Poems For People Who Hate Poetry

Send us a textTraveling is a big value for people today. It's one of the great benefits of being alive today. It is so easy and affordable to see the whole world. Often, we can travel places and see only the usual suspects. In this discussion I explore Dianne Durante's latest book "Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You love," and we discuss Dianne's work as being part of "travelogues."Travelogues don't have to be boring lectures. They can be exhilarating and exciting new ways of seeing the world. Don't just go to NYC and see the same monuments you are "supposed to see." Try, instead, an art tour. Best of all, you can do this at your own pace and in your own way.On this show Dianne and I discuss several sculptures, so you can see how simple her method is and how it helps anyone from any background enjoy art more deeply.We also discuss a little bit of poetry and some ways to work with your children in seeing new art.Special thank you to Quent Cordair Fi

Send us a textA prosperous prince isolates himself in his castle along with 1,000 revellers, while a plague devastates the country-side. This is the essence of this very short story by Poe.When, today, we have the King of Thailand ordering arrests for people who go outside, while he holds up in a harem with 20 women, this story seems more real than fantasy.Yet, I will be arguing there is a much deeper psychological story being told right under our eyes. It is one of fear and terror of course. Unfortunately, it will hit much closer to home than Thailand.Enjoy this discussion and reading of a masterpiece by Edgar Allan Poe.

Send us a textHow can we get spiritual nourishment when we are quarantined in our homes?Alexandra York's latest book "Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks" can help us attain a sense of calm and serenity during this time of chaos.In this conversation we discuss the ideas in the book, such as "Secular Spirituality," we read one of her poems from the book and discuss ways that the both of us are gaining spiritual fuel in our lives during the quarantine.Even when this quarantine is over, these practices are very valuable. From picking up a rock by a beach you love, to purchasing a sculpture you love, there are practices big and small to help you have soul celebrations and spiritual snacks.Enjoy!

Send us a textWhat happens during a quarantine when you can’t call for help?

Send us a textLuc Travers and I just had a fantastic discussion about various artworks and how to look at a paintings. It often feels as though art is a special category of human activity that only a unique few can enjoy. What Luc teaches is how to "enhance those special moments in your life through the lens of art."This approach to great artwork elevates even the everyday, seemingly mundane occurrences. It also, of course, elevates even the high points, the conflicts, the struggles, the achievements, or, in other words, LIFE.On this episode we actually evaluate several pieces of artwork live. You will get to see me struggle to make sense of paintings, and I even get to introduce Luc to a new painting!This was such a fun episode and I know you will enjoy it.

Send us a textOn this episode I spend some time discussing my observations from talking to people during this crisis and I share my personal lessons from riding a motorcycle.Literature can provide us with models for living and for dying. This may seem like an un-important thing, but it is absolutely critical. Death frames life. Without death we would have no reason to live. Poems that show us decaying and death can provide for us insights and ways to contemplate our own mortality and how to behave at times of higher risk.Poems read:Old Man Travelling: Animal Tranquilty and Decay, A Sketchby William WordsworthThe Death of Simoeisios (excerpt from The Iliad)Iliad, Book 4, lines 473-489 (trans. Seth Schein)

Send us a textI had a great time talking with C Bradley Thompson about his latest book "America's Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of The American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined it." We also had a wide ranging discussion about how Americans have lost their American minds and ways we can re-ignite the fire of liberty.Yes we did discuss #covid19, but from the perspective of how our founders viewed the role and nature of government.Bradley Thompson is a Professor of Political Science at Clemson University, where he teaches political philosophy. He is also the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study Capitalism and the founder of the Lyceum Scholars Program.

Send us a textYou know him as the youtube sensation taking over the minds of young people like a ... Well I won't talk like that right now. He's Rucka Rucka Ali.We discussed how we are dealing with lock downs as well as how Objectivism helps us laymen interpret and act based on the current state of affairs.Later in the discussion we get into a variety of topics including what we are reading now (you'll never guess!) the role of literature at a time like this, the creative process, and developing an independent life.This was an absolute pleasurable conversation for me and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Send us a textFor the Romantics Dreams played a very special role in our lives. It was an indication of our imaginative capacities to reach into other realms. In this poem we experience a dream that Blake had about an ant that becomes isolated from its community. We learn more about Blakes view of imagination, the self, innocence and the loss of innocence in "A Dream."

