Melody or Witchcraft

Kathryn Petruccelli
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Conversations with today's poets and writers about Emily Dickinson and about the scope and sources of creative influence and the relevance of the past. Guests choose a Dickinson poem and one of their own to read. kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com

Episodes

  1. APR 1

    Season Two of the Podcast!

    Season Two is almost here! I’m in LOVE with what these esteemed guests had to say and I hope you will be, too. The trailer above should give you a nice teaser as to what kind of craziness and beauty to anticipate. In this world? Who’s going to turn down LOVE? How do you feel about the big corporations? The soon-to-be trillionaires that push around power? Oh yeah? Hmm. Me too. This kind of programming is its antithesis. Support creative work. Listen and subscribe! Thank you! April 20: “poetry as an endurance technology” My talk with Dana includes conversation about psychological states of being, our society’s allowance (or not) for the range of them, chosen solitude, marrying the Muse... Dana Levin is the author of five books poetry. Her latest is Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon), a 2022 New York Times Notable Book and NPR “Book We Love.” Levin teaches for the Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA program at Bennington College, and serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis. Her first book of prose, House of Feels, comes out from Graywolf Press in 2027. April 27: “the sensitive heart” Victoria goes deep into how to navigate the world as mostly nervous system, what poetry can hold safe for us, and the joys and pitfalls of new love… Dr. Victoria Kennefick is a writer, poet, editor and teacher who lives in Tralee, Co. Kerry (Ireland). She completed a PhD in Irish and American Literature at University College Cork and was a Fulbright Scholar at Emory University. Her debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Book Award, Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the Butler Literary Prize. Her second collection, Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, 2024) was a Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2024 and won the Farmgate Café National Poetry Prize 2025. She was the 2025 Arts Council of Ireland/Trinity College Dublin Writer Fellow. May 4: “led by the dead” Kelli and I kick up our heels to chat about loved ones on the other side, Emily and Susan, the encroachment of technology in our everyday, refusing to check a box... Kelli Russell Agodon‘s next book Accidental Devotions will be published by Copper Canyon Press in May 2026. Her previous collection, Dialogues with Rising Tides, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards. Kelli is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press and teaches in Pacific Lutheran University’s MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. She is also the cohost of the poetry series Poems You Need with Melissa Studdard. May 11: “filling in the gaps” Matt shares amazing stories about what came out of his collaborative art installment at the Dickinson Museum, the strangeness of wanting to know another, and how we build stories and lives from small but significant artifacts… Matt Donovan is the author most recently of We Are Not Where We Are (Bull City Press, 2025) which was co-authored with Jenny George, and The Dug-Up Gun Museum (BOA 2022). He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a Rome Prize in Literature, a Pushcart Prize, and an NEA Fellowship in Literature. Donovan serves as the director of the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. May 18: “a velocity in the language” Camille gets into the moment she went from rolling her eyes at the idea of Dickinson to being a lifelong devotee, scientific language and paths not taken, what happens when reading the past is problematic... Camille T. Dungy is the author of America, A Love Story, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, and five other books of poetry and prose. She has edited three anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Dungy is currently a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. May 25: “keeping it wild” Gaby has lots to say about bees and trains and trains and bees, Emily as the perfect figure for the (changing) moment in time she lived in, why stages aren’t that cool, who we need to read right now that can teach us not to look away… Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s new collection of poetry, The New Economy, was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Other collections include The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing, and Rocket Fantastic, which is the winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. They serve on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and live in Old East Durham, NC, where joy, compassion, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice. If you have been enjoying the podcast, you can support the work I do here in a variety of ways. Rate the podcast on whatever platform you listen on. Comment! Like! Share! If you are reading on Substack, take a quick second to hit that like heart, or if you have more time, comment and restack. The void is big and I am small. Let me know you are out there. You can also consider joining up as a paid subscriber. The monthly payment is the cost of a coffee & a croissant and will get you access to extras like the upcoming workshops on May 3 & June 7, and ensure that I can keep things rolling in this independent endeavor. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min

