Episodes

  • Kvetched in Stone: The Art of Epigram Pt. 1
    Apr 26 2026

    Read this essay (and view the poems) on Substack!

    Topics discussed include:

    The Monumentalist Manifesto

    The Iron Lyre

    Bright Soft Things (Crashaw Essay)

    The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse trans. Christopher Childers

    Asclepiades 6

    Zonas 9

    Argentarius 26

    Martial 5.73, 1.73, 3.65

    "Prayer" by George Herbert

    "Cold Turkey" by Joshua Mehigan

    "Upon the Body of Our Blessed Lord, Naked and Bloody" by Richard Crashaw

    "To Our Lord, Upon the Water Made Wine," by Richard Crashaw

    "God is my Final End" by Angelus Silesius

    "The Rosebud Has No Why" by Angelus Silesius

    "Why Do I Exist?" by Daniel Brown

    "On My First Son" by Ben Jonson

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    24 mins
  • "Bedtime Metaphysics" by Morri Creech
    Apr 12 2026

    Read this episode on Substack!

    Text of the poem here.

    Mea culpa: Yes, in the heat of the moment, I mispronounced mise en scene. A la guillotine!

    Topics discussed include:

    -Some po-biz kvetching

    -Morri Creech!

    -The telos of Versecraft

    -The "ghost" of pentameter

    -The Stevensian cosmovision and the metaphysics of metaphor

    -The axis mundi

    -Nicholas of Cusa and coincidentia oppositorum

    -The Moirai

    -Contronyms

    -"An Ordinary Childhood" by Morri Creech

    -Selve oscura dolce

    -I.A. Richards and tenor & vehicle

    -"Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth

    -"Poem Without Metaphors" by Matthew Buckley Smith

    -The Blumovian Review

    -My chapbook, "The Necklace of Harmonia"

    -My book, "Against Oblivion"

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
  • John Clare and the Madness of Poets
    Mar 28 2026

    Read this episode on Substack and subscribe!

    Text of poem

    Topics discussed include:

    -Plato's "Ion"

    -The Muses and Schizophrenia

    -Poets must be weirdos

    -The normies are the willing slaves of the mad

    -Lewis's trilemma

    -The American Confessionals and the French Decadents

    -The Wild 18th century

    -Go read William Cowper's "The Task!"

    -Samuel Johnson, Richard Savage, William Collins, Christopher Smart, William Blake, Friederich Holderlin, The Marquis de Sade

    -Jubilate Agno, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Thomson's The Seasons, Tristram Shandy

    -The man who thought he was Byron

    -"I Am" by John Clare

    -Vers libre vs. verse libere

    -"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

    -The Masque of the Red Death

    -Et in Arcadia Ego

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • "The Night Mirror" by John Hollander
    Mar 15 2026

    Read this episode (and the poem) on Substack!


    Topics discussed include:

    -Going to Oaxaca!

    -"Poetry and Music" and "Rhyme's Reason" by John Hollander

    -My Nemerov episode

    -My Donaghy episode

    -Jacques Lacan and the "mirror phase"

    -The nightmare of the self vs. the nightmare of the unconscious

    -The survival of Romanticism


    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    18 mins
  • Black Magic: Two Poems by Seamus Heaney
    Mar 1 2026

    Read this essay on Substack!

    Read the poems: "The Early Purges" and "Limbo."


    Topics mentioned:


    -Poetry careerism in the 21st century

    -"The Iron Lyre"

    -The perennial appeal of the Gentleman Farmer Poet

    -Heaney's bog poems

    -The value of exposure to death

    -Rural vs. Urban morality

    -"The Need of Being Versed in Country Things" by Robert Frost

    -Piscine Christianity

    -"At the Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop

    -My Yucatan travelogue

    -My most recent Sleerickets appearance

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    29 mins
  • The Via Negativa of R.S. Thomas
    Feb 16 2026

    Read this essay and support the show on Substack!


    Topics discussed in this episode include:


    R.S. Thomas's poems:

    -Mediations

    -Kneeling

    -Via Negativa

    -The Absence

    -Revision


    -Ernest Hilbert

    -Alexander Fayne's essay on R.S. Thomas

    -Pascal's "Night of Fire"

    -Apophatic theology

    -John Scotus Erigena, Philo, Pseudo-Dionysius, Weil, etc.

    -Keats's "Ode On A Grecian Urn"

    -Milton's "On His Blindness"

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • The Numinous Pastorals of Robert Wells
    Jan 29 2026

    Read this episode in essay form here!


    Topics discussed in this episode include:


    -The Cambridge Three: Dick Davis, Robert Wells, Clive Wilmer

    -My Interview with Dick Davis

    -The Stanford Poets: Thom Gunn, Edgar Bowers, Yvor Winters, etc.

    -Virgil's Georgics

    -The Idylls of Theocritus

    -Wells poems discussed: "A Caution," "Deus Loci," "The Unnamed Pool," "The Bathing Place," "The Last of Summer."

    -Episodes on the pathetic fallacy here and here

    -Apophasis

    -"Le Cimetiere Marin" by Paul Valery

    -"The Slow Pacific Swell" by Yvor Winters

    -Sensory deprivation tanks

    -Mysticism vs. Love

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    24 mins
  • "Horses on the Camargue" by Roy Campbell
    Jan 14 2026

    Read the poem here.

    Topics discussed in this episode include:

    -Transcending the smallness of one's time

    -The Flaming Terrapin

    -The Voorslag Affair

    -Campbell against the world, i.e. punching Steve Spender in the face

    -Ambivalent stanzas

    -The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot

    -"Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens

    -"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    -"The Whiteness of the Whale" by Herman Melville

    -A Nietzschean response to apocalypse

    Support the show

    VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.

    BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.

    VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.

    Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.

    You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here!

    TikTok: @versecraft
    Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com

    My favorite poetry podcasts for:
    Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
    Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
    The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

    Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
    Art by David Anthony Klug

    List of the most common metrical feet:
    Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
    Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
    Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
    Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
    Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
    Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
    Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
    Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    Show More Show Less
    30 mins