My Bad Poetry

Dave and Aaron return to their normal format after the Thanksgiving break just as previous Aaron seemed to return to his (rather unfortunate) normal form. The hosts get to brush up on the now classic "toxic masculinity" critique to see if slightly older high-school Aaron has matured at all. While Dave saw a glimmer of hope in a few lines of compassion, Aaron couldn't get past the cringe.

My Bad Poetry Episode 5.4: "She Is..."

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Scaffolding" by Seamus Heaney

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @mybadpoetrythepod.bsky.social Instagram & Threads: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Aaron's sister delivers on a hope first expressed in episode 5.1 "Not Long Song...Not Long," providing audio files from a cassette tape in Aaron's past. Dave and Aaron take a break for the Thanksgiving Holiday but not before taking a listen to these never before shared "songs" from a piney-whiney high school Aaron circ. 2008.

Warning: amateur emo piano ballads may cause unexpected ear bleeds and/or thoughts of grumpiness.

My Bad Poetry Episode 5.B1 "Bad Songs-giving"

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @mybadpoetrythepod.bsky.social

Instagram & Threads: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Sickness could not prevent this podcast from being recorded. Though maybe it should have... Dave and Aaron continue to work through the uncharted lengths of the latter pages of the Wolf Journal. What hellscape have they stumbled into? Listen along to find out!

My Bad Poetry Episode 5.3: "The Devils Playground"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "XLVI [Many red devils ran from my heart]" by Stephen Crane

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Another failed song from the pages of the Wolf Journal has Dave all kinds of frustrated. Too short, bad rhymes, toxic message, these are just a few of the reasons the hosts came up with...not to love this one.

My Bad Poetry Episode 5.2 "A Reason"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "I attempt from love's sickness to fly" by John Dryden and Sir. Robert Howard

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @mybadpoetrythepod.bsky.social Instagram & Threads: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Welcome to Season 5! Dave and Aaron turn the page in the Wolf Journal to find a new genre of highschool Aaron's writing... lyrics. While this song may have tried to describe the immeasurable feelings of young love, the length of the stanza quite short. Or not nearly short enough according to Dave.

My Bad Poetry Episode 5.1 "Not Long Song... Not Long"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Me and My Dog" by Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers aka boygenius

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Bluesky: @mybadpoetrythepod.bsky.social Instagram & Threads: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Feeling nostalgic and a little crunched for time after 100 episodes, Aaron gives up on a blooper reel and finds a whole host of oddities in the uncut recording of "My Bad Poetry- Introductions" from Season 1.

A promo that ended up being just under 3 minutes took nearly 9 minutes to record. Which actually is pretty accurate to how the show still sounds behind the scenes.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.21 "Our Bad Introductions"

Dave and Aaron reach 100 episodes of the podcast and are somehow still dealing with Wolf Journal entries. High-schooler Aaron writes not from the mind and it shows as he tries to give advice on how to write. Considering all that has come before, maybe these words should be taken with a grain of salt. Also an abandon thought hangs out on the same page. Dave and Aaron take about as much time on it as previous Aaron apparently did.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.20: "A Word of Advice"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Writing Prompt" by Michael Torres

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 Instagram: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

"Look at Old Photographs/ Everytime we do it makes us laugh."

Megan brings so many gems to the show, yet the crew only had time to discuss two of them. Partly because they kept getting off topic with clergy stuff, and mainly because these works from a 17 year old Megan have layers. From romantic idealism to jaded pessimism all within the span of a stanza, Dave and Aaron find the rollercoaster of near rhymes and moonlit miracles well worth the ride.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.19: "The Prince & Old Photographs (w/Megan McDermott)"

Having covered all of the typed poems from Aaron's high school anthologies, Dave is sad to learn that the Wolf Journal is far from empty. Aaron finds three loose stanzas to get the show back into the pages of these handwritten "works."

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.18 "Return to the Wolf Journal"

End Poem from a Real Poet: “If you shed tears” by Rabindranath Tagore

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 Instagram: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Though Dave had to bow out to be a good parent to sick kids, Aaron and Emily take a break from parenting to talk about poetry! Emily brings not only old poems but pictures from an eighth-grade project. Ekphrastic might be one way to describe these works but..."bad"...may be more accurate?