  2. MAR 16

    Bonus Bit: 'Groundwater' by Tacey M. Atsitty

    Groundwater Tacey M. Atsitty It was the Christmas my sister’s hamsters went missing from their cage. Santa had just brought Kisses and Fatso only two nights prior. The cage was knocked over, but we didn’t put two and two together until her cat Mushy came out of hiding a few hours later. I mean, we weren’t for sure, but we suspected. And my sister just cried. Though we were young, we were no strangers to death. It didn’t help that we were so close to it all the time. Just over the small wall to the east of our house sat a funeral home: Chapel of Memories. The deluge of trucks and cars coming and going from next door and even in front of our house became so common place we hardly noticed it anymore. Someone—we learned—was always grieving. I once snuck past the funeral doors during someone’s family gathering for their dearly departed. I wanted to walk the room with empty coffins. I knew exactly where to go because I had been there a few weeks prior, at my dad’s side, picking out the coffin for my uncle. I was a planner, and I wanted to pick out my own. I sauntered past the high-end ones, not because they were too expensive, but because they simply weren’t me. And they were outdated. At one point, I remember hearing several women howling in the next room over. I knew their grief. Waves stirred and swelled within me. Part of me wanted to join them, but— there it was: a human-sized cedar box with a lacquer so clear it could’ve been hard candy. The coffin had Native designs burned into its sides, but the workmanship on it was just ok. I ran my fingers along the burnt edges, the tips picking up ash— though that coffin most appealed to me because it was lined with Pendleton wool fabric, I decided against it because it was too flashy. So, I went with the plainest of plain wooden boxes. In that one, I knew I’d be lying closest to the earth and all her water. In this clip, I mention another house other than the Homestead that Dickinson lived in where her room overlooked the graveyard. Though she was born in the Homestead on Main Street that her grandfather built, from the age of 9 to 24, Emily lived in a home on North Pleasant Street in Amherst that no longer exists. In 1855, her father having purchased the Homestead back into the family and made renovations to it reflecting the style of the times as well as the message that the Dickinsons were again a family of significant standing in the community, they moved back. Emily was none pleased at the time with this move, but it would coincide with the start, in earnest, of her writing years. Thank you so much for coming along for season one of Melody or Witchcraft! Hey! You made it not only to the last episode of season one, here you are at the final bonus bit! You make it worthwhile! And I wouldn’t steer you wrong—these poets are the best. I’d love your help to keep things going. Why not upgrade to a paid subscription? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min

