November 20th update

I am going to read from C.S. Lewis on Thursday, Nov. 20. I am doing so in remembrance of the anniversary of his death on Nov. 23, 1963 at the age of 64.  I was surprised he was so young.
He died the same day J.F. Kennedy was assassinated and so the news was a bit overshadowed.

a couple of poems I wrote while I was away

A rubbish of regrets

     are piled high

                as I look back now

                on being a father

                in the shadow

                   of a Father God,

perfect in love,

exposing what I have missed

in my shot at love

and left a mess around the targets of my desire

A sludge of stress

streatched thinner than a thread

constantly pulling

tight, knotted around

my heart and mind

In the presence of the Divine

who always lets go

exposes the sticky dew of the threads of my web.

A mire of madness

swells beneath my dreams

and sucks my shoes from my feet

as I try to move.

So I stop.

And I see a frog,

hear a duck

and feel the worms

and finally become incarnate

with the mud my Mary

   apart from God now,

so that I might know the love of God now.

 What has God ordained?

Hoist high the failures

And broadcast my misfortune,

These are the seeds of my legacy

 This is the source of my Nile

        nourishing any semblance of meaning.

Set the course to where I have vowed not to go

and do not look back;

set as a sail  my dirty laundry

For here begins my epic tale,

This is my journey to Ithaca

What has God ordained?

Not my wisdom gilded expertise,

But the caves in my depression,

and the sores that might have healed,

      still oozing with tears of regret;

Here is where the holy hands are extended. 

I have been gone sorry

I will return on Thursday, November 20th.
I was out of town for over a week and the station had no power before that.
sorry.

Going to be Away for a week

SORRY FOR NO SHOW ON NOV 4 an 6 but we had no power at the station.
and on NOV. 11 and 13 and 18 I will be out of town.  Sorry.  I look forward to returning on the 20th.  It is a great joy for me to do this show and I have missed it and will miss it.

Getting Caught up

It has been awhile updating the blog here. Summer was busy, and with only one person to put it all together it has been a bit much to keep the blog up to date.
Today, September 16th I had great fun discovering Alfred Noyes, I had a youtube recording of him reading his poem the Highwayman. I also enjoyed reading the barrel-organ.  Though, I was greatly embarrassed to have turned down the microphone to hear the recording of Mr. Noyes but forgot to turn it back up when I came back on and began reading. opps.  It is hard to hear myself in the headphones.
On Thursday, Sept. 18th I hope to have Erika Pfander back on the show to read Stevie Smith again.

Alfred Noyes

Erika Pfander reading Stevie Smith

July 8 Shelley

On July 8, 1822, Percy Shelley drowned in a storm off of Italy. So I will be reading his work, which I am not that familiar with and am finding it quite engaging as I prepare for the show. It is interesting to me that I usually think of a poem as about a page or less. For centuries poems were lengthy works that were nearly a book. It is another example of our dumbing down in our language and the effects of technology upon our culture.

Percy Shelley

week of July 1 -4

On July 1st I read poems by Herman Hesse.  I had never read his poems before, I am more familiar with his fiction works.  It was very interesting.  They were written when he was a young man and it felt like it.

On July 3rd I read the Declaration of Independence and then quotes from Franz Kafka, as it was his birthday. I know it is a rather odd matching. It is always good to read the Declaration of Independence each year, and the quotes from Kafka opened me up to a much broader picture of a man I usually perceive to be rather depressing. In fact there is much hope in Kafka.

Hesse

Kafka

Time To Catch Up

It has been awhile,
On June 12 I read the diary of Ann Frank. It was for the first time for me, believe it or not.
It was very inspiring and telling that this private diary became the second most popular work of the 20th century after the Bible. One never knows the influence or effect of one's life.

On June 17 I read Henry Lawson, the great Australian author. I had never heard of him before, and was very impressed. He was taken for granted in his life and used for glory in his death, typical.

On June 24th I read Ambrose Bierce, a short story and bits from his Devil's dictionary.

Ann Frank

Henry Lawson

Ambrose Bierce

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - May 22

 

 

 

 

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer who is most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste.^[1] He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.  (From Wikipedia)

I read the story 

A Case of Identity

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Cecily Fix Smith April 8

On April 8 I will be reading ther poetrey of Cecily Fox Smith, a great maritime poet.  She is sometimes overlooked and lesser known that people like John Mansfiled, but nonetheless her poetry still rings through the ages and across the seas of time.

C. Fox Smith

The wonderful world of the Haiku will return

There was some mix up and delays in advertising the show today, it is a problem for it being on a Thursday, as both papers come out on Thursday and deadlines for the previous week become very hard to meet. So I will repeat today's show later in the month.

Two of Four Quartets

On April 1, I will be reading Burnt Norton and East Coker, the first two of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets.  It will be my noble beginning to national poetry month.
Then on Thursday, April 3rd, I will be reading wonderful Haiku from seniors at the Oceanside East High School.  From the accepted grandeur of the 20th century verse to the new sounds of the 21st century.  Away we go for poetry month.