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.17 "Popularity, Two Similar? & When a tree is chopped...? (w/Emily Dillon)

Dave and Aaron discuss the last of the "poems without a home" from Aaron's typed out high school anthologies. The co-hosts cover the the lighthearted and easily discussed topic of "death." Why was a ninth grader writing about such a topic? Aaron thinks it was homework.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.16 "Death"

End Poem from A Real Poet: "Sonnet 71" by William Shakespeare

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 Instagram: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

Ken, the self described blue collar poet and poet laureate of the Cleveland sewer system, joins Dave and Aaron for some needed discussions around beard balm ingredients, who really was at the manger, and how someone stumbles into poetry.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.14 "A Party at the Manger, The Beard Balm Conundrum, & Judging the Dead (w/ Ken Tomaro)"

Aaron and Dave are fated with the task of diving back into the old works of a high school Aaron this week. Instead they spend most of their conversation discussing the Barbie movie; most of which had to be cut for time. While the poem is nothing special Aaron seized on a second of time to close out a long standing debate when Dave admits to hearing alliteration with only two repetitions of the starting consonant! How long this truce will last is yet to be determined.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.13 "Fate"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Better to Die" Florence Earle Coates

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 Instagram: @MyBadPoetry_ThePod

My Bad Poetry returns from its midseason hiatus with a teacher ready to teach. Jessica Cuello brings her rejects to the table and still manages to encourage and educate the two co-hosts in the best possible way. Hear discussions on purposeful misspellings, missing the mark with narrative over lyrical lines, and how punctuation can be a great friend or foe.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.12 "Conchence, Achers, & Smite (w/ Jessica Cuello)

Dave and Aaron were unable to find the time to record this week. So Aaron dug through the back catalogue of late Season 3 and the first half of Season 4 to compile this random collection of outtakes and bloopers. This episode features a heavy dose of one particular co-host. From beard wax to barbershop, we all get to learn a little more about the person, the legend, the persona grata that is Dave. Also... Aaron continues to struggle with the basic pronunciations of names.

Other voices include Michael VanCalbergh, Candice Kelsey, Alex Carrigan, Nolcha Fox, & Matt Schur.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.Bonus: Midseason Blooper Break

Aaron and Dave spend the show discussing a day in the life... but not the classic rock song. Aaron's high school poem "Day" barely qualifies as a thought and yet the hosts spent way to much thought on this one.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.11: "Day"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Nostalgia" by Giannina Braschi translated by Tess O'Dwyer

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1

Even with somewhat garbled moments Tate Lewis-Carroll's humor and wisdom comes through clearly and they share some pretty good "bad" poems with Aaron and Dave. Common splices, run on sentences, and a third thing, keep the party going with these poems, and a early poet experiments with styles and subjects ranging from passion, sticking it to tradition, and genuine grief. So join us as we all open up a little after kissing the fire eater.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.10 "Kissing the Fire Eater, Beach House, & Wish He Was Here (w Tate Lewis-Carroll)"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "I Dreamt Us Having a Pure Son and Father Moment" by Tate Lewis Carroll.

This week Nolcha Fox brings three poems that range in their... quality? Listen to Dave make the most random connection between Nolcha's poem "Gently Used" and the Greek myth of Pandora. Aaron talks about snot and dead caterpillars. Nolcha brings rhyming poems when she normally writes in free verse. This one goes places. Good thing we had Directions!

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.9 "Married and Buried, Thought is a Caterpillar, & Gently Used (w/ Nolcha Fox)"

This week's episode features three very different types of "bad" poems. Robert brings to the show: a poem he wants to change to flash fiction, a published poem that he considers "his worst", and a typical angsty poem that carries all the attitude and cringe we have grown to love (or love to groan at).

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.8 "PDA, Ugolano...& Masochist (w/ Robert Allen)"

Laurence brings to the show two rough drafts of works that they are still chipping at to find the statue within the stone... but don't think the poems sink on arrival! Follow Dave, Aaron, and Laurence through the murky current stream of consciousness that is three nerds reflecting on language, structure, lovelorn angst, and all those awkward 20 something moments that may be better as tears lost in the rain.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.7 "A Hillbilly’s Desiderium in Colombia & Reverse Rain (w/ Laurence Foshee)"

Adrian dug through a box of loose leaf works to find poems that span a decade. From middle schooler to NYC apartment dweller, Adrian's previous contexts help pull back the curtain on poems full of mixed metaphors, Greek myths dropped in, and chewy lines to say. Dave and Aaron had a lot to ruminate on and that was before they even got to the chapbook on Teeth!

