Rattle Poetry

Mark Yakich joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about reading poetry, writing poetry, experimental poetics, and what makes a poem work. Yakich is the Gregory F. Curtin, S.J., Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans and director of its Center for Editing and Publishing. His books include Spiritual Exercises, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, and Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross, winner of the National Poetry Series, as well as the unconventional craft book Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide. His most recent project is The Poetry Reader: An Anthology, published by Bloomsbury in 2025.

In this episode, we’ll talk about how to read poetry, why poems can be difficult or strange, ambiguity and accessibility, experimental poetry, and the relationship between reading and writing. We’ll also discuss The Poetry Reader, which brings poems from across centuries and traditions into conversation with one another, and revisit poems from across Yakich’s own career. What makes a poem a poem—and what should a reader actually do with one? As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more on the guest here:

https://markyakich.com/

This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:

Write a poem in which you lose something but ultimately gain.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a time you stumbled upon a poem.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Ephraim Scott Sommers joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, chronic illness, gratitude, music, and his new collection, Diabetic Gumdrops. A poet, essayist, singer-songwriter, and associate professor of English at Winthrop University, Sommers is the author of the award-winning collections The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire and Someone You Love Is Still Alive. His poetry has appeared in Rattle and many other literary journals.

Written during the first six months after Sommers was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Diabetic Gumdrops is a collection of 24 poems of praise that tests how far the ode can stretch—making room for needles, glucose monitors, doctors, spouses, fear, anger, humor, gratitude, and joy. In this episode, we’ll talk about writing poetry from illness, the ode as a poetic form, finding hope without denying difficulty, and how writing the book changed Sommers’s own relationship to his diagnosis. We’ll also discuss the relationship between poetry and music and hear work from across his career. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more on the guest here:

https://ephraimscottsommers.com/

This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:

Write an informal formal sonnet.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem in which you lose something but ultimately gain.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Stephen A. Allen joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, music, formal verse, Tourette syndrome, and his debut collection, Difficult Music. A former Rattle Poetry Prize finalist and longtime Rattle contributor, Allen was born and raised in Vermont and now lives in Michigan. His poetry has also appeared in Modern Haiku, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Northern New England Review, and elsewhere.

In this episode, we discuss Difficult Music, a collection structured like a traditional orchestral concert, using poetic form as a way to give shape to a restless mind. We’ll talk about sonnets and formal poetry, sound and rhyme, writing about Tourette syndrome, and the ways poetry can approach faith, family history, nature, and illness. Stephen will read from his debut collection as well as other work, and we’ll explore how constraint can create freedom in a poem. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more on his new book here:

https://finishinglinepress.com/product/difficult-music-by-stephen-a-allen/

This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:

Write a persona poem from another time.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write an informal formal sonnet.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Molly Fisk returns to The Rattlecast for a conversation with Timothy Green about poetry, storytelling, history, and her new book, Walking Wheel. A poet, essayist, radio commentator, and former Poet Laureate of Nevada County, California, Fisk is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She first joined us on Rattlecast #61 in 2020 to discuss California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology.

Her new book, Walking Wheel, is a novel in verse set in 1875, following newlyweds Phoebe and Miles Imlay as they journey from central Oregon to California’s Surprise Valley and build a life together. Told through linked poems in alternating voices, the book explores marriage, love, labor, sex, pregnancy, landscape, and the relentless physical work of making a home. In this episode, we’ll discuss historical poetry, writing in persona, turning research into lived experience on the page, and using poetry to tell a sustained narrative across an entire book. Molly will also read from Walking Wheel and look back at earlier work from across her career. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more on Molly here:

https://www.mollyfisk.com/

This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:

Time to pair up! Send one line of your own poetry to a poet and ask for one in return. Write your own poem that utilizes their line, and give them credit for it.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a persona poem from another time.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Lance Larsen joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast to celebrate Secretary of the Invisible Thing, one of the three winners of the 2026 Rattle Chapbook Prize. A former Poet Laureate of Utah, Larsen is the author of six full-length poetry collections, including Making a Kingdom of It, What the Body Knows, and Genius Loci. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Southern Review, and elsewhere, and his honors include a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In this episode, we’ll read from Secretary of the Invisible Thing and talk about poetry, humor, faith, mystery, and Larsen’s gift for finding the strange and sacred in ordinary life. We’ll also discuss the craft behind his playful, image-rich poems, how lived experience becomes something larger through imagination, and what it means to win the Rattle Chapbook Prize. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find the winning chapbook here:

https://rattle.com/publications/secretary-of-the-invisible-thing/

This Week’s Prompt from Katie Dozier:

Write a poem about a specific wild animal. Include as many tactile details as possible.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Time to pair up! Send one line of your own poetry to a poet and ask for one in return. Write your own poem that utilizes their line, and give them credit for it.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

In this special episode of The Rattlecast, we reveal the results of the 2026 Rattle Poetry Prize, our annual poetry competition offering $25,000 in total awards for individual poems. We’ll announce this year’s $15,000 winner and ten finalists, and most of the 11 prize-winning poets will join us live to read their winning poems and talk briefly about the work.

