Skip to main content
Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast

Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast

By James Morehead

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. The podcast also features monthly submitted poetry, read by the poets.

Host: James Morehead, Poet Laureate of Dublin, California and author of "canvas", "portraits of red and gray", and "The Plague Doctor".

Web: viewlesswings.com
YouTube: @ViewlessWings
Instagram: @viewlesswings
Threads: @viewlesswings
Facebook: @viewlesswingspress
TikTok: @viewlesswingspress
Available on
Amazon Music Logo
Apple Podcasts Logo
Castbox Logo
Google Podcasts Logo
iHeartRadio Logo
Pocket Casts Logo
RadioPublic Logo
Spotify Logo
Currently playing episode

Poet Mike Lala Explores Urban Glittering Hellscapes in "The Unreal City" [INTERVIEW]

Viewless Wings Poetry PodcastMar 05, 2024

00:00
51:46
Poet Mike Lala Explores Urban Glittering Hellscapes in "The Unreal City" [INTERVIEW]

Poet Mike Lala Explores Urban Glittering Hellscapes in "The Unreal City" [INTERVIEW]

Mike Lala is a poet and performance writer living in New York City. He is the author of The Unreal City (Tupelo Press, 2023) and Exit Theater (Colorado Prize for Poetry, 2016);  several chapbooks, including Points of Return (Ghost Proposal, 2023); and a contributing translator to Tales of Dionysus (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2022). Lala’s installations, performance, and libretti include Whale Fall (2021), Madeleines: Tell Me What It Was Like (2020, with Iris McCloughan), Oedipus in the District (2018–19), and Infinite Odyssey (2018).

Mar 05, 202451:46
Five Poets Recite (Peter Carellini, t.m. thomson, Edward Sankey, Diane Sahms, Tobi Alfier)

Five Poets Recite (Peter Carellini, t.m. thomson, Edward Sankey, Diane Sahms, Tobi Alfier)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast February submitted poems episode features five wonderful contributions read by the poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more.

Feb 20, 202419:19
Poet J.R. Rice on Why "Dreams Don't Work Unless You Do"

Poet J.R. Rice on Why "Dreams Don't Work Unless You Do"

J.R Rice is a writer, teacher, and spoken word artist, born and raised in Oakland, California. He has a B.A in Creative Writing and an English Education teaching credential from California State University of Long Beach. While studying abroad in Greece, he was mentored by the author, George Crane. His novella, Broken Pencils earned Second place for Best African-American Fiction and Best Novella in the 2023 Speak Up Radio International Firebird Book Award Contest, an Honorable Mention in the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Award for Best Wild Card entry, and was a top finalist for Hidden River Arts’ 2023 Blue Mountain Award. His short story, “Depends (Good Night)” made the shortlist for the 2023 Letter Review Prize for Short Stories. His travel essays, “No Pasa Nada” earned Third place in the 16th Annual Solas Award for Best Men's Travel Story. In addition to his writing accolades, he earned the Rookie of the Year award at the 2005 National Collegiate Poetry Slam in Philadelphia. He was a Semi-Finalist in the 2023 Berkeley Poetry Slam Finals.

Feb 13, 202444:08
Heather Bourbeau's "Monarch" Writes Forgotten Histories of Western States in Poetry [INTERVIEW]

Heather Bourbeau's "Monarch" Writes Forgotten Histories of Western States in Poetry [INTERVIEW]

Heather Bourbeau’s award-winning poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. She has been featured on KALW and the San Francisco Public Library’s Poem of the Day, and her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin (Ireland). Her journalism has appeared in The Economist, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. She was a contributing writer to Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond with Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. She has worked with various UN agencies, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and UNICEF Somalia. Her collection Some Days The Bird is a poetry conversation with the Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey (Beltway Editions, 2022). Her latest collection, Monarch, is a poetic memoir of overlooked histories from the US West she was raised in (Cornerstone Press, 2023).

Jan 30, 202442:38
Katherine Gaffney Explores Grief through the Surreal in "Fool in a Blue House" [INTERVIEW]

Katherine Gaffney Explores Grief through the Surreal in "Fool in a Blue House" [INTERVIEW]

Katherine Gaffney completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently working on her PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets, jubilat, Harpur Palate, Mississippi Review, Meridian, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. She has attended Tin House's Summer Writing Workshop (2014), Sundress Publications' SAFTA Residency in (2021), and was a scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference (2022). Her first chapbook, Once Read as Ruin, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her first full-length collection, Fool in a Blue House, won the 2022 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. She lives and teaches in Champaign, Illinois.

