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#234: The Intensity of Private Moments – Human Voices Wake Us
An episode from 7/20/26: I’ve realized that, even though I’ve become more social than ever before since becoming a father, the deepest meaning and intensity still come from more private experiences. By “private” I mean those experiences shared with one or two people, or our families and friends, just as much as those moments experienced in complete isolation.I spend this episode giving examples of such private experiences from the lives of writers, artists, and religious figures that I keep coming back to. Then, I bring it around to everybody else and ask how much of our lives—all of our lives—are actually private, and part of our own idiosyncratic and personal worlds? And I wonder how much better off we might all be, being less “social” with our phones and the prevailing forms of media, and instead focusing, as one of Al Pacino’s great movie speeches puts it, on “the six inches in front of our face.”I close with readings on privacy from my book Notes from the Grid.The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I've also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series. I also have a YouTube channel where I share poems and excerpts from these books, mostly as YouTube shorts.Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
- #234: The Intensity of Private Moments
- #233: Talking Baseball with Tom Hart
- #232: Ted Hughes in Alaska
- #231: The mythology of the moon
- #230 – The mythology of the bear, and Byron gets apocalyptic
- #229 : Mother Earth and myths of mining and agriculture
- #228 – What Ted Bundy did on July 14, 1974
- #227 – The Great Fire of London and the destruction of Jerusalem
- #226: The Vitality and terror of cities
- #225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
Recent Posts
- #234 – The Intensity of Private Moments
An episode from 7/20/26: I’ve realized that, even though I’ve become more social than ever before since becoming a father, the deepest meaning and intensity still come from more private experiences. By “private” I mean those experiences shared with one or two people, or our families and friends, just as much as those moments experienced… Read more: #234 – The Intensity of Private Moments - #233 – Talking Baseball with Tom Hart
An episode from 7/6/26: For the past year or so, I’ve been putting out another podcast with the artist and educator Tom Hart over at his Substack, Men, an Explanation. You can find all the episodes we’ve done at Apple or Spotify where we talk about all kinds of things, but mostly creativity and how… Read more: #233 – Talking Baseball with Tom Hart - Just Released: Edgar Allan Poe & William Cullen Bryant
Enjoyed in classrooms all over the country or just by anybody who wants pocket-sized editions of their favorite poets, the S4N Pocket Poems are easily the most popular books I have ever released. They are all $3.99 at Amazon, and I am happy to announce two new books in the series: Edgar Allan Poe and… Read more: Just Released: Edgar Allan Poe & William Cullen Bryant - #232 – Ted Hughes in Alaska
An episode from 6/22/26: Tonight, we hear about the British poet Ted Hughes (1930-1998), and the poem he said he spent the most time on, “The Gulkana.” The poem is named after a river in Alaska, and in this episode, I preface a reading of the poem with excerpts from his letters and biography about… Read more: #232 – Ted Hughes in Alaska - #231 – The mythology of the moon
An episode from 6/1/26: Tonight, we delve into the significance of the moon in mythology, religion, and folklore. I read from the Taschen Book of Symbols, the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, and Mircea Eliade’s Patterns in Comparative Religion. Finally, and most personally, I read about the history of Rosh Chodesh, the monthly Jewish holiday recognizing… Read more: #231 – The mythology of the moon - #230 – The mythology of the bear, and Byron gets apocalyptic
An episode from 5/18/26: Tonight I read about the bear in folklore and mythology from two books everybody should have on their shelves: the Taschen Book of Symbols and the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Browsing through either puts you in contact with our best stories and, with the Taschen book, some of our best artwork.… Read more: #230 – The mythology of the bear, and Byron gets apocalyptic - #229 – Mother Earth and myths of mining and agriculture
An episode from 5/11/26: Tonight, I read passages on what the discoveries of agriculture and metallurgy meant for human beings, as reflected in the mythologies and rituals and stories that grew up around them. These passages are taken from sections 12 and 15 of Mircea Eliade’s History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone… Read more: #229 – Mother Earth and myths of mining and agriculture - #228 – What Ted Bundy did on July 14, 1974