  3. MAR 16

    Tacey M. Atsitty: Ancestors-Literal & Literary

    This is the final episode in Season One. I’ll be back with Season Two on Monday, April 20th. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber of the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com). That’s where you’ll find complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Dr. Tacey M. Atsitty de Gonzales, Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta’neeszahnii (Tangle People). Atsitty is a recipient of the Wisconsin Brittingham Prize for Poetry and other prizes. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY; EPOCH; Kenyon Review Online; Prairie Schooner; Leavings, and other publications. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), and her second book is (At) Wrist (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband. This is my letter to the world,That never wrote to me,--The simple news that Nature told,With tender majesty. Her message is committedTo hands I cannot see;For love of her, sweet countrymen,Judge tenderly of me! After Emily Dickinson’s ‘Letter to the World’Tacey M. Attsity This is my letter to the earthWho never wrote me back—Perhaps except to say: Mirth,I meant to give you back once more & give you more than birth.You left me hollow inside, here:a cave mined of worth—more than a sincere gesture or gemstone glimmeringfrom the darkness above— I meantto be shimmeringduring your ascent— Fact check: Tacey mentions Emily’s father at Amherst College – Edward Dickinson was the treasurer of that college for nearly four decades. His father before him (Samuel Fowler Dickinson) was instrumental in founding the school and his son, Austin, Emily’s brother, took over the treasurer position follwing his father. Edward’s main profession, however, was as a lawyer (as was Austin’s). Regarding Emily or women in general attending lectures at Amherst College in the 19th century, emilydickinsonmuseum.org says, “(Amherst) Academy students were permitted to attend lectures at Amherst College, and while there is no definitive evidence that Emily Dickinson did so, it seems likely.” Concepts mentioned: caesura Dickinson going to Boston when she was ill/for eye issues – During the years 1864 & 1865, she spends a great deal of time at a boarding house where her Norcross cousins lived in the Boston area while being treated for an eye ailment that caused her to suffer pain and light sensitivity. The “scandal” that Tacey refers to in connection to Emily’s brother was a long-term affair Austin Dickinson had with the much younger Mabel Loomis Todd. Their relationship was an open secret and their meeting place was often the Homestead, where Emily and her sister, Lavinia, lived. Loomis Todd became one of Dickinson’s main editors after her death. Poetry slam – is a competitive form of poetry where someone performs on stage for up to three minutes, without props, notes, or music. Five judges sellected from the audience rate each poet Olympic-style on a scale from 1-10. The high and low scores are thrown out and the remaining three added. Quatrains – stanzas of four lines Tacey’s poem “Groundwater” can be read here. (To hear me read this poem combined with a slightly extended conversation about it compared to the edited version within the full episode, go to the the separate post called “Bonus Bit: ‘Groundwater’ by Tacey M. Atsitty.”) The Diné (Navajo) creation story of the Twins / Monster Slayer. This link will take you to a subtitled video of part I of the story – when the twins are born. From there, you can find the continuing story if you’re interested (the same person has posted parts II, III, etc.) Here is a post with the story written in English, though the background on the site makes it extremely difficult to read. Maybe you can copy and paste the words to a document. I’ve avoided many sites because they refer to the story as a “myth,” which Tacey explained she doesn’t like. Writers & Works Mentioned (hopefully in order): The Transcendentalists The Romantic poets Shelly’s “Ozmandias” (Percy Bysshe Shelley) Lucy Tapahonso Laura Tohe Esther Belin Nia Francisco Jim Barnes James Wright Alice Fulton Srikanth Reddy Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s poem “Song.” The podcast I mentioned recently listening to the poem on was Breaking Form in October 2025 with James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith, who do a masterful job of discussing the poems’ themes. Layli Long Soldier Natalie Diaz George Herbert Gerard Manley Hopkins Recorded January 2026. If you have enjoyed this first season of Melody or Witchcraft, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. There are multiple subsequent seasons in the works—I’m excited for it all. I’m also in for hours of editing in my one-woman production. Thank you for considering supporting this work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    32 min
  4. Bonus Bit: Barbara Mossberg

    MAR 9

    Bonus Bit: Barbara Mossberg

    Two wee stories from Dr. Mossberg to complement our interview. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    4 min

  5. MAR 9

    Barbara Mossberg: Unknowing

    If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes will be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Dr. Barbara Mossberg has led an Emily Dickinson-infused life for 77 years, writing poetry since age 6 in the now-burned Altadena, California foothills, and publishing poetry and criticism since age 12; her first book was Emily Dickinson: When a Writer Is a Daughter, 1982, named by Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year. In 1986 she co-founded the Emily Dickinson International Society when she was serving in a federal appointment as U.S. Scholar in Residence for USIA (U.S. State Department), American Studies Specialist. As a dramatist and actor, she has written “Flying with Emily Dickinson,” about her career of lecturing on Dickinson in over 25 countries as a Fulbrighter and cultural diplomat. California laureate/Poet in Residence for Pacific Grove (CA), and author of two recent books of memoir poetry, one organized around Emily Dickinson, she is Professor of Practice in Environmental Humanities, Clark Honors College, University of Oregon. A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King, But God be with the Clown – Who ponders this tremendous scene – This whole Experiment of Green – As if it were his own! Natural History Does Not Include My Plans to Fly (revised title: “Don’t Have Bones”)Barbara Mossberg I don’t know what I expected,In this Museum of Natural HistoryWhich turns out to be death.Once it flew.A city block of bones--Mementos:Mortal antiques,Stuffed buffalo,Mangy remnants--More, and more.Continent to continent, onCanoes, sailboats, rafts,Room after room,Always to meet the same doom, the roarOf the eyes of the hunter, silence of skins.Death’s clutter—I could drown in baskets, bins,Thousands of yearsHere as brown triangles,Some poor lady’s time.Oh, her time!In stifling caves on the cliffs,On the ice, confining plains.Silenced remains.No. None of this was real.Not I.I deny a history of skeletons.I don’t have bones.No spine that saysIf you live, you die.Get me out of here.There are artifacts--but I own a private evolution.“Natural History”Does not tell my story,My skin new and fresh.This is my time now, my baskets, my happiness,The gloryOf my mysterious flesh. Dr. Mossberg’s book is Clown Cantos: Everything is Alive in its Own Way, Singing Writers/people/works mentioned: Dante’s Divine Comedy Ian Chillag’s Radiotopia podcast “Everything is Alive” Dolly Parton’s “Everything is Beautiful in Its Own Way” Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson was a guest on more than one occasion at the Evergreen’s — Emily’s brother’s home next door to hers.) Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man (Ernest) Hemingway Gertrude Stein Pablo Neruda Rumi Dickinson poems mentioned: I dwell in Possibility I’m Nobody! Who are you? I’ll tell you how the Sun rose To be alive is Power Recorded in December 2025. (Apologies for the occasional imbalances in volume levels in this episode. I was unable to completely resolve these glitches in the recording, but have made changes since to prevent them in future episodes.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    38 min