Jan 16, 202440:24
Five Poets Recite (Cerid Jones, Lori Rottenberg, Caroline Wellman, Özge Lena, Kenya McDonald)
Dec 19, 202316:28
Francesca Bell Fearlessly Tackles the Unsettling in "What Small Sound" [INTERVIEW]

Francesca Bell Fearlessly Tackles the Unsettling in "What Small Sound" [INTERVIEW]

Francesca Bell was raised in Washington and Idaho and settled as an adult in California. She did not complete middle school, high school, or college and holds no degrees. She has worked as a massage therapist, a cleaning lady, a daycare worker, a nanny, a barista, and a server in the kitchen of a retirement home. Bell’s writing appears in many magazines including ELLE, Los Angeles Review of Books, New Ohio Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle. Her translations appear in Mid-American Review, The Massachusetts Review, New England Review, River Styx, and Waxwing. Her first book, Bright Stain (Red Hen Press, 2019), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. In 2023, Red Hen Press published What Small Sound, her second book of poetry, and Whoever Drowned Here, a collection of poems by Max Sessner that she has translated from German. She is translation editor at the Los Angeles Review and the Marin County Poet Laureate.

Dec 12, 202346:44
Jared Harél's Poetry Captures Family, Love, and Death on the Canvas of New York City [INTERVIEW]

Jared Harél's Poetry Captures Family, Love, and Death on the Canvas of New York City [INTERVIEW]

Jared Harél is the author of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject, selected by Kwame Dawes as the Winner of the 2022 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry (U. of Nebraska Press, 2023) and Go Because I Love You (Diode Editions, 2018.) He’s been awarded the ‘Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize’ from American Poetry Review, as well as the ‘William Matthews Poetry Prize’ from Asheville Poetry Review. Harél’s poems have recently appeared in such journals as 32 Poems, Beloit Poetry Journal, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The Southern Review and The Sun. He teaches writing, plays drums, and lives with his family in Westchester, NY. For more information, visit: jaredharel.com.

Dec 05, 202346:51
Transforming Trauma into Verse: Tennison S. Black on "Survival Strategies" [INTERVIEW]

Transforming Trauma into Verse: Tennison S. Black on "Survival Strategies" [INTERVIEW]

Tennison S. Black is the author of Survival Strategies (winner of the National Poetry Series, UGA Press 2023). Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in SWWIM, Hotel Amerika, Booth, Wordgathering, and New Mobility, among others. Black received their MFA at Arizona State University. They are the Managing Editor at Sundress Publications and Best of the Net and are the editor of the anthology on contemporary disability, A Body You Talk To. Though Sonoran born, Black resides in Washington state.

Nov 28, 202351:41
A poem for Autumn to Welcome Thanksgiving - "Falling" by James Morehead

A poem for Autumn to Welcome Thanksgiving - "Falling" by James Morehead

James Morehead (Poet Laureate - Dublin, California) recites his poem "Falling" from his first book "Canvas".


Falling

With a damp chill and shortening days,

I drive past Dorset at autumn’s peak.

High above, white clouds stroll puffed in promenade,

held delicate together by slender contrails,

and morning sun softly warms a crisp early breeze,

sending lake shimmered ripples—a cumulus mirror.


I step into a forest, maples rooted firm in Canadian shield,

feet meandering in search of a tickling leaf crunch.

All the while, drinking air soaked yellow, orange, red, brown.

In time, the breeze grows unsettled around,

a bluster that rips determined leaves from their perches,

scattering like startled butterflies, a colorful stochastic flutter.


I walk alone, thankful, threatening nimbus halts its advance,

and slip through the leaves, past seasons, years, decades—

transported from Canada to a New England vista,

passing through time and space into a 70s country wagon,

where the roads, ever curving, slide me across the trunk floor

as we slip on to gravel in search of a fall fair.


Touching a pumpkin’s husk hurls me again into space,

to Boston’s Freedom Trail outside Faneuil’s Hall,

with autumn colors draping the worn graves of patriots,

and the tickling crunch unchanged despite decades passing.

Through Boston Common, King’s Chapel, down ever-twisting walkways

where artists balance canvases and sketch with fingerless gloves.


In a moment, falling again through the city to rural Vermont,

winding through postcard towns and white painted gazebos,

nestled still in rust-draped Appalachians.

I step into Waterbury, hugged warm in a peacoat,

strolling down uneven sidewalks past sleeping storefronts,

to stir and crunch leaves from their wind-structured stacks.


Finally falling, surrounded, the sweet scent of decay

burrowing deep into earth, past shadow-seeking light,

until mildew and gray give way to Newton’s morning,

sunshine bright, sparkling through orange-tinged edges.