An episode from 5/4/26: Tonight, I read the story of the French journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann and his capture and three year captivity at the hands of Hezbollah. While held prisoner, he was given many books to read to pass the time, and what I share comes from the spy novelist John le Carré’s memoir, The… Read more: #228 – What Ted Bundy did on July 14, 1974 - #227 – The Great Fire of London and the destruction of Jerusalem
An episode from 4/27/26: Tonight, I read about the destruction of two great houses of worship. The first is the cathedral of Old St. Paul’s, destroyed in 1666 in the Great Fire of London. My reading comes from Neil Hanson’s The Dreadful Judgement: The True Story of the Great Fire of London, and as mentioned,… Read more: #227 – The Great Fire of London and the destruction of Jerusalem - #226 – The vitality and terror of cities
An episode from 4/20/26: Tonight, we delve into the world of cities. First, in a passage from Sam Quinones’s Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, the town of Portsmouth, Ohio, is lovingly described in the decades before the epidemic. Next, a passage from Ben Wilson’s Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind’s Great… Read more: #226 – The vitality and terror of cities - #225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
An episode from 4/13/26: Tonight, I read about the invention of the wheel and what it meant for the earliest communities of Europe and the Eurasian steppes, from David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. After this, a few passages from Norman Longmate’s How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the… Read more: #225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling - #224 – Let’s talk about William Blake
An episode from 12/9/24: Tonight’s episode gathers together all of the readings I’ve done on this podcast from the poet William Blake (1757-1827). All of these poems can be found online at The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake: The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or… Read more: #224 – Let’s talk about William Blake - #223 – How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens
An episode from 1/10/23: Tonight we take a peek into the creative life of Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Through a handful of readings from Claire Tomalin’s biography of Dickens, we see how he was able to juggle, for almost a year, the writing of two novels for simultaneous serial publication. Then, thanks to a letter written… Read more: #223 – How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens - #222: Seamus Heaney 10 Essential Poems
An episode from 8/25/23: Tonight, I read ten essential poems from one of the great and most public poets of the last seventy years, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). It isn’t hard to come by details of Heaney’s life, but Stepping Stones (where Heaney is interviewed at length in what amounts to an autobiography), is a good… Read more: #222: Seamus Heaney 10 Essential Poems - #221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
An episode from 3/16/26: Tonight, I read about the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in the year 535 CE, and the outbreak of plague in Constantinople (and elsewhere) only a few years later. It all comes from Susan Wise Bauer’s The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade,… Read more: #221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist - 4 Severed Head Songs: New Poems at The Brazen Head
Many thanks to Liam Guilar, poetry editor at The Brazen Head, who just published four poems of mine. You can read them here. As my note to the poems says, they come from my much-longer upcoming book, The Great Year, and the poems are spoken by a preserved severed head, named John, hence their ecstatic/puzzling… Read more: 4 Severed Head Songs: New Poems at The Brazen Head - #220: The working poor, and a so-so murder show
An episode from 3/9/26: Tonight, I read from Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 book Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. After that, I talk about the recent TV show The Killing, as a way in to talking about our obsession and desire for criticism, objectivity, and certainty. Isn’t privacy and the subjective more fruitful?… Read more: #220: The working poor, and a so-so murder show - #219: When a paragraph changes your life
An episode from 3/2/26: Tonight, I read a single paragraph from two books that each had a profound effect on my understanding of religion, creativity, and a great deal else. The first comes from page one of Mircea Eliade’s History of Religious Ideas, and the second from John Eliot Gardiner’s Johann Sebastian Bach: Music in… Read more: #219: When a paragraph changes your life - The first review of “Time & the River” is in
Many thanks to David Rullo of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. You can read his review of Time and the River here or by scrolling down. Don’t forget to order your copy here, leave a review, or even suggest that your local library get a copy. Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle: Time and the River is a historical… Read more: The first review of “Time & the River” is in - “Time & the River” is now available!