  6. MAR 2

    Katie Farris: faith & fierce questioning

    If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes will be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Katie Farris’s recent poems & translations appear in Granta, Poetry, and The New York Times. Her book, Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Alice James, 2023) was shortlisted for the 2023 TS Eliot Prize. The Brain — is wider than the Sky —For — put them side by side —The one the other will containWith ease — and You — beside —The Brain is deeper than the sea —For — hold them — Blue to Blue —The one the other will absorb —As Sponges — Buckets — do —The Brain is just the weight of God —For — Heft them — Pound for Pound —And they will differ — if they do —As Syllable from Sound — Finishing Emily Dickinson, First Deacon in William Blake’s Church of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in the Oncologist’s Waiting RoomKatie Farris Oh, Emily, goodbye!We met in February and parted in July— I meetyour sweet velocity in every thing that flies— in moteand star and sphere—in bird and phosphorus of God! Oblique, you preached obliquity—your body, steeple for the Church of Mystery— your bell rings on, beyond. Concepts mentioned in the interview with Katie: “The Houghton” is the Houghton Library at Harvard which houses many original Dickinson materials – both poetic and from the Homestead “The ‘Daisy’ part of Dickinson” – Dickinson sometimes wrote about herself in a way that show her as small or submissive. For example, she references herself in her Master Letters as “Daisy” and, for example, says of Daisy “who bends her smaller life to his.” The Master Letters are three likely unsent letters of intense ardor to an unknown “Master.” “those two photographs (of Dickinson) and that’s it” – Besides the one authenticated photograph that everyone will have seen – a 16-year-old Emily, a second photograph surfaced some years back. You can see both and read about them here. Ballad meter Ars poetica “‘undashed’ versions of the poems” – The first books published of Dickinson’s work were edited to exclude her unique punctuation. Those versions sometimes still surface. Other Dickinson poems mentioned: A narrow Fellow in the Grass The Popular Heart is a Cannon first— It came at last but prompter Death (which includes the line “And his metallic Peace—”) People mentioned: Cristanne Miller (who edited the newest complete works of Dickinson’s that Katie read in full. Miller’s book is titled, Emily Dickinson’s Poems As She Preserved Them.) Annie Dillard Edgar Allan Poe Sylvia Plath William Blake and his book, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Brenda Shaughnessy and her book, The Octopus Garden Gertrude Stein Ani DiFranco and her song “Fuel” Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing Clarice Lispector Fanny Burney Recorded in November 2025. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    39 min

  7. FEB 23

    Bonus Bit: Jennifer Franklin

    This is eight minutes of Jennifer and I casually chatting after the end of the official interview. We talk about another poem, a couple books, the trials and tribulations of Dickinson’s posthumous publication etc. No notes on this one, but feel free to comment with your questions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    9 min

  8. FEB 23

    Jennifer Franklin: 'I've stopped being Theirs —'

