Wicked, Weird & Wonderful: When Poetry Reads Like Lyrics (and What the News Is Telling Us Now)

Poetry and music have always shared something visceral and mysterious. Both lyric and verse seek to evoke emotion — sometimes in ways that defy strict definition. In his anthology Wicked, Weird & Wonderful, Otto Halzneck pushes at the boundaries of traditional lyric forms, inviting readers into poems that sound alive, often strange, sometimes humorous, and decidedly memorable.

When Poetry Starts to Sing

This year news stories remind us that the divide between poetry and song is more porous than ever:

• In Taylor Swift’s latest album The Life of a Showgirl, a prologue poem included in the physical booklet reads like spoken word — a lyrical snapshot of touring life that feels like poetry set to music even before it meets a melody. Capital
• Academics have noted the pervasiveness of lyric poetry across cultures, urging us to “re-see” how deeply music-like poetry is embedded in our reading habits and cultural expression. news.yale.edu

These developments show how contemporary poetry — whether in pop culture or the academy — continues to embrace lyricism as a mode that feels almost musical.

Voices That Resonate: News from the Poetry World

Recently in poetry news:

• A new conversation around John Berryman’s Dream Songs — a body of work that already blurs the lines between song, chant, and poem — has resurfaced, reminding readers of how rhythm and repetitiveness can make poems feel like lyrics. PublishersWeekly.com
• Kwame Dawes, a poet who celebrates oral tradition and folk song in his role as Jamaica’s Poet Laureate, illustrates how poetry and music are entwined in cultural storytelling. brown.edu

Whether it’s academic explorations or awards and appointments, the contemporary poetry scene keeps reinforcing the idea that poetry doesn’t have to sit quietly on a page — it can sing.

From Page to Stage and Song

Part of what makes Halzneck’s Wicked, Weird & Wonderful vivid is its willingness to experiment — using unusual rhythm, repetition, and language play that feels oral or musical when read aloud. His approach mirrors something we see in the broader culture: an appetite for poetry that sounds like music, and music that reads like poetry.

This isn’t just a stylistic choice — it’s a cultural shift. Journals and projects like Lyrics as Poetry celebrate songwriters’ lyrics on the printed page, treating them as standalone poetic art.

 Why This Matters

In a world saturated with sound and story, the lyric quality of poetry makes it more accessible, more human — and more like music. Otto Halzneck’s anthology, with its blend of the unconventional and the expressive, sits right at this crossroads. It invites readers to hear the poems as much as read them, much like the pop-cultural examples making headlines today.

Whether you come to Wicked, Weird & Wonderful for the quirky imagery or the musical cadence in the lines, you’re joining a larger movement: one where poetry feels like a song, and songs read like poems.

You can purchase Wicked, Weird & Wonderful via our website here:

Wicked, Weird & Wonderful – The Endless Bookcase