Time & the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire ORDER FROM AMAZON Thanks to everyone who preordered the book. Please consider sharing, leaving a review on Amazon, or requesting your local library get a copy. What lasts, and what endures? Through more than fifty poems, the first volume of Time and the River… Read more: “Time & the River” is now available! - #218: Poetry to Live ByAn episode from 2/23/2026: My new book of poetry, Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, is finally out. I spend this episode talking briefly about how always having the writing or reading of poetry close at hand and close in mind, has saved my life many times. I also read… Read more: #218: Poetry to Live By
- The Old Gods: Sucellus, the Wine God (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is the first in a series about the gods of… Read more: The Old Gods: Sucellus, the Wine God (poem & video) - The Old Gods: Esus with an Axe (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is the first in a series about the gods of… Read more: The Old Gods: Esus with an Axe (poem & video) - #217: Voices from 1900-1914
An episode from 1/2/23: Tonight, I read a handful of voices from those living in Europe and the United States between 1900 and 1914. Rephrased only slightly, nearly all of their concerns (over technology, gender, nationalism, war, eugenics) feel like they could appear in the news or on the street today. Then and now, what… Read more: #217: Voices from 1900-1914 - The Death of the Richest Man in Rome (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is about the execution of one of ancient Rome’s richest… Read more: The Death of the Richest Man in Rome (poem & video) - Roman Execution Steps (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is about one of ancient Rome’s places of execution, “The… Read more: Roman Execution Steps (poem & video) - Trajan’s Bridge (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Trajan’s Bridge“: - A Roman Soldier from the Time of Nero (poem & video)Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Mr Cassian’s Good Friend, a Roman Soldier“:
- #216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from “Time & the River”An episode from 2/9/2026: This is the second episode where I read from my upcoming book Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, which comes out on February 23. This time, I read seven of my favorite poems from the point of view of women. They are: As I mention, more… Read more: #216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from “Time & the River”
- Morgan le Fay Speaks (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Morgan le Fay“: - The Earliest English Poet (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Caedmon Comes to Singing“: - The Norse Seeress Speaks (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Völva,” one of the words in the Eddic poems… Read more: The Norse Seeress Speaks (poem & video) - Placenta / 16th century country birth (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Placenta“: - #215: 8 Favorite Poems from “Time & the River”An episode from 2/2/2026: For the next few episodes I’ll be reading poems from my book Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, which comes out on February 23. As the title says, it begins with the Columbine high school shooting in 1999 and travels back to the invention of fire… Read more: #215: 8 Favorite Poems from “Time & the River”
- The River Acheron, in Dante’s Hell (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. For trivia lovers out there, “The River Acheron, in Dante’s Hell” is… Read more: The River Acheron, in Dante’s Hell (poem & video) - The Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem, on the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, is “The Historian“: - How the KGB Spies on a Moscow Apartment (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February 23 release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Moscow, 1985“: - “Those in the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Those in the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery.” (For more information about… Read more: “Those in the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery” (poem & video) - #214: Two of the Best Poems You’ve Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant)
An episode from 1/26/2026: Tonight, I read two poems from the American poet William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), “Earth” and “The River, by Night.” Just as with the episode on Bryant’s life from earlier this month, I hope this episode brings his writing and poetry to the attention of more readers. The best way to support… Read more: #214: Two of the Best Poems You’ve Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant) - “The Boys of Sumer” (from the Akkadian)
