A wonderful sense of wordplay permeates the poems we were able to discuss from Barbara Diehl. Sadly, one of three poems we’d flagged for the podcast was snapped up before our discussion was recorded, and we talk a bit at the start of this episode about our process and timelines. Barbara’s work gave us space to consider how word choices, sequencing, and combining can lead to new experiences in a poem, as well as a debate over the roles of joy and darkness in poetry, including the balance we seek as readers in the world we find ourselves living in these days.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Wilbur Records, who kindly introduced us to the artist is A.M.Mills whose song “Spaghetti with Loretta” now opens our show.
At the table: Kathleen Volk Miller, Jason Schneiderman, Samantha Neugebauer and Dagne Forrest.
Barbara Westwood Diehl is senior editor of The Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry appear in a variety of journals, including Quiddity, Potomac Review (Best of the 50), SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, Atticus Review, The MacGuffin, The Shore, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Raleigh Review, Ponder, Fractured Lit, South Florida Poetry Journal, Five South, Allium, The Inflectionist Review, Switch, Split Rock Review, and Free State Review.
Socials: Twitter @BarbaraWestwood, Facebook @ barbara.w.diehl.3, Poets & Writers listing
December Goodnight
it’s sunfall, and the papersky is grayed
with erasures of bestlaid plans
all the daymistakes
forgiven
the brokenpencil points of planes
thumbsmudged away
their grumblechatter
hushed
the blackening windows
shuttered
*
so sleep in the nightsee
in the skylisten
so dream a planetdance
breathe a metronome
so keep time to a ticktock moon
to evening’s pocketwatch
its face a dozing chaperone
so humfade, so eyes closed
nothing to shudderfret
allsafe
Episode 26: Preparation H is Easy on the Mouth
Episode 25: Saved from Bon Joviism
Episode 24: PBQ's Holiday Extravaganza!
Episode 23: The White Episode
Episode 22: Tea Leaves and Tastykake
Episode 21: Alabama Field Holla
Episode 20: Boxed Wine and Slush Piles
Episode 19: The Dinosaur-Robot Episode
Episode 18: Jersey Guernsey, a Frenchman, and 2 Ho's
Episode 17: "Let's Kill the Slush Pile"
Episode 16: Consumption
Episode 15: The Schneiderman Tingle Episode
Episode 14: Martinis are Just Like Testicles
Episode 13: Creature Triple Feature
Episode 12: Who Killed the Cat?
Episode 11: The One with Heart, Brain, and Balls
Episode 10: Mangoes and Monsters
Episode 09: All Abu Dhabi, All the Time
Episode 08: The Brazilian
Episode 07: Howl
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