Come along for the ride from 7 am until 8 am Tuesday and Thursday.

T. S. Eliot

March 25 and 27

Flannery O'Conner and Virginia Woolf are my subjects for this week.
On Tuesday I celebrate the great southern writer Flannery O'Connor and will be reading her short story about a turkey chase.  On Thursday I read from Virginia Woolf and various short stories which reflect upon paintings.  The 25th is Flannery O'Connor's birthday and the 28th is the anniversary of the death of Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

March 20 something is cooking

Thursday, March 20 will be a time for me to pull out the old cookbooks and read how things used to be, how to cook things we might have forgotten and learn a bit of kitchen wisdom.  come join in the fun.

march 17 Janet Flanner

I know nothing about Janet Flanner, and was going to read from her journel's from Paris on Thursday, March 13, but instead (because of snow and ice) have moved her to Tuesday, March 18.  Janet Flanner was an American writier who wrote for the New Yorker under the pen name of Genet.

Janet Flanner

march 5 Gabriel Garcia Marquez

March 5, I read from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, several of his short stories - and a bit about his life and quotes of his.

March Forth - William Carlos Williams

On Tuesday, March 4, I will be reading poems by William Carlos Williams. I have known him primarily for his poem about the red wheelbarrow, so this will be a time to learn more about this important poet laureate of the United States. He was born on September 17, 1883 and died on March 4, 1963.  

Here is one of his poems, as I look forward to spring in these cold days.

The Tulip Bed by William Carlos Williams

The May sun—whom 


all things imitate-- 


that glues small leaves to 


the wooden trees 


shone from the sky 


through bluegauze clouds 


upon the ground. 


Under the leafy trees 


where the suburban streets 


lay crossed, 


with houses on each corner, 


tangled shadows had begun 


to join 
the roadway and the lawns. 


With excellent precision 


the tulip bed 


inside the iron fence 


upreared its gaudy 


yellow, white and red, 


rimmed round with grass, 


reposedly.

William Carlos Williams

Victor Hugo February 25

I have known of Victor Hugo, his works, and have seen movies and productions or interpretations of his work. I have known characters he has created in his works. But I have never read his work. I know little about him. So Tuesday, February 25, I will be reading from his work, discovering things about him and sharing them with you.  Come join in at 7 am eastern time at WRFR.

A Fleeting glimpse of a village

By Victor Hugo

           

How graceful the picture! the life, the repose!


The sunbeam that plays on the porchstone wide;


And the shadow that fleets o'er the stream that flows,


And the soft blue sky with the hill's green side.

Anais Nin - February 20 2014

 Anais Nin was born Angela Anais Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell on Feb. 21, 1903 and died on January 14, 1977.  She was an lived in France, Cuba and the United States. She was known for her journals, novels and essays, and after her death for collections of erotica she had written in the 1940's. She was married several times, at one time simultaneously. She was a great voice of women's understanding and perspective in an era of male dominance, leading the way for generations of women to speak out and live out more fully. 

Here are some quotes by Anais Nin:  

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.

Ordinary life does not interest me.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Good things happen to those who hustle.

I am only responsible for my own heart, you offered yours up for the smashing my darling. Only a fool would give out such a vital organ.

How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions.

February 18 Toni Morrison

On Tuesday, Feb. 18, I will play the nobel lecture given by Toni Morrison as we celebrate her 83rd birthday.  It will be a time to remember her life and celebrate her work. Come join WRFR fm.

Some quotes by Toni Morrison:

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.

week of feb 4 and 6 2014

On Tuesday, Feb. 4th I read Langston Hughes.  What a great voice of America.
On Thursday, Feb. 6th I will read Sinclair Lewis.  These two voices of the American culture and understanding in the first half of the 20th century are pillars and patriarchs of american letters.

Langston Hughes

Sinclair Lewis

Hafiz Mira and Teresa of Avila

On Thursday, January 23rd I will be reading an assortment of holy poems, by Sufi, Christian, Hindu writers.  Love poems to and from God.
Mira, Teresa of Avila and others will be read, this is a potpourri of authors and an time to simply read and have fun. Come and join the show.

Teresa of Avila

Mira

Tuesday Jan 21 Edgar Allan Poe

Sunday, the 19th of Jan. is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, and I will be reading his work and about him on the show Tuesday, Jan 21.

George Chappell to visit show on Jan 16

On Thurs. morning, Jan. 16 we will be airing an interview with George Chappell and hearing some of his recent poetry. This will be a live show, as always, so tune in. George is one of midcoast Maine's great voices in literature and has helped guide many a local writers in their efforts to convey their work. It is exciting and a thrill to have such a guest on the show.

George Chappell

changing of years

Well, it has been icy and cold.  I ended the year again with Rudyard Kipling on December 31st.  But have been snowed or iced out, or could not do the show because of my desire to be with visiting family.
I have begun setting up the schedule for 2014. I am always interested in what people might like, or if you are an author and would like to join me some morning.
email me at peter_jenks@yahoo.com