One of the earliest surviving laments in world literature, “The Boys of Sumer” remains an outlier of the genre. Few other poems from the Babylonian corpus include so much: aspects of contemporary life, magic, dreams, among the earliest recorded use of colorful insults, and unrequited love. There is also some indication that this poem would… Read more: “The Boys of Sumer” (from the Akkadian) - “Abraham with Isaac” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Abraham with Isaac”: - “Moses” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem “Moses”: - “Cauldron & Drink” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem “Cauldron & Drink”: - #213: Van Gogh’s Early Years
An episode from 12/7/22: This week, I am reposting what is perhaps my favorite episode of Human Voices Wake Us, first posted back in late 2022. We enter into the early years of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), from his birth in the village of Zundert in the Netherlands, to his time in the Borinage mining… Read more: #213: Van Gogh’s Early Years - “The Invention of Fire” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem Fire: - “Shakespeare Mourns Hamnet” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is an excerpt from a long poem about Shakespeare; here, he… Read more: “Shakespeare Mourns Hamnet” (poem & video) - “Emily Dickinson Does Not Need Visitors” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is “Mr Cassian’s Good Friend, Emily Dicksinson“: - #212 – The Most Popular Story in Ancient India
An episode from 1/12/2026: Tonight, I read from the oldest religious poetry from India, the collection of 1,028 ritual hymns known as the The Rig Veda. Specifically, I read from the most popular story found there, the defeat of the serpent Vrtra by the god Indra and the freeing of the waters of the world.… Read more: #212 – The Most Popular Story in Ancient India - #211 – Who Was William Cullen Bryant?An episode from 1/5/2026: Tonight, I read a handful of passages from Gilbert Muller’s William Cullen Bryant: Author of America. During his lifetime, Bryant (1794-1878) was the most popular poet in America as well as one of the country’s most trusted and influential editors and journalists. Through Bryant’s own words and those of his contemporaries,… Read more: #211 – Who Was William Cullen Bryant?
- #210 – Memories & Legends of William Shakespeare
An episode from 12/28/25: What was it like to know Shakespeare, to stand in the theater and watch one of his plays, to be a neighbor who knew him as a teenager? What was it like to pass through London as a student or visitor or diplomat, and note in passing that you saw Shakespeare’s… Read more: #210 – Memories & Legends of William Shakespeare - #209 – Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now
An episode from 12/15/25: Tonight, I read from Irving Howe’s World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. In light of the events in Australia yesterday, I take the time not just to talk about what it meant to be a Jewish immigrant… Read more: #209 – Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now - “Unfinished Michelangelo” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is Unfinished Michelangelo: - “The Sun Sets into the Sea” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is The Sun Sets Into the Sea: - #208 – Bach & God
An episode from 12/1/25: Note: A version of this episode was posted last week and quickly taken down when I realized the audio quality was poor. I have rerecorded it here; apologies to those listeners who heard the subpar version. Tonight, I read from John Eliot’s Gardiner’s Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. Gardiner… Read more: #208 – Bach & God - “Vermeer’s The Milkmaid” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid”: - #207 – Death, the Gods, and Endless Life in Ancient Egypt
An episode from 11/24/25: Tonight, I read from one of the best books on religion in ancient Egypt, Erik Hornung’s Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Few have written so lucidly on the subject: Egyptians were actually obsessed with life and its renewal, not in wallowing death; the “monotheistic” reforms… Read more: #207 – Death, the Gods, and Endless Life in Ancient Egypt - YouTube is Censoring… Poetry?As I began to plan the February release of my new book, Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, the one obvious way of promoting it was to create YouTube videos for many of the book’s poems. A few weeks ago, I posted the first of these, “Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’” and… Read more: YouTube is Censoring… Poetry?
