Songwriting Poets feat Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan Artwork

The Poetry's Dead Podcast

Ryan and Leon are delighted to bring you your NEW favourite poetry podcast, exploring the work of poets old and new, with a little bit of craic mixed in.

We'll share our love of poetry every week, taking you on a journey through work from poets you'll have heard of, as well as poets you may not have heard of and even people you had no idea wrote poetry.!

We'll also help with our Agony Poet part of the show where we'll accept any challenge of solving a problem with a poem. Nothing is too trivial or too serious.

Ryan Duggins is a published English poet based in Dublin, with work found in journals Dreich, Flare and his first collection 'You're Never Too Old To Know Better' was published in April '23. He's also performed at Electric Picnic and is a regular on the open mic scene in Dublin

Leon Dunne is a spoken word artist and cornerstone of the poetry scene in Ireland. He is the 2022 All Ireland Poetry Slam Champion and co-founder of Rising Tide, an events company hosting the best spoken word performers the country has to offer out of Pearse Street library

Both of them are more fun than these descriptions would have you believe

Give us a follow, leave us a review, send this to your Ma' and join us :)

Original music by Matthew Keating
Introduced and co-produced by Lisa Downey

All Episodes

The Poetry's Dead Podcast

Songwriting Poets feat Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan

March 24, 2025

Inspired by our conversation with Mike Garry about musicians writing poetry, we wanted to dedicate this episode to our favourite artists who also enjoy a poem or too.

Leon owns a copy of 'The Lords And The New Creatures' by The Door's frontman Jim Morrison, his only poetry collection so we had to talk about him, his mad blood-drinking, pagan mentalness as well as share a poem from him.

We take a look at a poem by Leonard Cohen taken from his collection 'The Flame' published in 2018 with thanks to his son, Adam Cohen. Spoiler: Leonard Cohen is funnier than you think.

We talk about Patti Smith and her gift of painting pictures of global conflicts, delve into Bob Dylan's moodiness and strip back Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell to prove that most of her songs would have stood the test of time in poetry form without the music, even if we're glad there's music.

Our agony aunt's job this week was to help someone struggling with the state of her country. Not one for Conor McGregor fans from the agony aunt this week.

We wrap up the show with a beauty of a track from Caoimhe Weakliam with her song 'Hiding'

Enjoy!

Poems from the show

Leonard Cohen - Thanks For The Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVsYz5rB8Bw

Bob Dylan - Untitled poem

https://www.hotpress.com/opinion/world-exclusive-the-early-poems-that-set-bob-dylan-on-the-road-to-a-nobel-prize-in-literature-22901386

Patti Smith - The Writer's Song

https://thedewdrop.org/2019/08/28/it-is-better-to-write-then-die-patti-smith/

Jim Morrisson - Poem from The Lord and The New Creatures

https://jimmorrison.com/

Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now