Leaping out of the pile, a burst of oak and elm,

distant memories of youth when time had no meaning.


And now, each fall passing and cycle of leaves,

autumns behind me stacked higher than waiting ahead,

I cling to each breath of crisp scented breeze,

and try not to blink, looking out over the trees,

and listen to each crunch as I step through the leaves,

until I catch a fell maple to welcome me home.


Nov 22, 202306:05
Brennan DeFrisco Explores the Spectrum of Love in "Honeysuckle & Nightshade" [INTERVIEW]

Brennan DeFrisco Explores the Spectrum of Love in "Honeysuckle & Nightshade" [INTERVIEW]

Brennan DeFrisco is a poet, teaching artist, editor, voice actor, & ekphrastic artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s been a National Poetry Slam finalist, a Pushcart Prize nominee, Grand Slam Champion of the Oakland Poetry Slam, & regional coordinator for California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, & the San Francisco Arts Commission. He’s the author of A Heart With No Scars, published by Nomadic Press, & has served as poetry editor on the mastheads of Lunch Ticket, Caesura & Meow Meow Pow Pow. His work has been published in Red Wheelbarrow, Oracle Fine Arts Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, JMWW Journal, Words Dance, & elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing with a focus in poetry from Antioch University Los Angeles.

Nov 14, 202351:30
Five Poets Recite (Esteban Allard-Valdivieso, Lucy Rattner, Daude Teel, Derek Kannemeyer, Alison Davis)
Oct 31, 202326:33
Loreena McKennitt on Amplifying the Human Condition Through Song [INTERVIEW]

Loreena McKennitt on Amplifying the Human Condition Through Song [INTERVIEW]

Loreena McKennitt, currently on a North America, Europe, and United Kingdom tour, is a multi-faceted Canadian artist known for her unique blend of pop, folk, and worldbeat music, often described as "eclectic Celtic." With over 14 million records sold worldwide, she has achieved gold and platinum status in 15 countries. McKennitt owns her record label, Quinlan Road, and has an extensive catalog that includes hits like "The Mummers' Dance." She has received numerous awards, including two Junos and a Grammy nomination. Not just a musician, she's also an advocate for intellectual property rights and a philanthropist with her own charitable organizations. From small-town roots to global stardom, she's a self-managed powerhouse in the music industry.

Oct 23, 202354:07
Carol Guess on Being a Poet Masquerading as a Fiction Writer in "Sleep Tight Satellite" [INTERVIEW]

Carol Guess on Being a Poet Masquerading as a Fiction Writer in "Sleep Tight Satellite" [INTERVIEW]

Carol Guess is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, including Doll Studies: Forensics and Tinderbox Lawn. Forthcoming books include a short story collection, Sleep Tight Satellite (Tupelo Press), and a hybrid poetry collection, Infodemic (Black Lawrence Press). A frequent collaborator, she writes across genres and illuminates historically marginalized material. In 2014 she was awarded the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement by Columbia University. She is Professor of English at Western Washington University, where she teaches Queer Literature and Creative Writing.

Oct 03, 202327:05
Gabriel Dozal's "The Border Simulator" Brings the U.S. Border to Life with Poetic Theatre [INTERVIEW]

Gabriel Dozal's "The Border Simulator" Brings the U.S. Border to Life with Poetic Theatre [INTERVIEW]

Gabriel Dozal is from El Paso, Texas. He received his MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona. His work appears in Poetry magazine, Guernica, Bomb Magazine, The Iowa Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Literary Review, Hunger Mountain, The Volta, Contra Viento, and more.

Natasha Tiniacos is a Venezuelan poet, literary translator, and scholar living and working in the United States after being granted political asylum. She holds an MFA in creative writing in Spanish from New York University and is currently pursuing a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center, investigating Latinx and Latin American literature, sound, and art. She has published two books of poems in Spanish, Mujer a fuego lento (2006) and Histo­ria privada de un etcétera (2011).

Sep 18, 202353:52
Six Poets Recite (Ani Jones, Siavash Saadlou, Keith Mark Gaboury, Sara Femenella, Kelsey Kessler, Marianne Tefft)

Six Poets Recite (Ani Jones, Siavash Saadlou, Keith Mark Gaboury, Sara Femenella, Kelsey Kessler, Marianne Tefft)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast September submitted poems episode features six wonderful contributions read by six poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more.

Featured poets include:

Sep 05, 202320:06
A Poetic Journey by Cable Car (from Exploring San Francisco)

A Poetic Journey by Cable Car (from Exploring San Francisco)

This week's episode features a special excerpt from the Exploring San Francisco podcast by San Francisco Travel. Award-winning host and travel writer Aaron Millar welcomes Viewless Wings founder and City of Dublin Poet Laureate James Morehead to recite his poem "nine point five miles per hour", recorded while riding a cable car. James' poem was inspired by the San Francisco Cable Car Museum.