Send us a textPoe was a proponent of a "single unified effect" in his fiction work. Some emotion that all of the parts of the story lead up to and create.In The Cask of Amontillado we can experience the fear of unknown death by the character Fortunato. Or we can experience the fear of our own potential for violence in the narrator Montressor. Which one do you experience?

Send us a textHow should we perceive children?  Are children born with sin as the Calvinists believed? Do infants retain a memory of God as some Romantics believed? Are children, as Rousseau taught, naturally good with an innate ability to learn?In these two poems we will explore how William Blake, a Romantic poet, gave voice to the voiceless infants. We will also discuss why these poems are useless by themselves but profound within the context of The Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Send us a textThis is a great example of William Blake's expression of the dialectic process. There are two nurse's songs in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Each one reveals the inner feelings of a nurse as she is watching over a group of her wards. Each poem is in contrast to the other and speaking through the other.This is a shorter episode because these poems are both more on the surface. But they are valuable to understanding Blake's book as a whole.

Send us a textNight may be a time for partying in 2020, but two hundred years ago night represented terror and death.In this poem we will explore a deep theme that runs throughout both the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience. It will be important to read or listen to this poem before we read the songs of experience.

Send us a textIn this episode I have a movie recommendation too!There are two Holy Thursdays, one in The Songs of Innocence and another in the Songs of Experience. The focus for this episode is the innocence.As with other songs of innocence poems, there is a layer of darkness just beneath the surface. Ostensibly this is a poem about an annual procession of orphans in London called Ascension Day. The poem is told from the perspective of a casual observer of the ceremony.We'll go line by line and see how Blake is using the form and meaning of his poem to vibrate your brain in such a way as to allow you to understand a deeper meaning behind this ceremony.

Send us a textThis is a very simple poem about a mother who sits by her infant's cradle while he sleeps and sings him a song. The deeper question to ask is, why is she crying?

Send us a textI had the pleasure to sit down with Jason Crawford of The Roots of Progress to discuss human progress in the arts and sciences.We discussed quite a bit, including:The concept of progressProgress in ancient Greece and Modern progressHow it can be lostHow art can fuel human progressExplorers like Vasco Balboa and the myth of EldoradoHistory of bronze, steel and other technologiesAnd so much more!Enjoy this great conversation and let us know what you think. Is our ability to continue creating new inventions and making new discoveries coming to an end?

Send us a textNext to The Tell-Tale Heart, this short tale by Poe is one of his most famous today. It is the story of a man captured by the Spanish Inquisition and sent to a dark pit where he received the worst psychological tortures.We tend to think of Poe as purely a horror writer, which he is. But in Part 2 of this show I will discuss more of Poe's contributions to science fiction, which are present even in this work.

Send us a textA new theme from The Song's of Innocence and Experience by Blake starts to take shape with this poem.In simple language, understandable to a 5 year old, Blake uses words to paint a picture of a kind of fairy tale land. This is a perfect land that can actually exist one day. To get to that day requires just one important condition.The Laughing Song By William BlakeWhen the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;When the air does laugh with our merry wit,And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;when the meadows laugh with lively green,And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,When Mary and Susan and EmilyWith their sweet round mouths sing 'Ha, ha he!'When the painted birds laugh in the shade,Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:Come live, and be merry, and join with me,To sing the sweet chorus of 'Ha, ha, he!'

Send us a textI will be arguing that Science Fiction is the genre of fantasy literature that uses science as a backdrop of plausibility. Moreover, that is an important genre for our present day, as its themes and style very much do influence our modern world.We will be comparing Edgar Allan Poe's Rhetoric of Science style of writing with Nathanial Hawthorne and Mary Shelley's romantic style of writing.We will also delve into this story by Poe, its impact at the time of publishing it, and the lessons we have yet to learn from it.

Send us a textWilliam Blake believed there were two contrary states battling it out within each and every individual human being. Innocence and experience. The way that we developed as unique individuals was by a "dialectic process." That is, there is a Thesis (a little boy is lost) and an Anti-thesis (The little boy is found) Together they can become a synthesis, or, a new thesis.We find this process all throughout this book of poetry by Blake. In today's episode we will be covering the two aforementioned poems. They are very short but reveal much of the way that Blake believed the human soul was developed