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 