Poems For People Who Hate Poetry

Send us a textEric Harris, one of the Columbine killers, was a young man who had his house in order. He was good with the ladies. He had several close friends, including Dylan Klebold (fellow Columbine Killer). He recently received a promotion. Though he had recently been punished for breaking into a van with his compatriot Dylan, Eric had graduated from the "diversion program," as one of the more distinguished young men. The judge who saw him believed him to be a fine young man with a good father. He was good with computers, smart, good-looking and charming.  Had we a time machine to take to Eric Harris the book "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos" by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Eric would have merely become a more efficient killer. Had Eric taken to heart the blase advice by Peterson to put his house in perfect order before criticizing the world, Eric would merely have become a more efficient murderer. He would have arranged the chairs more properly on his sinking Titanic. In this po

Send us a textWhether or not you are a parent, ask yourself this question. If you had to choose for your child which would you prefer: Outward success or inner happiness? In Jordan Peterson's rule 5 "Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them," Peterson gives his answer clear as day. At least it is an answer. In this discussion of Peterson's book "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote To Chaos," I bring up the stories of Sleeping Beauty versus Petronilla, William Blake's poem "The Little Vagabond," Edward Dyer's "My Mind to Me A Kingdom Is," and a fair bit of Socratic inquiry. Peterson offers many interesting insights. The more I dig into his self-help philosophy the more I see the glaring face of a very peculiar American Philosopher, and the more I fall down holes that cannot be rectified. Well, at least not by Peterson.

Send us a textToday I'll be working through the very challenging romantic poem "The Three Minstrels' By Thomas Chatterton. Remember, our aim is not to "appreciate" art but to understand it.

Send us a textToday I'll be reading and discussing William Cowper's last poem "The Castaway." The poem is about a real life incident of a man who fell overboard, but in the hands of a great poet this accident of life becomes a powerful and tragic universal metaphor. Do you see the secret message in the poem? Follow along and let's find it.

Send us a textus feels a winter during spring. We are beaten down and saddened by pain and loneliness (a form of emotional pain). Poetry often cannot solve one's problems, but it can be a salve. It can make you feel better, wake up your spirit, and build your emotional reservoirs. But only if you know how to read. In this video is my reading of this poem. I've included the poem by Cowper. It is my claim that you do NOT need any specialized knowledge, training or experience to work with great poems. To unlock them requires two things: a dictionary and your mind.

Send us a textHow to build an indomitable character (according to Napoleon Hill). Today I read and discuss the poem "Invictus" by Henley

Send us a textToday I'll be reading the poem "Success" by Ralph Waldo Emerson and talking about the importance of defining success for yourself.

Send us a textNapoleon Hill wrote one of the first self-help books "Think and Grow Rich." Within it were some selected poems. But Hill liked many poems, from complex Shakespearen sonnets to simple everyday poems. Today I'm going to very briefly read one short poem called "Success," which is about aiming high and defining your belief about success. Even if you're not someone who likes poetry, if you like success, or Napoleon Hill, I can promise you'll enjoy this poem.

Send us a textNapoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, believed that poetry and literature were tied to success. Why do you think he included several poems in his mega-success book ON getting rich? Today we will explore a poem called "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Send us a textMending Wall by Robert Frost and my newest "grappling" with Jordan Peterson's 4th rule for life. Also I refer to my latest podcast episode of Jordan Peterson's fourth rule of life: "Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today." Can be found here

Send us a textWhy Jordan Peterson is dangerous. On this fourth installment of my grapplings with Peterson I explore Peterson's rule "Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today." For the first time I express some serious disagreements with Peterson, though I definitely agree with much of his underlying reasoning for the rule. After giving an overview of his method for expressing the underlying reasoning for this rule, I dive into where we diverge. I'll give you a hint: It has to do with the character Raskolnikov in the book Crime and Punishment. The poem I chose was "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, as I believe there is much mending to do with Peterson's view here.

Send us a textMy business Mastermind friend Sean Doherty came all the way from China JUST to be on my show! ;) And we talked about the poem Business is Business by Berton Braley. Is business actually beneficial to people if all it cares about is making money? Can those big boys ever really care about the little man? Or will they always just step all over them?

Send us a textRather than bringing us together, the case of Alfie Evans, the 23 month old boy who was taken off life support in the UK and died on Saturday April 28th, has further polarized our views in the west. This has been a devastating journey for both Tom and Kate, Alfie's parents. It has "shattered their family." It has devastated all of the #alfiesarmy. Death is an instructor. We must face it courageously and with heartfelt desire to exit the chaos of such a tragedy, better, stronger, more capable. No one wants a child to die. In life, children, adults, innocents do die. What we do about it, how we experience it, and how we express our grief defines us as humans.

Send us a textPoetry refines your view of the world, and sometimes gives you fun arguments to help you with the ladies. Only a poet can make a flea erotic.

Send us a textA reading and discussion of the poem "Death, be not proud" By John Donne Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Send us a text"The Westerner" by Badger Clark doesn't seem at first very spiritual, but upon consideration like many poems about building your own world the poem rests on many spiritual ideas.Ayn Rand once said in a TV Interview she did that she is not afraid of death because "it is not I who will die, but the world that will end."This I think has a lot to do with her unique form of philosophy. In her younger years she was enamored with Nietzsche and his idea that God is Dead. @jordanbpeterson has been reviving this idea, but with a unique view on what Nietzsche might have meant.Today we will explore this poem The Westerner as well as some of the ideas inherent in an individualistic atheist who "builds as they only dreamed."

Send us a textI moved to San Antonio 17 years ago and read about Mr. Boomerang in a newspaper. At 15 I didn't understand this bizarre tale. Now at 32 I think I do. It's a story that opens as many stories do today. One day a man, seemingly without reason, leaves his wife of ten years. But here's the strange part. One day 20 years later, he returned as if he'd never left. Where had he been? Why had he gone? Oh poor Abysmal Dismal Mr. Boomerang.

Send us a textYou've probably heard the observation "you are the product of the five people" you spend the most time with." Sounds good, right? Just surround yourself with 5 great people and voila! You'll be great too. Doesn't work like that though. If we blindly drop one friend we are just as likely to attract a new friend of the same exact type and replay the past. In this episode we explore Peterson's 3rd rule from his book "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos." The rule is "Make friends with people who want the best for you." To do that, however, we must attempt new strategies at finding new types of friends. To help illuminate the ideas in this chapter I discuss: The Poison Tree poem by William Blake Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes The myth of Phaethon and the sun chariot. I wish you luck in your exploration. And if you fail, 'yet nobly dare.'

Send us a textFor today's Sunday Morning Poem we will be exploring "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Or, on living rather than merely existing.Few poems say so much in so little space. This is a poem that touches on the very core of being human. We'll be talking about:The role of affirmations to a humanist atheistImportance of community to individualistsAnd a converse with verse on "Ulysses"

Send us a textSunday Morning Poem: "Directive" by Robert Frost. Subscribe to the podcast here! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/p... Continuing our discussion of breaking the monopoly that religions hold on important emotional concepts such as Exaltation, Reverence, Glory, Serenity, and even Peace, today we will be discussing Robert Frosts directive on finding inner peace and serenity in our chaotic world. Some who come from a strong religious background will not be able to help to see that this is just a religious poem. I do not think so. I believe it to be deeply humanistic. Poetry and literature are the ways forward to a proper civilization. True the House of God (or as Frost puts it "the house that is no more a house," is no longer needed. We instead must not drink from a poisoned well that promise of becoming a ghost and whisking into a paradise. The paradise is here and now on this earth. We must seek that "brook that was the water of the house." That is the original