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.6 "Untitled Works & Ganymede in Waiting (w/Adrian Dallas Frandle)"

Aaron and Dave find themselves returning to where it all began... the thoughts of a "misunderstood" high schooler. They have walked these halls before and frankly any door would be a good exit from this failed philosophical fluff. Hope none of you all feel as trapped listening to this as Aaron felt when he wrote it back in the day.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.5: "The Hall"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Paths" by Dorothy Parker

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1

Aaron is late to recording and Dave is early to leave but Paul Lutter puts up with the both of them. While the hosts have had English teachers and college professors on the show, this is the first time they have had a college prof who was one of their teachers. Paul taught Dave and now Dave gets to taunt Paul...if only Paul chose poems that weren't so darn sentimental ;) The three discuss the wonders if fatherhood and children's imagination and how all that might be harder to capture in words than first meets the eye.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.4 "A Walk & Revelation (w/Paul Lutter)"

What do Dave and Aaron do when a fellow Les Misérables enthusiast and Luther Seminary alumn comes on the show? Talk about basically everything else. From the complex rhyme structures of limericks to the nuanced, highly sophisticated, and informed opinions of high school boys, Matt's typewritten poems from 93' do not disappoint.

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.3 "Elegy & A Limerick (w/Matt Schur)"

Aaron and Dave find themselves trying to solve the mystery of Candice Kelsey's Murdered worms and what else She Wrote about. From a red pocket folder emerge poems much like how worms appear on a sidewalk after a spring rain, and much like the worms they may have been better left uncovered... Candice brings a perfect self deprecating humor and wit to the show that hopefully translates well to your ears!

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.2 "Worms and I Sense the Presence of a True Believer (w/Candice M. Kelsey)"

How do Dave and Aaron decide to get back into the habit after a long break from recording? They drag along a new friend! Alex Carrigan joins the co-hosts for the first episode of Season 4 and carries the show with his energy, creativity, and of course his bad poetry. From a Gotye inspired breakup poem to a haiku heavy ode for a baker...as well as an extra little erasure poem that might have been better simply erased, Alex did not fail the assignment!

My Bad Poetry Episode 4.1 "Flipped Coin & Lottie (w/Alex Carrigan)"

For their last guest episode of the season, Dave and Aaron get a master class on the evolution of poems from the amazing Julia Guez.  Julia brings two examples of "bad" poems that have evolved over time through edits and revisions to become completely different works of art.  From collapsing couplets to exploring expansions this episode focuses on the art of writing and rewriting and rewriting and... 

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.22 "Meditation at Callicoon & On the Occasion of Our Tenth Anniversary (w/ Julia Guez)"

Dave and Aaron had to do their best not to waste time because they had a precious 40 minutes to speak with the great Jared Beloff during his lunch break.  While they would have been thrilled to spend the whole time talking about Jared's new book, Jared did not disappoint with two amazing poems form his days at a 10th grader.  From moss to Sasquatch, Jared's poems seem to have always sought to capture the glory of nature, just with way more skill and subtly nowadays. 

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.21 "My Light at Last & Behold the Glory (w/ Jared Beloff)" 

Dave and Aaron breath a sigh of relief after finishing the final typed collection from Aaron's high school years.  While there are still more episodes to come it felt like a good time to reflect and wrap up most of Season 3.  They talk about what episode they would suggest to someone starting the show and highlight some amazing events of the season.  There is even a brief cameo from poet Jay Parr who took a crack at saying "Roi Fainéant!"

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.19 "Analogy of Life Wrap-Up"

If the Silence Saga wasn't enough Aaron's previous self decided to write a second "My Words" without any acknowledgment of the first.  Dave and Aaron work through this poem that seems to be reflecting on the Wolf journal entries as a whole and they find themselves landing in a similar place (spoilers... it's toxic masculinity!) 

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.17: "'My Words (II)"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "The world is s beautiful place" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Start of 2023 with a new blooper reel!  Or maybe don't... We won't judge.  
Aaron and Dave continue to struggle with all things recording in this collection of gaffes, tangents, and conversations cut for time.  