    Jennifer Franklin is a poet, professor, and editor whose lastest book is If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Way Books, 2023). Her work has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her awards include a Pushcart Prize, a NYFA/City Artist Corp grant, and residencies from the T.S. Eliot Foundation and Café Royal Cultural Foundation. Her publications include The Paris Review, The Nation, poets.org, and “Poetry in Motion” from Poetry Society of America. She leads manuscript revision workshops and teaches in Manhattanville’s MFA Program. I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs – The name They dropped upon my face With water, in the country church Is finished using, now, And They can put it with my Dolls, My childhood, and the string of spools, I’ve finished threading – too – Baptized, before, without the choice, But this time, consciously, Of Grace – Unto supremest name – Called to my Full – The Crescent dropped – Existence’s whole Arc, filled up, With one – small Diadem. My second Rank – too small the first – Crowned – Crowing – on my Father’s breast – A half unconscious Queen – But this time – Adequate – Erect, With Will to choose, or to reject, And I choose, just a Crown – As AntigoneJennifer Franklin I’m all done being nice. It hasn’t gotten me anywhere. Since I was young, I gave everything away—milk money, homework, adoration. Everyone wanted to make me into a small version of herself— teaching me weaving, writing, wiles. All I wanted was love— picked a bouquet of dandelions and handed it to my mother. When she turned her mouth into a little o and called the tight yellow suns weeds, my body became a weight I wanted to let go. I thought of all the lessons I memorized to keep me still, the colors I couldn’t wear because they clashed with my red hair, all the rules of modesty so men would not look at me with hunger. The only thing I owned was a jar I was given, like Pandora, as a girl. Before I unlatched the lid, I had already lost everything—faith, health, my child. I refused to watch what flew out. But something hard as lapis, real as want, wrenched my wrist right back so hope remained, writhing alone at the bottom of the jar like dirty water after dead tulips are discarded— yellow stamens dropping pollen to the floor. Silent, it watched me for years. Months at a time, I forgot it was there. But when it’s trapped like that, it grows so large, nothing can quell it. No one thanks me for what I have done. But I don’t need praise anymore. I turned weeds into flowers. Concepts mentioned: Keat’s Negative Capability The persona poem Epistolary poems Other Dickinson poems mentioned: “The Soul selects her own Society –” The Master Letters “After great pain, a formal feeling comes –” “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers” “They shut me up in Prose –” Characters mentioned: Antigone Pandora Persephone People mentioned in the interview: Alice Quinn (Columbia U) Richard Howard (Columbia U) Arnold Weinstein (Brown U) Ovid Du Fu The Romantics Lucie Brock-Broido Jane Hirshfield Louise Glück (T.S.) Eliot (William) Blake Michael Harper Rita Dove and her book, Mother Love Lucille Clifton Laurie Sheck – The Book of Persephone James Joyce Proust Viriginia Woolf William Faulkner Lucia Joyce Sylvia Plath Books mentioned: Anne of Green Gables Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Recorded October 2025. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images and regular notices of new episodes. melodyorwitchcraft.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    32 min

  9. FEB 16

    Nuala O'Connor: rediscovering hope

    Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway, Ireland. Her fifth poetry collection Menagerie (Arlen House) was published in 2025. Her novel Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson’s friendship with an Irish maid, was published in 2015 by Penguin USA and Sandstone in the UK. She’s currently writing a memoir about late-diagnosed autism. She is a member of Aosdána. “Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm -I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet - never - in Extremity,It asked a crumb - of me. Miss Emily Dickinson’s Coconut CakeNuala O’Connor She blends Virgin Island coconutwith butter and sugar; sieves flour – two cups –beats eggs with the milk of an Amherst cow,adds cream of tartar to make everything bloom. In her white wrapper she stands at the window,lowers a basket of cake to the children below.‘Love’s oven is warm’, Miss Dickinson says,watching them eat from her spinster’s room. Other Dickinson poems mentioned: A Bird, came down the Walk I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, A Narrow fellow in the Grass (the “snake poem”) The quote I mention by Dickinson that shows how unhappy she was at this poem being changed when it was published (without her permission) is: “Lest you meet my Snake and suppose that I deceive it was robbed of me - defeated too of the third line by the punctuation. The third and the fourth were one - I had told you that I did not print.” (from Letter 316, early 1866, to Thomas Wentworth Higginson) Other Dickinson references mentioned: Dickinson’s “terror since September” we mention comes from Letter 261, 25 April 1862 to T. W. Higginson: “…I had a terror-since September-I could tell to none-and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground-because I am afraid-…” Nuala references Dickinson saying to her niece Martha (Dickinson Bianchi), with a pantomimed turn of a key, “freedom.” From the book Emily Dickinson Face to Face, Martha writes, “She would stand, looking down, one hand raised, thumb and forefinger closed on an imaginary key, and say, with a quick turn of her wrist, ‘It’s just a turn—and freedom, Matty!’” (p. 58) Here’s an essay by Nuala called “The Hope Cure” –sharing its name with what will be the upcoming full memoir mentioned in the interview. People mentioned in the interview with Nuala: Emily Brontë and her poem “No Coward Soul is Mine” that Dickinson requested read at her funeral. “Higginson” is Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Union commander, radical abolishionist, Dickinson’s long-time correspondent, and one of her posthumous editors. Writers mentioned (influences of Nuala’s): Maria Edgeworth Edith Nesbit Noel Streatfeild Walter Macken “The Brontës” refer to sisters Charlotte, Emily, & Anne Jane Austen Kate Chopin Hélène Cixous (Nuala quotes from “The Laugh of the Medusa”) Anne Enright Mary Morrissy Eilís Ní Dhuibhne Paula Meehan Sharon Olds I don’t think I’ve ever come across a food blog that quoted poetry before! Emily’s coconut cake recipe can be found here (the site includes a scan of the recipe written in Emily’s hand.) Emily’s recipe for gingerbread can be found here. Here’s a video demonstration of one version of Emily’s black cake recipe. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images and regular notices of new episodes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    31 min

