PODCAST · religion
Backward Mutters Podcast
by Randall Edwards
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. backwardmutters.substack.com
Episodes
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Just 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 community life is no exception. It is not without reason that God’s people are referred to as a flock of sheep — sheep being dependent upon...
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I 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 hear the expression “third place” or even the word, “third,” I cannot help but think of a book I read during my late elementary school...
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Climb
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 Anniversary Memorial Service honoring those victims held at the Public Safety Memorial Park in my hometown of Kernersville, North Carolina. In the...
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Fall 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 why I am always surprised, but there are so many amazing poets out there putting words together in ways that ignite my imagination and...
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Keel 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 incomplete collection of Aubrey Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian. They stood (and still do stand) quietly judging me from their place on...
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A 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 the time I was preaching a series from the book of Job and was thinking a lot about the monsters in that book: Rehab, Behemoth, and...
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Where 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 wonderful two-day conference for those thinking about how art and creativity intersect. It is a community big on collaboration, and I am...
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A 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 just discovered that it isn’t a fixed day during the Month, but rather it can move. Maybe it’s something like a moveable feast in the church...
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You 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 Chair, which is fourth in the The Chronicles of Narnia series. The sonnet’s initial inspiration comes from the following line from the…
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Endings
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 the fall of 2020 when I preached a series through the book — a book I had avoided because I couldn’t imagine how one could preach forty...
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Last 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 road from where I pastor now. From a North Carolina Methodist college to a Methodist seminary in Boston, Steve trained for and entered the...
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Surprised 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 continue to offer “office hours” so to speak. As chaplain of Cambridge University’s Girton College, Dr. Guite kept office hours when...
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They 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 Jerusalem. The collector and organizer of the book of the psalms titles each of these fifteen psalms “songs of ascent” because in traveling…
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Jesus 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 Artist Collective’s exhibit “Another Way of Seeing.” Hannah’s painting, “He Wept” is a tableau drawn from the many pictures that filled the...
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The 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 introduced me and dozens of others to Richard Chase’s collection of mountain tales titled, Grandfather Tales, as he read them to us as…
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Solstice
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 Hutchmooth Conference in Nashville, TN, many of them are there in attendance. I am missing them and praying they have wonderfully…
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How 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. Before the advent of the television and the internet, story telling was both an art and the preferred entertainment when sitting with family…
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Love 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 to change the course of the circumstances that were playing out. The poem’s title and theme was borne out of the sadness that love does…
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Behold, 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 Songs" on Monday, September 23 at the Walkertown Public Library at 6:00pm. Get full access to Backward Mutters at...
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Only 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 often than not leaves me speechless. I am thankful for words which can begin to unlock the pent-up sadness. The poem is inspired by the...
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Your 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 119:129-144 and especially verse 130 which reads, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” When I…
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Tobiah 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 to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. - Luke 18:9 Sanballat, you stinky polecat, You…
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The 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 woman, to sweep her away with a flood.” From the Dragon's mouth words pour out As a river where truth seems to shout: The shameful curses…
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Phonograph
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 Wednesday’s poet inspired by the word, “phonograph.” It draws in part from 2 Peter 1:18, which reads, “we ourselves heard this very voice…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
backwardmutters.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Randall Edwards
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Backward Mutters Podcast have?
Backward Mutters Podcast currently has 24 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Backward Mutters Podcast about?
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. backwardmutters.substack.com
How often does Backward Mutters Podcast release new episodes?
Backward Mutters Podcast has 24 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Backward Mutters Podcast?
You can listen to Backward Mutters Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Backward Mutters Podcast?
Backward Mutters Podcast is created and hosted by Randall Edwards.
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