Hear the complete episode and follow Exploring San Francisco on your favorite podcast streaming service.


Aug 08, 202309:09
"sisters" by James Morehead + Summer Hiatus

"sisters" by James Morehead + Summer Hiatus

Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast host James Morehead recites his poem "sisters" (from "canvas") to welcome a summer hiatus. The podcast will return with more interviews and submitted poetry episodes in September. Have a wonderful summer!

Aug 01, 202303:22
Brandon Rushton on Dissecting the American Landscape and Environmental Distress through Poetry [INTERVIEW]

Brandon Rushton on Dissecting the American Landscape and Environmental Distress through Poetry [INTERVIEW]

Brandon Rushton is the author of The Air in the Air Behind It (Tupelo Press, 2022), selected by Bin Ramke for the Berkshire Prize. Born and raised in Michigan, his individual poems have received awards from Gulf Coast and Ninth Letter and appear widely in publications like The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Pleiades, Bennington Review, and Passages North. His essays appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, Terrain.org, the critical anthology, A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke, and have been listed as notable by Best American Essays. After earning his MFA from the University of South Carolina, he joined the writing faculty at the College of Charleston. Since the fall of 2020, he's served as a visiting professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Jul 25, 202350:21
Caitlin Conlon's "The Surrender Theory" Burrows Into the Depths of Human Emotion [INTERVIEW]

Caitlin Conlon's "The Surrender Theory" Burrows Into the Depths of Human Emotion [INTERVIEW]

Caitlin Conlon is a poet and avid reader from Upstate New York. She holds a BA in English and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University at Buffalo and, while there, was chosen for the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize, and the Arthur Axlerod Memorial Prize for Poetry. Her debut poetry collection, The Surrender Theory, was released in 2022 with Central Avenue Publishing. You can find her online almost anywhere @cgcpoems. Below are excerpts from the interview with James Morehead on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

A trigger warning for listeners: the book being discussed contains sensitive material related to death, grief, and mental health.

Jul 18, 202345:01
Roger Craik on Crafting a Collage of Poetic Memories for "In Other Days" [INTERVIEW]

Roger Craik on Crafting a Collage of Poetic Memories for "In Other Days" [INTERVIEW]

Roger Craik, Professor Emeritus of English at Kent State University, Ohio, has written four collections of poetry: I Simply Stared (2002), Rhinoceros in Clumber Park (2003), The Darkening Green (2004), and Down Stranger Roads (2014), along with two chapbooks, Those Years (2007), (translated into Bulgarian in 2009), and Of England Still (2009). His poetry has appeared in several national poetry journals, such as The Formalist, Fulcrum, The Literary Review, The Atlanta Review, The London Grip and The London Magazine. English by birth and educated at the universities of Reading and Southampton, he has worked as a journalist, TV critic, and chess columnist. Before coming to the USA in 1991, he worked in Turkish universities and was awarded a Beinecke Fellowship to Yale in 1990. He is widely traveled, having visited North Yemen, Egypt, South Africa, Tibet, Nepal, Japan, Bulgaria (where he taught during spring 2007 on a Fulbright Scholarship), the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Croatia and Romania, (where from 2013-14 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oradea). He is glad every day that he is living in the USA. He watches the birds throughout the year, with joy.

Jul 11, 202342:09
L.J. Sysko Explores the Heroine from Maiden to Warrior in "The Daughter of Man" (INTERVIEW)

L.J. Sysko Explores the Heroine from Maiden to Warrior in "The Daughter of Man" (INTERVIEW)

L.J. Sysko is the author of “The Daughter of Man” (April ’23, University of Arkansas Press), the 2023 Miller Williams Poetry Series first finalist selected by Patricia Smith, and Battledore (Finishing Line Press), a chapbook about early motherhood. Sysko’s poems have been anthologized in “Best New Poets” and “Let me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology” (Madville Publishing) and have appeared in publications such as Ploughshares, The Missouri Review's "Poem of the Week," and Mississippi Review, among others. An MFA in poetry from New England College, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellow, and a 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Thomas Lux Scholar, Sysko is Director of Executive Communications at Delaware State University.


Adult content warning: A trigger warning for listeners: this interview includes adult themes and may not be appropriate for children.

