Rattle Poetry

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.

David Mason first appeared in episode 64. He returns to share his new book, Cold Fire. David grew up in Bellingham, Washington and has lived in many parts of the world, including Greece and Colorado, where he served as poet laureate for four years. His books of poems began with The Buried Houses, The Country I Remember, and Arrivals. His verse novel, Ludlow, was named best poetry book of the year by the Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. It was also featured on the PBS NewsHour. He has written a memoir and four collections of essays. He lives with his wife Chrissy (poet Cally Conan-Davies) in Tasmania on the edge of the Southern Ocean.

Find the book here:
https://redhen.org/book_author/david-mason/

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 an obscure holiday that occurs during the next week, and write a poem that celebrates accordingly. Include which holiday/date in the notes of your submission.

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

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.

Nick Lantz's poem "Dolorimetry" appeared in issue 88 and won the 2026 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor. He's the author of five collections of poetry, most recently The End of Everything and Everything That Comes After That (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024). His poetry has received several awards, including the Larry Levis Reading Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer Award, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches in the MFA program at Sam Houston State University and lives in Huntsville, Texas, with his wife and cats.

Find more info here:
https://www.nick-lantz.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 about a time you couldn’t keep the correct time straight. Include at least one temporal shift.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Pick an obscure holiday that occurs during the next week, and write a poem that celebrates accordingly. Include which holiday/date in the notes of your submission.

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.

Jane Zwart teaches literature and writing at Calvin University, where she also co-directs the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Her poems have appeared widely in periodicals, including Poetry, The Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and Threepenny Review. Her first book, Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, was just released from Orison Books.

Find more info here:
https://www.janezwart.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 which confesses something that’s secretly seasonal to you, but not so much to others.

Next Week’s Prompt:
Write a poem about a time you couldn’t keep the correct time straight. Include at least one temporal shift.

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.