampshades either taking over the world or becoming extinct. Only time will tell.
Episode 14: Get Your Hat
Episode 14: Get Your Hat takes us into a lovely summer poem in the middle of winter that is about going places and wearing hats and hysterical women in hats, etc.
Episode 13: Blues Tune
Episode 13: Blues Tune gets down to brass tacks involving Perry Mason mysteries, Langston Hughes poems and needing an answer–not an explanation!
Episode 12: Rest Your Neck
Episode 12: Rest Your Neck delivers a zen-like poem found in the museum’s medicine cabinet, and Bill has a big reveal, and we sing and recite Old English and stuff.
Episode 11: Dream Big
Episode 11: Dream Big starts with anger at an old song and detours into ideas of home and dreams and back to the anger at the old song and also something about tickling cheese.
Episode 10: Guide Pen
Episode 10: Guide Pen takes us on a journey digging into the ways a pen digs in and guides us, taking us places only limited by our imagination.
Episode 9: Some Trees
Episode 9: Some Trees describes all things TREE and then some, all starting from a lovely poem by a 10-year-old with the wisdom of the ages!
The end of Bill’s walking stick
Episode 8: Uneven Hem
Episode 8: Uneven Hem describes the patterns in life, the way one can veer off and the way one can stay straight and nice. WARNING: Numerous sewing puns ensue.
Senior Prom 1980: Arnold & Shaun in a dress Gangy made
Episode 7: Skeleton Key
Episode 7: Skeleton Key gives you the listener, the key to the meaning of life, and we do not exaggerate. We also become amateur graphologists in this one.
Episode 6: Pasta Sandwitch
Episode 6: Pasta Sandwitch explores this pondering from a museum visitor, which creates a wealth of other ponderings about sandwiches, exclamation points and lunch boxes.
Gifts from Bill mentioned in Episode 6!
Episode 5: The Dawn of You
Episode 5: The Dawn of You describes a 2-stanza poem that has us wondering about morning, thinking caps, Tom Jones, and sailors crashing into rocks.
Episode 4: Drunken Leeroy
Episode 4: Drunken Leeroy explores a poem about the ocean written on a piece of autograph book paper and leads to a discussion of kings and birds and wishes and dreams . . . and wacky things.
Episode 3: For Nothing
Episode 3: For Nothing takes you on a journey through a 5-word poem left on a block in the museum, which takes us into origins of the word “clap” and clackers and snapping fingers and other wacky things.
Episode 2: Pretty Girl
In Episode 2, Pretty Girl, Shaun and Bill look at a lyric poem about stars that was written and left in the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry for others to read. The conversation touches on notions of beauty and the horrific amount of things one can say about “stars.”
Episode 1: Shirley the Dog
Shirley the Dog gives an introduction to Wacky Poem Life hosts Bill Guthrie and Shaun Perkins and explores a couplet about a farting dog that was left in the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (the couplet, not the dog).
Wacky Poem Life 