Wacky Poem Life

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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: 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 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! 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 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 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 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 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! 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 is a different 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! 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 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 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.

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: 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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: 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 with a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon!

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--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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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! 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!