- “Mr Cassian’s Good Friend, Albert Einstein” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is Mr Cassian’s Good Friend, Albert Einstein: - “Robert Oppenheimer” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is about Robert Oppenheimer: - #206: The Discovery of Indo-European Languages – 1876
An episode from 11/17/25: Tonight, I read a section from David Anthony’s book The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. It is a wonderfully written account of the archeological and linguistic attempts to discover the origins of the Indo-European language families. The part I read from retells the famous story of Sir William Jones, the Welsh… Read more: #206: The Discovery of Indo-European Languages – 1876 - “Dylan Klebold’s Crush” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. Today’s poem is the first in the book, and one of the hardest… Read more: “Dylan Klebold’s Crush” (poem & video) - #205: Learning to Read, c. 2000 BCE
An episode from 11/10/25: Tonight, I talk about literacy and education in the ancient world, both the fascinating aspects of memorization and of what “reading” meant back (it was much closer to reading shorthand today), and the precarious reality that anyone who underwent scribal training in Mesopotamia or Egypt might not even live long enough… Read more: #205: Learning to Read, c. 2000 BCE - “Merlin” (poem & video)
Looking ahead to the February release of Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, I will be posting poems from it with accompanying videos. You can preorder the book here and see all videos and reviews of here. The first poem to share is on that great figure from Arthurian myth,… Read more: “Merlin” (poem & video) - #204: Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” 1856
An episode from 11/3/25: Tonight, I read what is perhaps Walt Whitman’s greatest poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” I also set it in the context of Whitman’s life as a poet: he wrote and published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855 and was certain that the book would have an immediate cultural and… Read more: #204: Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” 1856 - #203: Bruce Springsteen Talks About “Nebraska” – 1984
An episode from 10/24/25: I’ve been waiting in vain for a cold to pass so I can record a new episode. As that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, the new movie about Bruce Springsteen reminded me that a few years ago I recorded an episode about his 1982 album Nebraska. While the original… Read more: #203: Bruce Springsteen Talks About “Nebraska” – 1984 - #202: A Death at Sea, 1834
An episode from 10/6/25: Tonight, I read from Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast, first published in 1840. It tells of the death of one sailor, George Ballmer. The text of this passage can be found here. I also read a quote from the poet Derek Walcott, and part of the poem… Read more: #202: A Death at Sea, 1834 - #201: Gillian Anderson, & What Women Want, 2024
An episode from 9/25/25: Tonight, I read a few entries from the book Gillian Anderson edited, called Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous. It is a collection of sexual fantasies from women all over the world, but as I point out, behind the acrobatics and explicitness of what we assume fantasy to be all about, a… Read more: #201: Gillian Anderson, & What Women Want, 2024 - #200: The Last Days of Walter Benjamin, 1940
An episode from 9/15/25: Tonight, I read a long section on the last days of the philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) from the biography Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life, by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. (For those who are interested, the BBC’s In Our Time devotes an entire hour to Benjamin’s life and work.) I… Read more: #200: The Last Days of Walter Benjamin, 1940 - #199: The Protestant Reformation Gets Going, c. 1517
An episode from 9/9/25: Tonight, I read from three books: The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the… Read more: #199: The Protestant Reformation Gets Going, c. 1517 - #198: Georgia O’Keeffe Finds Herself in the Fall of 1915
An episode from 9/1/25: Tonight, I read a small passage from Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf, and then a much longer passage from Laurie Lisle’s Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. In it, Lisle describes the weeks and months in late 1915 during which O’Keeffe found herself as an artist after her decision to… Read more: #198: Georgia O’Keeffe Finds Herself in the Fall of 1915 - #197: A Honeymoon in the House of the Dead in Ancient Mesopotamia, c. 2300 BCE