  10. FEB 9

    Tina Cane: the poem as "a dispatch of my mind"

    Tina Cane is the founder and director of Writers in the Schools, Rhode Island and served as Poet Laureate of Rhode Island 2016-2024. Her books include Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante, Body of Work, and Year of the Murder Hornet. She’s also published two verse novels for young people, Alma Presses Play and Are You Nobody, Too? and is co-host with Joey Sweeney of the forthcoming podcast Stay Free. It feels a shame to be AliveWhen Men so brave are deadOne envies the Distinguished DustPermitted such a Head The Stone that tells defending WhomThis Spartan put awayWhat little of Him we possessedIn Pawn for Liberty The price is great Sublimely paidDo we deserve a ThingThat lives like Dollars must be piledBefore we may obtain? Are we that wait sufficient worthThat such Enormous PearlAs life dissolved be for UsIn Battle’s horrid Bowl? It may be a Renown to liveI think the Man who dieThose unsustained SaviorsPresent Divinity -Emily Dickinson Excerpts from Are You Nobody, Too?Tina Cane (Tina's poems were added as images to maintain formatting. Please go to kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com to see these and all images in these notes.) Fact Check: The excerpt from Are you Nobody, Too? titled “People/Purses,” is introduced with the beginning of a Dickinson poem Savior! I’ve no one else to tell - / And so I trouble thee. / I am the one forget thee so – Dost thou remember me? that Tina notes as #295 before she reads. This is the poem’s number in the collected works published by Ralph Franklin. In the Thomas Johnson edition of her collected works, it’s #217. You may see poem numbers noted as J-something or Fr-something; this system is what is being referred to. The Dickinson poems that you find online at the major sites such as the Academy of American Poets and the Poetry Foundation normally note the Franklin numbers. You can read the complete J217/Fr295 here. Other Dickinson poems mentioned: To the stanch DustWe safe commit thee –Tongue if it hath,Inviolate to thee –Silence – denote –And Sanctity – enforce thee –Passenger – of Infinity – Watch Tina’s co-presentation at the 2025 Tell It Slant Festival, Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts. (“Open My Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Legacy of Correspondence”) Concepts mentioned: caesuraEpistolary poems People named in the interview with Tina: Frazar Stearns (although this article is dated, it gives in-depth context for the circumstances around and impact of Stearns’ death) (Alfred, Lord) Tennyson Aimee Nezhukumatathil Elena Ferrante Margaret Atwood Sheila Maldonado reading her poem Tina quoted from, “Temporary Statement” Robert Lowell Interview recorded October 2025. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your comments. For regular notifications of Melody or Witchcraft episodes, join the Ask the Poet Substack at kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    32 min

