Episodes

  • Little Golden Songs: The Art of the Sonnet
    Jun 29 2026

    Read this essay at The Sonneteer!

    Sonnet types discussed:

    The Sicilian: ABAB ABAB, CDC DCD

    The Italian: ABBA ABBA, CDC DCD

    The English: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG

    The French: ABAB, CDCD, EEF, GGF

    The Spenserian: ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, EE

    The Miltonic: Italian, with enjambment, delayed volta, and non-courtly/erotic content

    The Meredithian: ABBA, CDDC, EFFE, GHHG

    The Pushkin: aBaB, ccDD, eFFe, GG

    The Hilbertian: ABC ABC, DEF DEF, GG

    The Terza Rima: ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, EE

    The Hybrid: Various. Ex: ABBA ABBA, CDCD, EE

    The Caudate: Various. Usually Italian, plus cauda (tail)

    The Curtal: Various. Sestet plus “super-quatrain” (quatrain + hemistich)

    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
    53 mins
  • How To Write In Meter 101
    Jun 12 2026

    -Read this essay on Substack!


    -What is meter?

    -10 Reasons to write in meter

    -Kinds of meter (Accentual, Syllabic, Parellelist, Quantitative, Accentual-Syllabic)

    -Kinds of feet (Iamb, Trochee, Anapest, Amphibrach, Dactyl)

    -“Junk” by Richard Wilbur

    -“Considering the Snail” by Thom Gunn

    -KJV Psalm 23

    -Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare

    -“The Tyger” by William Blake

    -“The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron

    -“O Where Are You Going?” by W.H. Auden

    -Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    “To An Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman

    -Speech stress vs. Relative stress (accent)

    -The importance of “framing” in scansion

    -Rhythmic modulation

    -Common substitutions (feminine endings, reversed feet, acephalous lines)

    -“All the Fun’s In How You Say A Thing” by Timothy Steele

    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
    36 mins
  • "Disco Sucks"
    May 28 2026

    Read this essay on Substack!

    Topics discussed:

    -Disco Demolition Night

    -Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death"

    -See Matthew's great episode on the above

    -Alice's essay, "On Fear"

    -My essay, "The Iron Lyre"

    -The Sleerickets episode "This Was Poetry"

    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
  • Snap Into A Slim Hymn: The Art of Epigram Pt. 2
    May 18 2026

    -Read the poems on my Substack!

    -If there is a “West,” all Semites and Aryans are part of it

    -Arab Classicism and the House of Wisdom

    -Al Ma’arri

    -Afzaladdin

    -Moses Ibn Ezra

    -Sehnsucht

    -Ibn Iyad

    -Manjik

    -Dick Davis

    -Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas”

    -Proto-Imagism

    -My long road to appreciating haiku

    -Zen in the Art of Archery

    -Matsuo Basho

    -Ethan McGuire

    -Kireji, Kigo, Jisei

    -Minamoto no Shitago

    -Howard Nemerov

    -Derek Walcott

    -Anne Stevenson

    -Mary Jo Salter

    -Motherhood and the feminine mystique

    -John Frederick Nims

    -Nicky Beer

    -Sponsor an episode!!

    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
    28 mins
  • 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