An episode from 8/27/25: Tonight, I read from Amanda Podany’s wonderful book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East. After a royal wedding took place in the ancient Syrian city of Ebla around 2300 BCE, the new king and queen spent no less than three weeks among the tombs and… Read more: #197: A Honeymoon in the House of the Dead in Ancient Mesopotamia, c. 2300 BCE - #196: Morning at the London Docks, c. 1850
An episode from 8/23/25: Returning to the podcast after a long hiatus, I read from Henry Mayhew and John Binny’s London Labour and the London Poor, their exhaustive and essential description of life in London for the working poor in the mid-nineteenth century. Far from being a dry and distant document, it is a work… Read more: #196: Morning at the London Docks, c. 1850 - Oppenheimer & the Bomb (from the archive)
An episode from 7/21/23: Tonight, I read a few dozen quotations from the scientists, politicians, and military figures who were instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb, and in the final decision to drop it on Japan in August of 1945. The most prominent voices here are those of Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow… Read more: Oppenheimer & the Bomb (from the archive) - Robert Oppenheimer (poem)Robert Oppenheimer Now I come to write in light and firein a language of power we all know,beyond every letter and poetryand all the dithering of philosophy,all the prevarication of politics.The physicists have known sin, it’s true,but also the brilliance of a burden overcome in the ageless mountains,a foul display that was beyond awesome,beyond my… Read more: Robert Oppenheimer (poem)
- “Bone Antler Stone” is 70% off at Amazon
For the next few weeks, my book of poems on prehistoric Europe, Bone Antler Stone, will be 70% off at Amazon–in other words, only $3.50. Click here to order it Read a few reviews about the book below, or listen to a podcast of readings from it: Passing through more than thirty thousand years of… Read more: “Bone Antler Stone” is 70% off at Amazon - “The One Who Sang So Well” (new story)
An episode from 6/15/25: Tonight, the podcast returns briefly for a reading of my new short story, “The One Who Sang So Well.” The episode coincides with the story’s publication in The Basilisk Tree—you can read it here. Many thanks to editor Bryan Helton for taking the story. You can support Human Voices Wake Us here,… Read more: “The One Who Sang So Well” (new story) - New Podcast Announcement – “Savage Amazement”
Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce a new podcast that that artist and teacher Tom Hart and I have started. It is called Savage Amazement, where we talk about being modern guys, about living inside of creativity, longing, and caring about art and meaning. For the moment, the podcast is being housed at Tom’s Substack,… Read more: New Podcast Announcement – “Savage Amazement” - Shakespeare: The Life & Times (from the archive)
An episode from 10/16/23: Tonight, I read my long poem about William Shakespeare, and offer a commentary along the way. It is being published simultaneously at Bryan Helton’s The Basilisk Tree, and once again I give Bryan my infinite thanks. This will be the third long poem of mine that he has published this year… Read more: Shakespeare: The Life & Times (from the archive) - Allen Ginsberg, “Blessed be the Muses”
Blessed be the Muses for their descent, dancing round my desk,crowning my balding head with Laurel. 1955 Allen Ginsberg, 1926-1998 – “Blessed be the Muses” from Collected Poems 1947-1997 - Ted Hughes, “Rain”Rain. Floods. Frost. And after frost, rain.Dull roof-drumming. Wraith-rain pulsing across purplebare woodsLike light across heaved water. Sleet in it.And the poor fields, miserable tents of their hedges.Mist-rain off-world. Hills wallowingIn and out of a grey or silvery dissolution. A farm gleaming,Then all dull in the near drumming. At field-cornersBrown water backing and brimming in… Read more: Ted Hughes, “Rain”
- Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”
You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesFor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.Meanwhile the world goes on.Meanwhile the sun and the clear… Read more: Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese” - Seamus Heaney, 3 Poems from “Squarings”
Squarings #2Roof it again. Batten down. Dig in.Drink out of tin. Know the scullery cold,A latch, a door-bar, forged tongs and a grate.Touch the cross-beam, drive iron in a wall,Hang a line to verify the plumbFrom lintel, coping-stone and chimney-breast.Relocate the bedrock in the threshold.Take squarings from the recessed gable pane.Make your study the unregarded… Read more: Seamus Heaney, 3 Poems from “Squarings” - Sharon Olds, “The Connoisseuse of Slugs”