Jun 27, 202301:11:33
Kweku Abimbola Explores Colonization and the Power of Names in "Saltwater Demands a Psalm" [INTERVIEW]

Kweku Abimbola Explores Colonization and the Power of Names in "Saltwater Demands a Psalm" [INTERVIEW]

Born in the Gambia, Kweku Abimbola earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He is of Gambian, Ghanaian, and Sierra Leonean descent. Abimbola’s first full-length poetry collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm, was published by Graywolf Press in 2023. In 2022, the début collection was selected by Tyehimba Jess to receive the Academy of American Poets’ First Book Award. Abimbola’s writing primarily investigates colonization, Black mourning, Black boyhood, gender politics, and the spiritual consequences of climate change in West Africa. He is a Visiting Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tampa.

Jun 20, 202354:43
Five Poets Recite (Sinead McGuigan, Heather MacKechnie, Lawrence Bridges, Denise Alden, Dana Kinsey)

Five Poets Recite (Sinead McGuigan, Heather MacKechnie, Lawrence Bridges, Denise Alden, Dana Kinsey)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast June submitted poems episode features five wonderful contributions read by five poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. Subscribe today.

  • Whiskey Breath by Sinead McGuigan
  • Nothing to Lose by Heather MacKechnie
  • How to What? by Lawrence Bridges
  • You May Experience Some Joint Discomfort by Denise Alden
  • Pray for my Daughter by Dana Kinsey
Jun 13, 202318:48
"She" Documentary Transforms True Crime with Aimée Baker's Poetry of Missing and Unidentified Women [INTERVIEW]

"She" Documentary Transforms True Crime with Aimée Baker's Poetry of Missing and Unidentified Women [INTERVIEW]

On this episode we welcome poet Aimee Baker and filmmakers Jason Greer and Vanessa Cicarelli to discuss the award-winning documentary "She" based on Baker's collection "Doe" which tells the stories of missing and unidentified women through poetry. A warning that this episode deals with subject matter some listeners may find triggering or disturbing.

Aimée Baker is the author of the Akron Prize-winning collection of poetry Doe (University of Akron Press, 2018) which was the subject of the documentary She (Birdy & Bean Films, 2022) starring Kate Mulgrew, Coco Jones, and Raven Goodwin. As a multi-genre writer, Aimée’s work has been published in journals such as Guernica, The Southern Review, and Black Warrior Review. Currently she teaches at a university in upstate New York and is working on her next book.

Jason Greer and Vanessa Cicarelli are high school sweethearts that have been together for over 25 years. Jason was born in Bozeman, Montana and Vanessa in Montreal, Quebec. They now live in Upstate New York where they raise their children and run a family business. They started Greer  Cicarelli Photography in 2000 specializing in commercial photography and video production. Their work has been featured in numerous magazines and publications both nationally and internationally. Jason and Vanessa believe in telling authentic stories through photography or film. “She” is their first full-length film. What began as a passion project has taken on a life of its own, interweaving the weight of the forgotten with feminine beauty and the power of knowledge.

Jun 06, 202344:45
David J on Crafting the Lyrics for "Love and Rockets" (Part 2) [INTERVIEW]

David J on Crafting the Lyrics for "Love and Rockets" (Part 2) [INTERVIEW]

This week features the second interview in a two-part series with Daniel Ash and David J., lyricists and songwriters behind Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, and multiple other band and solo projects. I interviewed Daniel and David separately, with a similar set of questions. The success of their projects can be attributed, in part, to their distinctly different approaches to writing lyrics and crafting songs. Today’s episode features David J. I spoke with Daniel and David while they were preparing for Love and Rocket’s first US tour in fifteen years.

Named after the underground comic by the Hernandez brothers, Love and Rockets announced themselves to the world with their radically unique take on the classic Temptations song “Ball Of Confusion.” This debut proved that they were going to be a force to contend with. It became a huge seller and a popular club hit in the US and Canada, where it also went gold.

The legacy of the band has only grown with more people realizing the extent of their influence and generations of new fans discovering them. The list of artists who cite their influence is impressive: The Flaming Lips, The Dandy Warhols, A Place To Bury Strangers, Jane's Addiction, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beck, Maynard Keenan, Dubfire, the Pixies and many more.

As a bonus, David agreed to share lyrics from an upcoming project.

