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