Dr. MEH and us tell each other fairy tales... or really just share some bad poetry.  Aaron and Dave are delighted to have Mathew E Henry on the show to share some of his first ever poems which were heavily influenced by the great e. e. cummings and of course Counting Crows.  Aaron accidently has Matthew read all three of the shared poems including "she says it's only in my head" and he's not really worried or overly concerned because it's all or nothing.  Also Dave adds one more to his "sad dad" poetry collection at the beginning of the episode.  

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.14 "musing & (at) fireworks on the 7th (w/ Matthew E Henry)"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "Hevel" by Matthew E Henry to be published in his upcoming chapbook said the Frog to the scorpion scheduled to drop in the winter of 2023. 

In this weeks episode Dave and Aaron talk a while on a perfect topic for an auditory medium like podcasting... silence.  Dave channels his inner troll for his starter poem and Aaron's poetry feels like trolling in its own right.  Hear Dave attempt to remind Aaron of basic things that Aaron has forgotten from high school biology.  Then sit with your thoughts and wonder how there could possible to more than 10 minutes of cut material from this episode.   Apparently the co-hosts had a lot to say about a little when it came to this late sequel.  Rumor is Silence III is already in production!

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.12: "Silence II"

End Poem from a Real Poet: "But the silence in the mind" by R. S. Thomas

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1

Dave and Aaron break up the silence (and by that we mean the recording of two poems on Silence from Aaron's journals) with another amazing guest episode.  Frances Klein not only brings her quick wit and sense of humor to the show but she brings her first ever poem.  A work she composed as a thesis project of all things.  Hear the evolution of her craft from first draft to today and laugh along along the way.     

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.11 "The Mask & Patron Saints (w/ Frances Klein)" 

From the cutting floor of "Realization," comes the shocking revelation on the true tipping point for the show's existence!
A moment that Dave is perhaps still reeling from.  
Hear this truly terrifying and mystifying reveal...along with how Season Four may be structured and how truly grateful we are for guests on the show!  

Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1

Dave and Aaron have multiple realizations during this episode.  1. Dave should maybe not record with a fever. 2. Aaron doesn't understand commas. 3. This show is so lucky to have guests willing to speak with us. 4.  Giving a poem a title is hard.  

When scheduling conflicts and unseen events prevented a Halloween weekend recording with Lauren Theresa it seems like some of the magic may have been lost to time.  Thank goodness for Daylight Savings which gave everyone another hour and a perfect time for Aaron and Dave to hear the bad, the batty, and the beautiful poems from this great guest.

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.8 "Enraptured, Breaking With Reality, & I Want to Believe (w/ Lauren Theresa)"

Dave and Aaron encounter a poem that may actually be poetic? "Alive" deals a bit more with mental health issues that previous poems so Aaron and Dave attempt to address the topic without ruining the lighthearted vibe.  Hopefully there is reason enough here to stick around for a listen.  

Aaron and Dave run into an odd "poem" from the Wolf Journal where the concept might not actually be as bad as the poem itself. While the poem itself barely resembles the art, the concepts of oppression and exploitation explored may hold some water.  Unprepared for such an occurrence the two took the conversation on many different turns and lengthy tangents, many of which were ultimately cut from this episode (but did help bulk up the latest blooper reel). Nevertheless a "successful" episode was completed. 

Aaron and Dave find themselves chatting with the founder of the Southern Collective and editor-in-chief of Blue Mountain Review, Charles Clifford Brooks III.  Yet the bad poems he brings to the table prove even editor-in-chiefs can't find their muse every time.  From dead puppies to misinterpreted meanings, this episode doesn't fail to take flight (unlike one poems protagonist).  So press play and LIVE, DANCE, STAY.  Won't you?

End Poem from a Real Poet: "I Remember the Earth" by Clifford Brooks

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.5 "Bad Poetry" & "Airplanes Won't Leave Washington" (w/ Clifford Brooks)

With "Hocus Pocus II" dropping this week, why not revisit a sequel in Aaron's high school poetry collection?  Dave could probably provide many reasons why at this point. Nevertheless, Aaron and Dave struggle not to repeat themselves and their ideas too much this episode but when a 16 year old Aaron keep retreading the same themes and ideas over and over and over again it's shall we say... inevitable?  The poem "Love II" fails to demonstrate its need to exist, and to be honest, "Love" which was already a second poem by that name didn't warrant a sequel in the first place (second place). ;) 

My Bad Poetry Episode 3.4: "Love II"