Jun 01, 202344:12
Daniel Ash on Crafting the Lyrics for "Love and Rockets" (Part 1) [INTERVIEW]
May 30, 202342:14
Katy Didden's "Ore Choir" Crafts Erasure Poetry to Explore Icelandic Lava [INTERVIEW]

Katy Didden's "Ore Choir" Crafts Erasure Poetry to Explore Icelandic Lava [INTERVIEW]

Katy Didden is the author of Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland (Tupelo Press, 2022), and The Glacier’s Wake (Pleiades Press, 2013). Her poems, essays, and reviews appear in journals such as Public Books, Poetry Northwest, Ecotone, Diagram, The Kenyon Review, Image, 32 Poems, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Sewanee Review, and Poetry, and her work has been featured on Verse Daily and Poetry Daily.  She has received fellowships and residencies from The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, the Hambidge Center, the MacDowell Colony, and the Listhús Residency in Ólafsfjörður, Iceland. She was also a 2013-2014 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Collaborating with members of the Banff Research in Culture’s Beyond Anthropocene Residency, she co-created Almanac for the Beyond (Tropic Editions, 2019). Katy is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Ball State University.

May 23, 202338:38
Stephen Massimilla's "Frank Dark" Creates Striking Poetic Landscapes Through a Painter's Lens [INTERVIEW]

Stephen Massimilla's "Frank Dark" Creates Striking Poetic Landscapes Through a Painter's Lens [INTERVIEW]

Stephen Massimilla is a poet, professor, painter, and author, most recently of the poetry collection Frank Dark (Barrow Street Press, 2022) and the 2022 co-edited social justice poetry anthology, Stronger Than Fear. His multi-genre, co-authored Cooking with the Muse (Tupelo Press, 2016) won the Eric Hoffer Award and many others. Previous books and honors include The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat (SFASU Press Prize); Forty Floors from Yesterday (Bordighera Prize, CUNY); The Grolier Poetry Prize; the Van Rensselaer Prize, selected by Kenneth Koch; a study of myth in poetry; award-winning translations; etc. His work has been featured recently in hundreds of publications ranging from AGNI to Denver Quarterly to Huffpost to Poetry Daily. Massimilla holds an MFA and a PhD from Columbia University and has taught there and at many other schools, currently The New School. He is also a prolific artist.

May 16, 202347:34
Katie Farris Battles Cancer and Insurrections with Poetic Humor and Hope in "Standing in the Forest of Being Alive" [INTERVIEW]

Katie Farris Battles Cancer and Insurrections with Poetic Humor and Hope in "Standing in the Forest of Being Alive" [INTERVIEW]

Katie Farris’s work has been commissioned by MoMA and appears in American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeneys, The Nation, and Poetry. She is the author of the chapbook A Net to Catch My Body in its Weaving, which won the 2020 Chad Walsh Poetry Award from Beloit Poetry Journal, and boysgirls, a hybrid-form book, as well as co-translator of many books of poetry. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Brown University. She is currently Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Alice James Books, 2023) is her first book of poems.

May 09, 202347:23
Bay Area Book Festival - Viewless Wings Poets Laureate Celebration Preview

Bay Area Book Festival - Viewless Wings Poets Laureate Celebration Preview

Join Viewless Wings for an extraordinary day of poetry readings and book signings by celebrated current and former SF Bay Area Poets Laureate at the 2023 Bay Area Book Festival on Sunday, May 7 (11 am - 5 pm) in the Viewless Wings booth (#96). James Morehead (Poet Laureate - Dublin, CA and host of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast), Sarah Kobrinsky (former Poet Laureate - Emeryville, CA), Kathleen Moore (former Poet Laureate - San Ramon, CA), and Kimi Sugioka (Poet Laureate - Alameda, CA) will be on hand, including the debut of Morehead's newly released book, "The Plague Doctor."


Selections from participating poets are featured on this weeks episode.

May 02, 202316:06
Natalia Andrus on Creating the Eerie Ink Drawings for "The Plague Doctor" [INTERVIEW]

Natalia Andrus on Creating the Eerie Ink Drawings for "The Plague Doctor" [INTERVIEW]

Natalia Andrus (Eerie Ink) is a freelance artist who works in multiple media, both digital and traditional. I had a chance meeting with Natalia at her SiliCon booth in San Jose last summer and immediately knew her style of art would be perfect for my new book "The Plague Doctor". Fast forward to today and Natalia has completed three incredible black ink drawings inspired by poems in my book. I interviewed Natalia for the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast to learn more about how she transformed my poetry into exquisite ink art.

Apr 25, 202325:08
Seven Poets Recite (Cathy Wittmeyer, Kristen Gundlach, Emma Paris, Joanne Jagoda, Jaime Lam, Sophia Zhang, Phynne~ Belle)

Seven Poets Recite (Cathy Wittmeyer, Kristen Gundlach, Emma Paris, Joanne Jagoda, Jaime Lam, Sophia Zhang, Phynne~ Belle)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast April submitted poems episode, for National Poetry Month features seven wonderful contributions read by seven poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. Subscribe today.

