No, not the revenge of the Fifth—this is your Poetry Slow Down, with a special intergenerational Star Wars unit devised by your intrepid geek nerd techy Producer Zappa Johns and host Dr. B, and Zappa is fresh from Orlando, Florida, attending Celebration, the Star Wars gathering, our man on the ground, so to speak, with the stars, on Star Wars, and we’ll have his thoughts for us, its epic meaning to his life, and my reflections of its relation to our times, our very headlines of the day, and U.S. and world history, and poetry (of course), including Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and the book and film Wizard of Oz, and then of course it’s Mother’s Day, and we’ll slow down for the poetry of that, including my own poem about my mother, and I’ll update you on my trek in the letter and spirit of John Muir’s equally epic-inspired 1000 Mile Walk to the Gulf.
Category Archives: Podcast
FRIENDS OF SCIENCE (ARENT WE ALL?) = A SHOW FOR YOU, AND LOVED EARTH, Part Two
Live from Denton, Texas, where poetry grows tall and thick as thistles
Occasion: time (n.), case, juncture, event, instance, incident, occurrence, circumstance, point, spot, position; chance (n.) possibility, opportunity, opening, season, contingency, stage; reason (n.), cause, ground, motive, justification, rationale, explanation, excuse, basis; cause (v.) motivate, induce, prompt, elicit, effect, give rise to, bring about
The news you need, the news you heed, the news of “difficult†and “despised†poems “without which men die miserably every day†(Wm. Carlos Williams)
On the occasion of Earth Day, Shakespeare’s Birthday, John Muir’s Birthday, March for Science, and “everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes†(e.e. cummings)
USE YOUR WORDS: IN A TIME OF TERRORISM, CLIMATE CHANGE, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE: HOW POETRY MATTERS; HOW WORDS MATTER—AND HOW EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE TURNS TO—AND INTO—POETRY
FRIENDS OF SCIENCE (ARENT WE ALL?) = A SHOW FOR YOU
Occasion: time (n.), case, juncture, event, instance, incident, occurrence, circumstance, point, spot, position; chance (n.) possibility, opportunity, opening, season, contingency, stage; reason (n.), cause, ground, motive, justification, rationale, explanation, excuse, basis; cause (v.) motivate, induce, prompt, elicit, effect, give rise to, bring about
The news you need, the news you heed, the news of “difficult†and “despised†poems “without which men die miserably every day†(Wm. Carlos Williams)
On the occasion of Earth Day, Shakespeare’s Birthday, John Muir’s Birthday, March for Science, and “everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes†(e.e. cummings)
USE YOUR WORDS: IN A TIME OF TERRORISM, CLIMATE CHANGE, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE: HOW POETRY MATTERS; HOW WORDS MATTER—AND HOW EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE TURNS TO—AND INTO—POETRY
WHEN THERE ARE NO WORDS, THERE IS POETRY: PROUD MUSIC OF THE STORM
WHEN TERRORISM THREATENS OUR TRUST IN OUR WORLD—WE LOOK IN POETRY FOR A WORLD WE CAN TRUST, beginning with Spine Poetry. We’ll not only learn about spine poetry (you have your own right now) but how it can give us spine, have our back, hand it to us, nurture our hearts, and restore our sense of trust in our world. Our Poetry Slow Down is produced by Zappa Johns, out here on the West Coast, and I’m our host, in Eugene, Oregon, Track Capital of the World, by which we all know means the place of poetic feet, go Ducks!–with the news we need, the news we heed, the news without which men die miserably every day . . . in other words, news we can trust to be kind.
SAVE NEA/NEH/PBS/NPR
ON WHICH SO MUCH DEPENDS: REALLY? THAT’S A POEM? THAT’S WHAT WITHOUT WHICH WE DIE MISERABLY EVERY DAY?
The case for poetry (life and death) at a time when such things are being questioned as unnecessary in our civic life. A show in which I say, all right, let’s see what this poetry is really about when it comes right down to it–my mother’s dying and death. And in the process we’ll hear what nourished me and us–e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Yeats, Eliot, Beckett, Mark Strand, Stanley Kunitz, Shakespeare, James Wright, Mary Oliver, and more.