Shows / Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast
Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast
At Backward Mutters I'll be posting thoughts on various topics of personal interest which will likely be limited to poetry, C.S. Lewis, and Jesus because, try as I may, I can't stop talking about either.
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Episodes
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastPoppies
Today is Veterans Day. I’m old enough to remember relatives who continued to refer to the day as Armistice Day as they had since it was initially proclaimed by…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastSestina in the Dark
Through several online Rabbit Room adjacent groups, I’ve gotten to hear author and illustrator Ken Priebe read his stories and poems, watch his puppet master…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastThere Was a Day
In 2021, several artists from The Rabbit Room offered an opportunity for other artists to collaborate on a project which was called “Pass the Piece.” Operating…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastSunday Evenin’ Comin’ Down
Today’s poem was inspired by a prompt for a November Poem a Day Challenge several years ago. The prompt was "harmattan" which is the dusty NE wind that blows…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastJust So
Today’s poem was written in response to sentence I heard at a pastor’s denominational meeting about ten years ago. Community life is not always easy. Church…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastSolstice
This sonnet is a tribute to all the Poetry Pub Poets who have been such an encouragement and blessing over many years. As this is the weekend of Rabbit Room’s…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastI Am Third
Today’s poem was written in response to a prompt given for a poem a day challenge back in 2024. The day’s prompt was “third place.” Almost reflexively, when I…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastClimb
Today’s poem is a tribute to the victims, rescuers, and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and it was written and delivered at the 25th…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastFall Again
For the past month, I’ve had the joy of participating in Rabbit Room Poetry’s, Poetry Workshop led by Wild Goose Words poet, Ashlyn McKayla Ohm. I don’t know…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastKeel and Beam
Today’s poem is a sonnet which I wrote during Easter week. The words ‘keel and beam’ were likely in my head because I’d been looking at the spine titles of my…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastA Pet Poem for Easter
Good morning, listeners. Today’s poem is a poem for Easter. It was originally written in response to a poetry prompt in which we were to write a “pet poem.” At…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastWhere Are You?
Well, friends, spring arrived in my neck of North Carolina while my wife and I were in Lancaster, PA at this year’s Square Halo Conference. Square Halo’s a…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastA Poem for Your Pocket
I learned several years ago from a member of my congregation that April 29th was Poem In Your Pocket Day. Though it’s a part of National Poetry Month, I’ve…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastYou Who Thirsts
Today’s poem is a sonnet which is part character poem and part dialogue. It is based after the character Jill Pole who is found in C.S. Lewis’, The Silver…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastEndings
Good morning! Today is February 26, 2025 and today’s poem is inspired by the ending of the book of Job. I began writing poems inspired by the book of Job in…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastLast Wish
When I studied to be a pastor, one of my practical theology professors was Dr. Steve Brown. Steve is a native North Carolinian and went to college down the…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastSurprised as Betjeman
During the pandemic, poet, priest, and academic Dr. Malcolm Guite began his YouTube channel, Spells in the Library. These 10 minute videos were a way he could…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastThey Have Not Prevailed
Today’s poem is inspired by a song found in a collection of songs which were sung by pilgrims as they traveled from their homes to worship at the Temple in…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastJesus Wept
Today’s poem was written in response to a charcoal drawing that artist Hannah Pabón created as a part of a community art project curated by the Almond Tree…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastThe Two Women's Bet
This week’s poem is a reworking of an Appalachian folktale which I first heard as a youth from my pastor, a Methodist minister named Joe Ervin. Preacher Joe…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastHow I Got Caught
Today’s poem is inspired by an Appalachian mountain story collected by Richard Chase, and included in his book of folktales, titled The Grandfather Tales…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastLove Is Not Strength
Today’s poem is a poem inspired by 1 Corinthians 13. It was written during a season when after attempts to love and minister to others, the love was not enough…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastBehold, the Chickadee
A poem for the smallest and yet largest of beasts. My friend Michael Kuehn and his wife Hazel Kuehn will be presenting their multimedia presentation, "Bird…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastOnly Questions
I don’t know if it’s my vocation as a pastor or because I’m older or if things have changed, but the brokenness of the world and the grief attendant in it more…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastYour Word Unlocks
Several years ago, as I was preaching through Psalm 119, I wrote a series of poems inspired by their verses. This sonnet derives its inspiration from Psalm…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastTobiah and Sanballat?
Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he ridiculed the Jews. - Nehemiah 4:1 He also told this parable…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastThe Dragon's Mouth
After Malcolm Guite’s poem titled, “What If?” and inspired by Revelation 12:15 which reads, “The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the…
Backward Mutters Poetry PodcastPhonograph
This poem was written as a part of the Lent Poem a Day Challenge in 2023 and hosted by Ben Squires (IG: @bicspics2020). I lasted all of one day. Here’s Ash…