The Rattle Poetry Prize is one of the highlights of our year, bringing together poems selected from thousands of entries by poets around the world. This episode is a chance to hear the winning poetry in the poets’ own voices and meet the writers behind the poems.

Learn more about the Rattle Poetry Prize:

https://rattle.com/page/poetryprize/

As always, we’ll also open the lines for Prompt Lines, our live prompt-based poetry reading. A Zoom link will be shared in the YouTube chat before that segment begins.

For all past episodes of The Rattlecast:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

Wendy Videlock returns to The Rattlecast for a conversation with Timothy Green about poetry, nature, animals, language, and her new book, Desert Kin: Speaking Animal in the American Southwest. A poet, essayist, visual artist, and Poet Laureate of Western Colorado, Videlock’s work has appeared in Poetry, The New York Times, Best American Poetry, Hudson Review, and Rattle. She was also a two-time Rattle Poetry Prize finalist and previously joined us as the featured guest on Rattlecast #84.

In this episode, we discuss Desert Kin, a collection of poems and essays rooted in the landscape and wildlife of the American Southwest, and the ways close attention to place can shape a poet’s voice. We’ll talk about nature poetry, animals and the human imagination, rhythm and sound, humor and wonder, and the relationship between poetry and the visual arts. Wendy will also revisit older poems from across her career and discuss how her work has evolved since her first Rattlecast appearance. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more about the poet here:

https://wendy-videlock.constantcontactsites.com/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a time that speed was a big factor in your life.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a specific wild animal. Include as many tactile details as possible.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Rebecca Gayle Howell joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, erasure, climate change, spirituality, and her new book, Erase Genesis. A poet, translator, editor, and librettist, Howell is the recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize. She previously served as poetry editor of the Oxford American and currently teaches poetry and translation at the University of Arkansas. Howell is also a former Rattle Poetry Prize finalist and Readers’ Choice Award winner for “My Mother Told Us Not to Have Children.”

In this episode, we discuss Erase Genesis, a book-length poem that repeatedly erases the first three chapters of the King James Bible to reimagine the creation story for the age of climate change. We’ll talk about erasure poetry, visual poetry, ecopoetics, literary translation, faith and spirituality, and the process of making each page by hand with watercolor. Rebecca will also look back at earlier poems—including her Rattle Readers’ Choice winner—and read work spanning different periods of her career. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more about the poet here:

https://www.rebeccagaylehowell.com/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write an ode to an antiquated piece of technology.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a time that speed was a big factor in your life.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Mary Keating joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, disability, humor, resilience, and her memoir in verse, Recalibrating Gravity. A poet, lawyer, and disability-rights advocate, Keating became paraplegic following a car accident at age fifteen and went on to graduate from Yale Law School, build a legal career, and advocate for accessibility and disability rights. A longtime member of the Rattle community and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry has appeared in Rattle, The Fiddlehead, ONE ART, Wordgathering, and elsewhere.

In this episode, we discuss Recalibrating Gravity, writing honestly about disability without being defined by it, using humor in poems about difficult experiences, and turning a lifetime of memories into a memoir in verse. We’ll also talk about poetry as a way of finding balance after life changes, Mary’s journey into the Rattle community, and her Rattle poem “Full of It,” a ghazal featured as Poem of the Day. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more about Mary Keating here:

https://www.marykeatingpoet.com/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that’s a page or longer, and then edit it down to a maximum of 14 lines. Include both versions of your poem in the submission, with the shorter poem first.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write an ode to an antiquated piece of technology.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Matthew Olzmann joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about contemporary poetry, humor, love poems, imagination, and what makes a poem connect with readers. The author of Mezzanines, Contradictions in the Design, and Constellation Route, Olzmann is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Kundiman. His fourth collection, An Oral History of the Flat Earth, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2027.

Olzmann has appeared several times in Rattle, most famously with “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem,” one of the most-read poems in Rattle’s history and a love poem that has continued to find new audiences online. In this episode, we discuss humor and surprise in poetry, love poems, memorable images, the strange places poems can begin, and how poetry can move between the absurd and the profound. We’ll also talk about “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem,” Olzmann’s other work and books, and the craft of writing poems that readers want to return to and share. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading.

Find more about Matthew Olzmann here:

https://matthewolzmann.com/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a hot haibun.

Next Week's Prompt:

Write a poem that’s a page or longer, and then edit it down to a maximum of 14 lines. Include both versions of your poem in the submission, with the shorter poem first.

Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show:

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.