red lion sq.

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 33" below the player and select "save as" to save the file to your computer or mp3 player.

Happy Valentine's Day, poetry lovers! Coming to you a day early, we have love poems from your editors, Jae Newman and Amy Watkins.

Says Amy: "Every poem I've ever written is a love poem to somebody."

Says Jae: "I can't imagine why, today--when we value what speeds up our lives to save us time for us to waste it, when we find reasons to justify why fast food is acceptable and waiting to rewind a cassette tape is unacceptable--we do not try more often to create poetry, especially love poems.  It seems to me that personal relationships in America today are the thing in most people's lives.  We judge our lives, sometimes, by how successful we think we are as a partner or friend or son or daughter or brother or sister.  And if this is so, how can we not see the value in poetry?  For all the shortcomings of poetry, reading a poem is a direct way to express something you feel, even if saying it seems impossible. Love poems demand both brevity and sincerity. And who wouldn't desire something so refined?  It's the most simple way to say anything."

Here here.

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 32" below the player and select "save as" to save the file to your computer or mp3 player.

Our poems take us this week from South Africa to the OK Corral then back home to Red Lion Square for an outtakes after party.

Listen to another of Daniel's poems in Episode 7 of Red Lion Square.
Listen to JR's CIA poems in Episode 29 of Red Lion Square.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our recent calls for submissions. The upcoming episodes are going to be good ones.

Many of our listeners are at AWP this week, which is our excuse for taking the week off to regroup, send responses to submissions in the queue and get ahead of the game for February. If you've missed any of our 31 episodes, now is a good time to catch up.

We have a lot happening in February, in particular a very special Valentine's Day episode. Unlike in 1980s sitcoms, a very special episode in this case does not mean that any series regulars will get married, cross lines or struggle with a watered down version of mental illness and/or teen pregnancy and/or drug addiction. It just means we're doing something a little different that will hopefully be fun. We'll also be updating our music and working out a neater system for showing off our contributors, so there's lots to look forward to.

See you next week!

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 31" below the player and select "save as" to save the episode to your computer or mp3 player.

This week, we have a river, a flip book, a hidden chamber and two poems about stringed instruments. Aren't we eclectic?

We really need submissions. If you are a poet or if you have friends who write poems, please pass along our link. Unlike other magazines that can stockpile poems for months, we need a few poems every week. Find out more about submitting here.

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 30" under the player and select "save as" to save the file to your computer or mp3 player.

Lovely poems this week from Sherry Chandler and Doug Paugh, seasoned poets who pay attention to the sound of their poems, not just the words.

January has us looking to the future, which is the topic of this week's after party. What would you leave as a monument for future generations to find?

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 29" below the player and choose "save as" to save the file to your computer or mp3 player.

Welcome to Episode 29, which includes a song by our editorial assistant Cye Watkins and a series of linked poems from JR Pearson about CIA mind control experiments in the 1950s. The project was called MK Ultra, and just skimming the Wikipedia article will show you it's pretty fascinating (and disturbing). JR reads the first of his poems and Alex Copeland, Ryan Wollard, Amy Watkins and John Babshaw read the others.

Listen to another of JR's poems in Episode 9 of Red Lion Sq.

Poets: we need your poems. Read our guidelines and submit already!

Press play to listen online or right click "Episode 28" below the player and select "save as" to save the file to your computer or mp3 player.

Happy New Year!

We're starting 2011 with poems by and about strong women bearing witness. Colleen's poem "I Know Women" was first published in Red River Review.

In the after party, Amy sums up what RLS has accomplished in 2010 and some of our goals for 2011. One of our goals is to better promote the podcast to new listeners. You can help by sharing the link with your friends, liking us on Facebook and submitting to submissions@redlionsq.com. As always, we are happy to hear your comments and suggestions in the comments section.

Here's to the start of a new year full of joy and poetry!

All the holiday festivities have left us short on time and shorter on after party material. We're taking the week off to celebrate New Year's and get organized again after Christmas. We'll be back on January 4, 2011 with lots of good stuff. In the meantime, happy New Year to all our listeners and contributors. Here's hoping your 2011 is full of peace and poetry.

~ RLS Editors and Staff