TAKE A FEAR AND TWIST IT: OR STIR; OR MAKE IT BLUE(S): WHEN IT’S TOO HECTIC, WHEN THE NEWS IS TOO HARD, TWIST, STIR, SING THE BLUES, IN OTHER WORDS, SLOW DOWN QUARK-LAND! WHEN SOMETHING’S THE MATTER!
As in THE POETRY SLOW DOWN with Professor Barbara Mossberg,
For the news we need, the news we need, the news without which men die miserably every day (with thanks to Dr. Wm. Carlos Williams). Because there’s work to do! There’s life to be savored, and saved. And poetry is our deus ex machina, coming running on its poetic feet. Music for our show today includes a Jean Farjean hymn covered by Cat Stevens/Yosuf Islam, and blues by Billie Holiday, Lucinda Williams, and Dinah Washington. There’s frightful news wherever we look, up and down, top and bottom, like quarks, but also like quarks, strange and charm, and we’re slowing down with wisdom from ancient poetry new as the morning, writing on the wall, as in a NYC restaurant, in our astrology, a new science report, letters from our companion listeners, wherever and however it comes in, to stir us, slow us down, to take a fear and twist it into something positive we need to win the day . . . a show dedicated to our graduates, our brilliant students the world needs now, more than ever, and Oberlin’s finest, my graduating poet niece Emily Clark, this strange/charm of quirk, of quark, of the most elemental energy spirit we need in our world: we say, O graduates, do not be afraid of this world of ours, or rather:
When dooms are accelerating: we’re slowing down the human race with poetry’s embrace. I’m thinking of this in the same way when you’re cooking a sauce or lemon meringue pie and you’ve got to slow down the heating process, and it’s by stirring, no? Stirring s-l-o-w-l-y. Like the blues . . . passion comes from the slowing down . . . blood rushes in the yoga pose, held . . . So, we’ve got stirring poetry, poetry to stir you, slow you, when your blood is boiling, when you’re flipping your lid, pot-speaking, in the hecticity and stress and dread in your life. At the same time we’re embracing excitement, we’re saying struggle, yes, of course, but we’re saying that’s a good thing. Who says? The newsfeed we’re heeding and not heeding this week comes in many forms—in our email Inbox, the headlines and news stories of the New York Times, our daily astrology, a restaurant wall—warning and wisdom from the arts and sciences, poetry itself, to which we respond in kind with poetry, as we slow down the human race and find a kind humanity. Thank you for listening . . . and being with me on this journey of consciousness. c Barbara Mossberg 2015
LISTEN LIVE: THE POETRY SLOW DOWN, SUNDAY MAY 24, 2015, NOON PST, radiomonterey.com
PODCAST © barbaramossberg.com
THE POETRY SLOW DOWN, Produced by Zappa and the Radio Monterey Crew, good vibrations who broadcast shows for the Open Mind.
Yay, most Quarky and sublime, as quirkily usual! Thank you! with love