Rattle Poetry

Alan Shapiro first appeared in episode 248. He's back with a new book, Diver. He's the author of 15 books of poetry, including Reel to Reel, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Night of the Republic, a finalist for both the National Book Award and The Griffin Prize, two memoirs, a novel, two books of critical essays, and two translations. Shapiro has taught at Stanford University, Northwestern University, Warren Wilson College (in its low residency MFA program for writers), and from 1995 to 2021 he was the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina.

Find more here:
https://www.unboundedition.com/product/diver-alan-shapiro-poetry/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

For links to all the past episodes, visit:
https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:
Write a poem that uses the present tense as one of the ways in which it creates tension.

Next Week's Prompt:
Write a poem which utilizes a quote as the title, and indicate who said it within the body of the poem.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Daniel Donaghy is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Somerset, which was named co-winner of the 2019 Paterson Poetry Prize. His previous poetry collections include Start with the Trouble, and Streetfighting, a Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist. He earned a BA in English from Kutztown University, an MA in English/Creative Writing from Hollins College, an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Cornell University, and a PhD in English from the University of Rochester. Donaghy was awarded the 2022 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize and a 2019 Artist Fellowship by the Connecticut Office of the Arts. He is Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he edits Here: a poetry journal with his students, and serves as Poet Laureate of Windham, CT. He grew up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, PA, which has inspired many of his poems.

Find more here:
https://www.danieldonaghy.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

For links to all the past episodes, visit:
https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:
Pick a decision that shaped the trajectory of your life and imagine if you’d calculated a different choice. Include at least one scent.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Write a poem that uses the present tense as one of the ways in which it creates tension.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Matthew Buckley Smith first appeared in episode 226. He won the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize for The Soft Black Stars. He's the author of Midlife (Measure, 2024) and Dirge for an Imaginary World (Able Muse, 2012). His poems have been featured in American Life in Poetry, Best American Poetry, and Poetry Daily. He hosts the poetry podcast SLEERICKETS.

Find more here:
https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

For links to all the past episodes, visit:
https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:
Write a villanelle that features something you see every day–and you’re the only person in the world that does.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Pick a decision that shaped the trajectory of your life and imagine if you’d calculated a different choice. Include at least one scent.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Brendan Constantine first appeared on Rattlecast 108. He's back with a brand new book from Red Hen Press, The Opposites Game. Brendan is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in many of the nation’s standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly, and Poem-a-Day. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR’s All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. Brendan currently teaches at the Windward School and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since 2017, has been developing poetry workshops for people with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).

Find more here:
https://brendanconstantine.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

For links to all the past episodes, visit:
https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:
Write a poem that rallies against its own epigraph.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Write a villanelle that features something you see every day–and you’re the only person in the world that does.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Lori Jakiela was a 2025 Rattle Poetry Prize Finalist for "Build a Bear." She is the author of eight books, including the memoir Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe, which received the Saroyan Prize for International Literature from Stanford University, was a finalist for the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses' Firecracker Award and the Housatonic Book Award, and was named one of 20 Not-To-Miss Nonfiction Books of 2015 by The Huffington Post. Her most recent book, All Skate: True Tales from Middle Life, was published by the great literary underground Roadside Press in 2025. A former international flight attendant, Jakiela directs the writing program at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, teaches creative writing in the doctoral program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and leads many community workshops.

Find more here:
https://www.lorijakiela.net/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited:
https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online

For links to all the past episodes, visit:
https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:
Write about a time you took something more literally than you probably should have. Include as many colors as possible.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Write a poem that rallies against its own epigraph.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.