The Crane Bag Podcast

Myths and stories from around the world brought alive and singing into the here and now by storyteller, musician and poet Jay leeming.

Gary Snyder: "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" 09/02/2025

Gary Snyder: "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" An exploration of the American poet Gary Snyder's poem "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" by poet and storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35397745

The Iliad, Part Eight: The Wrath of Achilles 08/15/2025

The Iliad, Part Eight: The Wrath of Achilles What moonlit god comes down to punish the Greeks with his arrows? What stray dog is the first unlikely victim of Agamemnon's wrath, and what the heck is that boat full of onions and cabbages doing in this story? The story of the Iliad continues, as brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/37839530

Pablo Neruda: "The Art of Poetry" 08/12/2025

Pablo Neruda: "The Art of Poetry" An exploration of Pablo Neruda's poem "The Art of Poetry" by poet, storyteller, and musician Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35793720

Robert Frost: "Directive" 07/29/2025

Robert Frost: "Directive" An exploration of Robert Frost's poem "Directive" by poet, storyteller, and musician Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35713545

Oisin in the Land of Tir Na Nog 07/22/2025

Oisin in the Land of Tir Na Nog The epic of the Irish hero Finn MacCool (Fionn MacCumhail) comes to a close in this story brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/36801615

Emily Dickinson: "I heard a fly buzz when I died" 07/15/2025

Emily Dickinson: "I heard a fly buzz when I died" An exploration of Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a fly buzz when I died" by poet, storyteller and musician Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35713060

James Wright: "Goodbye to the Poetry of Calcium" 07/08/2025

James Wright: "Goodbye to the Poetry of Calcium" An exploration of James Wright's poem "Goodbye to the Poetry of Calcium" by poet, storyteller, and musician Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35713005

The Iliad Part Seven: the Greeks Arrive at Troy 06/24/2025

The Iliad Part Seven: the Greeks Arrive at Troy When the Greek army arrives at Troy they encounter Cygnus, the indestructible man, and wrestle with the prophecy of Calchas which says that the first man to step ashore will be the first to die. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/37115480

Rumi: "The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty" 06/10/2025

Rumi: "The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty" An exploration of the poem "The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty" by Jalal al-Din Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35712960

The Iliad, Part Six: Achilles Among the Dancing Girls 05/27/2025

The Iliad, Part Six: Achilles Among the Dancing Girls Before you go to war, it's probably best to spend a year living as a dancing girl on the island of Skyros. That's the wisdom which this beautiful story brings to us, just in time for us to put on our own dancing shoes and sing our way into the deepening wilderness of this epic brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/36554155

Just Another Day Getting Struck by Lightning with Frank O'Hara 05/13/2025

Just Another Day Getting Struck by Lightning with Frank O'Hara An exploration of the poems "To the Harbormaster" and "The Day Lady Died" by Frank O'Hara. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35441775

The Iliad Part Five: The Horse Sacrifice 04/29/2025

The Iliad Part Five: The Horse Sacrifice When I got to the whispering forest and the dark I thought of the sacrifice of the horse, and how it bound us to the god of the sea and the way the horse's nostrils flared and later by the fire the branches devoured by flame seemed wrinkled ancestors confessing their bright crimes to the rain. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/36092375

Steve Scafidi Interview: "What if Faulkner is Wrong and We Do Not Endure or Prevail" 04/15/2025

Steve Scafidi Interview: "What if Faulkner is Wrong and We Do Not Endure or Prevail" An interview with the poet Steve Scafidi, who reads his poem "What if Faulkner is Wrong and We Do Not Endure or Prevail" and discusses laughter, oblivion, religion, high school, and poetry with host Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/36010555

The Iliad, Part Four: Zeus' Wild Daughter 04/02/2025

The Iliad, Part Four: Zeus' Wild Daughter Achilles is born and narrowly misses his change at immortality; meanwhile a storm drives prince Paris across the sea and to the palace of a particularly wild and beautiful queen. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35873740

Sharon Olds: "California Swimming Pool" 03/18/2025

Sharon Olds: "California Swimming Pool" An exploration of the poem "California Swimming Pool," by Sharon Olds. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35708615