Apr 18, 202316:51
Morgan Liphart on Creating a Masterclass to Inspire and Empower Emerging Poets [INTERVIEW]
Apr 04, 202333:42
Dana Gioia on Exploring Lyrical Forms in  "Meet Me at the Lighthouse" [INTERVIEW]

Dana Gioia on Exploring Lyrical Forms in "Meet Me at the Lighthouse" [INTERVIEW]

Dana Gioia is the former Poet Laureate of California. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he is the author of seven collections of verse, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets’ Prize for the best new poetry volume of the year. His critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award, and Studying with Miss Bishop: Memoirs from a Young Writer’s Life (2022). His poems have been set to music by numerous composers, including Morten Lauridsen, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, and Dave Brubeck. Gioia has also written four opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies.

James Morehead interviewed Dana for the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast to discuss his latest collection "Meet Me at the Lighthouse" (Graywolf Press, 2023).

Reviews of "Meet Me at the Lighthouse":

Mar 28, 202301:05:54
Sandy Longhorn on Storytelling Through Poetry in "The Alchemy of My Mortal Form" [INTERVIEW]
Mar 14, 202342:10
Eric Stiefel Playfully Welcomes "Nothingness" in His Latest Poetry Collection [INTERVIEW]
Feb 28, 202337:17
Six Poets Recite (Maddy Robinson, George Yatchisin, Mara Scrupe, Karin Krieger, Yael Valencia Aldana, Rachel Richmond)
Feb 21, 202320:01
Tupelo Press Editor-in-Chief Kristina Marie Darling on A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle [INTERVIEW]

Tupelo Press Editor-in-Chief Kristina Marie Darling on A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle [INTERVIEW]

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of thirty-six books. Her work has been recognized with multiple residencies, fellowships, and grants, including an an artist-in-residence position at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris; six residencies at the American Academy in Rome, and an artist-in-residence position with the Andorran Ministry of Culture. She was recognized with the Dan Liberthson Prize from the Academy of American Poets, which she received on three separate occasions, among many other awards and honors. Kristina serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press & Tupelo Quarterly. Kristina’s latest book, “Look to your Left: A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle” was recently published by The University of Akron Press.

Feb 07, 202338:11
A poem to close Season 2: "Among the scattered ribbons and crumpled paper"

A poem to close Season 2: "Among the scattered ribbons and crumpled paper"

As 2022, and our second season, comes to a close Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast host James Morehead shares his Christmas-themed poem "Among the scattered ribbons and crumpled paper" which first appeared on NPR’s Poetically Yours earlier this month.

W’d like to thank all of the wonderful poets profiled this year with in-depth interviews, and the poets that 89 for inclusion in our monthly submitted poetry episodes.

We’ll be back in 2023 with more interviews and opportunities for poets to have their work featured on our podcast.

Until then have a wonderful holiday season and New Year’s with your family.

Dec 27, 202203:06
Six Poets Recite (Linda Eve Diamond, Alex Stanley, Angela Sucich, Cynthia Dorfman, Ipsheeta Furtado, Rosanne Ehrlich)

Six Poets Recite (Linda Eve Diamond, Alex Stanley, Angela Sucich, Cynthia Dorfman, Ipsheeta Furtado, Rosanne Ehrlich)

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast December submitted poems episode features seven wonderful contributions read by six poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Olivia Gatwood, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Kari Byron, Lisa Marie Simmons and more.

Poets featured in this episode:

  • The Twittering Machine and A Question of Hope by Linda Eve Diamond
  • Ruin, Canyon de Chelly by Alex Stanley
  • A Pelican Feeding Her Young by Angela Sucich
  • Dangling Woman by Cynthia Dorfman
  • Dulce de leche stuffed churro by Ipsheeta Furtado
  • When Rousseau Leaves His Studio He Sees Things Differently by Rosanne Ehrlich
Dec 06, 202216:57
Three Poets Bring Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" to Life with "Chalk Song"

Three Poets Bring Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" to Life with "Chalk Song"

On this week's episode of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast we interview not one, but three wonderful poets about their collaboration to create Chalk Song.

Susan Berger-Jones is an architect and poet.  Her written and visual work has appeared in Drunken Boat, No Exit, and two anthologies of ekphrastic poems published by Off the Park Press.

Gale Batchelder lives in Cambridge.  Her work has been published Tupelo Quarterly, This Rough Beast, Colorado Review, SpoKe4, and in the poetry anthologies New Smoke (2009) and Triumph of Poverty (2011).