  11. JAN 28

    Season 1 Trailer 1

    Guests for Season One: Tina Cane, Nuala O’Connor, Jennifer Franklin, Katie Farris, Barbara Mossberg, & Tacey M. Atsitty. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    3 min

  12. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Coming Around Again

    One of the poetry techniques that I’ve come to love – to look for, to lean on is repetition. Repetition comes in many forms and has many uses. Sometimes it’s about emphasis, sometimes it’s about a foggy, dreamy wistfulness or melancholy tone. Sometimes it takes the form of an incantation, a recitation that wants to call something into being, or it can be about music and rhythm—like the chorus of your favorite song, how it can become familiar so quickly, something that stays with you. I could go on. My mantel, always and whether I like it or not, has to do with finding parallels between poetry and the rest of life. So, naturally, while working on Melody or Witchcraft, I discovered not just that certain things—namely themes guests came around to during our conversations—repeated, but how fruitful that repetition was in helping me understand what we were doing and in contributing to the enjoyment of what we were up to. The conversations of Season One touch on topics you might anticipate a poetry podcast to touch on, like epistolary (letter) poetry, the trials of publishing, favorite mentors, and that perennial subject: the speaker of the poem. It also touches on topics you won’t have expected: the history of breast cancer surgery, wildlife in Indonesia, adoption, and Navajo creation stories. And through all those tributaries of dialogue and more, there are the most beautiful overlaps in subject matter, the repetitions. For example, one of the biggest to emerge is the importance of bringing the voices of women forward who did not have the opportunity to be heard in their lifetimes. I couldn’t have planned a more satisfying focal point to return to. Our starting point, Emily Dickinson, is intriguing for the ways in which she also wasn’t heard, and indeed for the ways she was—some of them interpreted far off-base from what her letters and other documents show to be the case. The second trailer for the show that I share with you here is on offer to give you another taste of the podcast before it debuts in just two weeks. Mondays beginning February 9th you’ll be able to find the full podcast episodes here and at other podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple. Check out @melodyorwitchcraft on Instagram as well as our webpage melodyorwitchcraft.com for more photos and info, and of course make sure you’re subscribed here at the Substack to get all the updates. Kelli Russell Agodon’s poem “Hunger” is below. The way repetition operates in this poem is a kind of two steps forward, one step back momentum in order to story the poem forward. A stutter, and yet, a momentum. Kelli will be a guest on the second season of the Melody or Witchcraft Podcast (which will be released over April & May). HungerKelli Russell Agodon If we never have enough love, we have more than most.We have lost dogs in our neighborhood and wild coyotes,and sometimes we can’t tell them apart. Sometimeswe don’t want to. Once I brought home a coyote and toldmy lover we had a new pet. Until it ate our chickens.Until it ate our chickens, our ducks, and our cat. Sometimeswe make mistakes and call them coincidences. We hold openthe door then wonder how the stranger ended up in our home.There is a woman on our block who thinks she is feeding bunnies,but they are large rats without tails. Remember the farmer’s wife?Remember the carving knife? We are all trying to changewhat we fear into something beautiful. But even rats need to eat.Even rats and coyotes and the bones on the trail could be the boneson our plates. I ordered Cornish hen. I ordered duck. Sometimeslove hurts. Sometimes the lost dog doesn’t want to be found. (Academy of American Poets, 2017) Prompt: Write the word “Sometimes” at the beginning of three different lines. Write the word “Remember” at the beginning of two more. Next, choose one abstract concept (love, anger, grief, compassion…) and two-three concrete nouns of things in your average or not-so-average day (coffee, traffic, books, rain…). Make this collection of abstract and the concrete words the core of what you talk (ostensibly) about—plan to use each of them at least three times in your draft. Using the first things that come to mind (no overthinking!) complete each of the Sometimes and Remember lines. Try out your new lines peppered with lines you write using your abstract/concrete word bank. Mix, match, and adjust as needed! Create and celebrate creative work—these are paths to resistance and redirecting energy into the world that we want. Thank you for your support! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min

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About

Conversations with today's poets and writers about Emily Dickinson and about the scope and sources of creative influence and the relevance of the past. Guests choose a Dickinson poem and one of their own to read. kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kathryn Petruccelli
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Kathryn Petruccelli
  • Show Website
    Melody or Witchcraft