Topics discussed in this episode include:

-The excellent poetry podcast Sleerickets, by MBS 
-The four kinds of written poetry 
-Toward a definition of "free verse" 
-Loose patterns and motley patterns 
-The debate over Robert Hayden 
-Hayden puts the verse in universal 
-How poetry can (and can't) change the world 
-The structure of a bullfight, of a poem 
-The Garden of Earthly Delights 
-Catalectic lines 
-Enter the Minotaur 
-Are we human, or are we bull-dancer? 
-The aestheticization of violence 
-The story of Veronica 
-Action sequins 
-The Lord of the Flies and the sexiness of murder 
-Are we laughing at truth, with truth, or being laughed at? 
-La Corrida as the Trinity, or, another kind of papal bull 
-Jesus's jock cousin, Mithras 
-Wagner/Freud's Thanatos Drive 
-Masculine angst, featuring Belmonte and Hemingway 
-Meter is back, and it feels so good. 
-Bullfight as tragic religious ritual 
-Box office details 
-The (possible) meaning of Ole! 
-Spoiler: the bull is Jesus. Muy original. 
-Stevens, Hemingway, and Heinlein on the value of death 
-Beauty the end, cruelty the means 

Text of poem: 

La Corrida 

El Toro 
From the blind kingdom 
where his horns are law, 

gigantically plunging and charging, 
he enters the clockface labyrinth— 

man-in-beast, creature 
whose guileless power is his doom. 

El Matador 
In the heart of the maze 
whose ritual pathways 
goading lance, bloodflowering dart, 
veronica and sword define, 

the fateful one, fate’s dazzler, 
gleams in suit of lights, 
prepares for sensual death 
his moment of mocking truth. 

In the fiery heart of the maze 
the bullgod moves, 
transfiguring death 
and the wish to die. 

Sol y Sombra 
From all we are yet cannot be 
deliver, oh redeem us now. 

Of all we know and do not wish 
to know, purge oh purge us now. 

Ole! 

Upon the cross of horns 
be crucified for us. 

Die for us that death 
may call us back to life. 

Ole! 

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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 (/ /)