Judson Evans is a poet whose work has focused on crossing genres and collaboration.  He was recently named Haibun Editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.  In 2007, he was chosen as an “Emerging Poet” by John Yau for the Academy of American Poets and won the Philip Booth Poetry Prize from Salt Hill Review in 2013. His poems have appeared in numerous journals.

Nov 29, 202239:39
Stelios Mormoris on Elevating Humanity through the Poetry of The Oculus [INTERVIEW]

Stelios Mormoris on Elevating Humanity through the Poetry of The Oculus [INTERVIEW]

Stelios Mormoris is a resident of Boston and Martha’s  Vineyard, Massachusetts, and formerly lived in Paris most  of his life, working as an executive in the beauty industry.  Stelios is currently Chief Executive Officer of Scent Beauty,  Inc. He studied architecture at Princeton University, where  he received his BA, and he received his MBA from INSEAD in  Fontainebleau, France. He has held positions on the boards  of the French Cultural Center of Boston, ACT-UP, Historic  New England, and The Fragrance Foundation.

Nov 15, 202246:10
Poet Donald Platt Explores Beauty, Dark Matter, and the Love of Family in Swansdown [INTERVIEW]

Poet Donald Platt Explores Beauty, Dark Matter, and the Love of Family in Swansdown [INTERVIEW]

Donald Platt is the author of eight volumes of poetry, his most recent is Swansdown (Grid Books, 2022).  His poems have appeared in many journals, including The New Republic, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, New England Review, and Yale Review, as well as in The Best American Poetry 2000, 2006, and 2015. He is a recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three Pushcart Prizes, and the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize.

Nov 01, 202201:05:29
Tess Taylor Explores Northern California through Poetry in "Rift Zone" [INTERVIEW]

Tess Taylor Explores Northern California through Poetry in "Rift Zone" [INTERVIEW]

Tess Taylor, who Ilya Kaminsky recently hailed as “the poet for our moment” resides in El Cerrito, California. Her poems have received wide national and international acclaim.  Taylor’s chapbook, The Misremembered World, was selected by Eavan Boland for the Poetry Society of America’s inaugural chapbook competition. The San Francisco Chronicle called her first book, The Forage House, (an exploration of hidden family histories through archive and shard) “stunning,” and it was a finalist for the Believer Poetry Award.

Oct 18, 202249:41
Seven Poets Recite (Rebekah Bartlett, RA Pavoldi, Rose Oliver, Rosanne Ehrlich, Simon Constam, Mon Malanovich-Gallagher, Marie Chambers)
Oct 11, 202224:28
Poets Take the Mic at Dublin's Splatter Festival 2022

Poets Take the Mic at Dublin's Splatter Festival 2022

This episode features eleven points, nine finalists (eight of whom performed live at the City of Dublin's Splatter Festival on Saturday September 10, 2022) and two honorable mentions. All have wonderful poetic focus covering a diversion range of topics.

Finalists

  • Kate McCarroll Moore
  • Cara Sennott
  • Ida Marie Beck
  • Marie-Anne Poudret
  • Rowena
  • Tho Nguyen
  • Carissa Maddox
  • Inge Sorensen
  • Sarah Abbett

Honorable Mentions

  • Ileia Thomas AKA Black Latina Lyrics
  • Sterling Nguyen
Oct 04, 202258:32
Yanyi's "Dream of the Divided Field" Explores the Separation of Self [INTERVIEW]

Yanyi's "Dream of the Divided Field" Explores the Separation of Self [INTERVIEW]

Yanyi is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World 2022) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. His work has been featured in or at NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Public Library, Tin House, Granta, and A Public Space, and he is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Poets House. He holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University. He was most recently poetry editor at Foundry. Currently, he teaches creative writing at large and gives creative advice at The Reading.

Sep 27, 202242:30
Pamela Wax Explores the Healing Power of Poetry in "Walking the Labyrinth"
Sep 13, 202244:20
Behind the Scenes of a Local Bookseller with Tricia Huebner, Phoenix Books

Behind the Scenes of a Local Bookseller with Tricia Huebner, Phoenix Books

This week's episode of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast takes you behind the scenes of an independent bookstore courtesy of Phoenix Books in Rutland, Vermont. As writers and poets we have all spent many hours - and dollars - in bookstores. No online experience can replace walking down an aisle of bookshelves, searching for the poetry section, and being distracted by an intriguing book cover.

Tricia Huebner is the co-owner of Phoenix Books in Rutland, Vermont which opened in 2015.  She grew up outside of New York City, has bachelor’s degrees in English and History, and moved to Vermont more than 40 years ago. When not working she is an avid reader and enjoys hiking, kayaking, cooking, traveling, and spending time at her cottage on Lake Champlain.

Aug 30, 202224:03