Wacky Poem Life

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

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

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

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!