Joel Christensen: Stories as Living Beings 03/06/2025

Joel Christensen: Stories as Living Beings An interview with Professor Joel Christensen about Homeric Epic and the possibility of regarding stories as living beings. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35409690

Pablo Neruda: "Ode to My Socks" 02/24/2025

Pablo Neruda: "Ode to My Socks" The odes of Pablo Neruda explored by poet and storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/35368125

The Iliad Part Three: Paris, the Sea-Dragon, and the Prophecies of Cassandra 02/18/2025

The Iliad Part Three: Paris, the Sea-Dragon, and the Prophecies of Cassandra The epic of the Iliad brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/34829340

The Iliad Part Two: The Judgement of Paris 01/28/2025

The Iliad Part Two: The Judgement of Paris The epic of the Iliad, brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/34829300

The Iliad Part One: Prometheus, Paris, and the Goddess of Deep Water 01/02/2025

The Iliad Part One: Prometheus, Paris, and the Goddess of Deep Water Performance storyteller Jay Leeming brings the sprawling epic of the Iliad alive with all of its birds, thunder, and goddesses intact. www.JayLeeming.co /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/34700780

Episode #123: The Birth of Oisin 10/31/2024

Episode #123: The Birth of Oisin Once again Finn MacCool stumbles into relationship with the Otherworld, in this story from the Irish Finn cycle brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/33697652

Episode #121: The Mermaid in the Mirror 10/30/2024

Episode #121: The Mermaid in the Mirror Do we live in a world of infinite possibilities, or of barriers and limits? A wizard, a blue snake, and a mermaid help us to explore this question in this story from deep within the mythic cosmos known as Stories from One Thousand and One Nights. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/33508432

Episode #120: Finn MacCool and the Spell of a Hundred Years 10/14/2024

Episode #120: Finn MacCool and the Spell of a Hundred Years Though these stories seem to focus on the exploits of Finn and his band of poetical warriors, the Goddess is always present in all her forms and liable to show up in the most unlikely of circumstances. In this episode Finn sets out into the wild but soon finds himself in a territory of weakness and forgetting unlike any he has stumbled into before. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/33456982

Episode #119: Finn MacCool and the Fomorians 09/19/2024

Episode #119: Finn MacCool and the Fomorians Here's a rowdy dream-vision involving a house thatched with feathers, pigs that never die and a sea-god for whom story is the fire that warms his house; it's the journey of King Cormac into the Otherworld as brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/33130617

Episode #118: Talking About the Mahabharata With Geetha Reddy 08/20/2024

Episode #118: Talking About the Mahabharata With Geetha Reddy Storyteller Jay Leeming and playwright Geetha Reddy discuss her recent adaptation of the Mahabharata. /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/32662317

Episode #117: The Boyhood of Finn MacCool, Part Two 08/07/2024

Episode #117: The Boyhood of Finn MacCool, Part Two The Irish epic of Finn MacCool, brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/32489852

Episode #116: The Boyhood of Finn MacCool, Part One 08/07/2024

Episode #116: The Boyhood of Finn MacCool, Part One The Irish epic of Finn MacCool brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/32489622

Episode #115: Girl Meets Wolf: Exploring "Red Riding Hood" 05/02/2024

Episode #115: Girl Meets Wolf: Exploring "Red Riding Hood" There's trouble out there, big nasty toothy trouble and this life isn't just sitting with bread and honey by a warm fire. That's the truth expressed in this age-old narrative of innocence becoming wisdom, a primal building-block of story explored by storyteller Jay Leeming and who knows if on the way we might also meet the Buddha on the road? www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/31087583

The Odyssey Part One: Feasting the Sea-God 05/02/2024

The Odyssey Part One: Feasting the Sea-God Myths and tales from around the world, brought alive by storyteller, poet and musician Jay Leeming. /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/13577819

Songbox #1: Odysseus, Guslar and the Belly of the world 04/18/2024

Songbox #1: Odysseus, Guslar and the Belly of the world A live and unscripted riff on hunger, myth, and the origins of poetry by performance storyteller Jay Leeming, unedited and rowdy as an apple on a branch. www.JayLeeming.com /episode/index/show/cranebag/id/30829418

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