When I was a connoisseuse of slugsI would part the ivy leaves, and look for thenaked jelly of those gold bodies,translucent strangers glistening along thestones, slowly, their gelatinous bodiesat my mercy. Made mostly of water, they would shrivelto nothing if they were sprinkled with salt,but I was not interested in that. What I likedwas to… Read more: Sharon Olds, “The Connoisseuse of Slugs” - Louise Glück, “Matins” and “Vespers”
MatinsForgive me if I say I love you: the powerfulare always lied to since the weak are alwaysdriven by panic. I cannot lovewhat I can’t conceive, and you disclosevirtually nothing: are you like the hawthorn tree,always the same thing in the same place,or are you more the foxglove, inconsistent, first springing upa pink spike on… Read more: Louise Glück, “Matins” and “Vespers” - Eavan Boland, “The Making of an Irish Goddess”
Ceres went to hellwith no sense of time.When she looked backall that she could see wasthe arteries of silver in the rock,the diligence of rivers always at one level,wheat at one height,leaves of a single colour,the same distance in the usual light;a seasonless, unscarred earth.But I need time –my flesh and that history –to make… Read more: Eavan Boland, “The Making of an Irish Goddess” - Laurie Sheck, “The Subway Platform”
And then the gray concrete of the subway platform, that shore stripped of all premise of softnessor repose. I stood there, beneath the city’s sequential grids and frameworks, its wrappings and unwrappingslike a robe sewn with birds that flew into seasons of light, a robe of goldand then a robe of ash.All around me were… Read more: Laurie Sheck, “The Subway Platform” - How Death Comes (a poem from 1250)
Thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting on the Daily Poems. It takes a few months to work backward from twentieth century poems to some of the earliest English verse. Dating to the year 1250 or so, today’s poem is the last from this round; tomorrow, we will swing back to the twentieth… Read more: How Death Comes (a poem from 1250) - Anthology: Poems for Spring (from the archive)
An episode from 3/12/23: Tonight, I return to new episodes with a handful of poems about the spring. As I mention, living as I do in a city usually inundated with snow, it has been bizarre to have not shoveled the driveway even once. And since the next few weeks of episodes are already planned… Read more: Anthology: Poems for Spring (from the archive) - A Love Poem that Still Stings After 700 Yearsfrom “The white beauty,” c. 1300Herkneth me, I ou telle. In such wondring for wo I welle; Nis no fur so hot in helle All to monThat loveth derne and dar nout telle Whet him is on. Hear me, I tell you. I suffer for sorrow in such distress of mind. There is no fire… Read more: A Love Poem that Still Stings After 700 Years
- Shopping for books?
If you enjoy receiving daily poems from me… or listening to my podcast… if you’re into ancient history or the American Civil War… if you enjoy archaeology or religion or even short stories… you’ll probably be into at least one of my books. Give them a look, order a few, pass them around. There (might)… Read more: Shopping for books? - An anonymous poem of incredible cynicism, from c. 1325Lollay, lollay, little child, why wepestou so sore? Nedes mostou wepe – it was iyarked thee yoreEver to lib in sorow, and sich and mourne evere, As thine eldren did er this, whil hi alives were. Lollay, lollay, little child, child, lollay, lullow, Into uncuth world icommen so ertou. Lollay, lollay, little child, why do… Read more: An anonymous poem of incredible cynicism, from c. 1325
- Geoffrey Chaucer, “Ballade to Rosamund”
Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryneAs fer as cercled is the mapamounde, map of the worldFor as the cristal glorious ye shyne,And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocoundeThat at a revel whan that I see you daunce,It is an oynement unto my wounde,Thogh ye to me ne… Read more: Geoffrey Chaucer, “Ballade to Rosamund” - The Great Myths #24: Sigurd & the Dragon (from the archive)
An episode from 5/20/24: Tonight, after a long hiatus, we return to Norse myth with the story of Sigurd’s killing of the dragon, Fafnir. Couched in a much longer narrative that contains shape-shifting, war, revenge, brief appearances by Odin and Loki, and finally Sigurd’s ability to hear the language of birds and animals, it is… Read more: The Great Myths #24: Sigurd & the Dragon (from the archive) - “Smoke-blackened smiths” (an anonymous poem from c. 1450)
Swart-smecked smethe, smatered with smoke, Smoke-blackened smiths, begrimed with smoke,Drive me to deth with den of here dintes: drive me to death with the din of their blows:Swich nois on nightes ne herd men never, such noise by night no man ever heard,What knavene cry and clattering of knockes! what crying of workmen and clattering… Read more: “Smoke-blackened smiths” (an anonymous poem from c. 1450) - “A Friar Complains” (anonymous poem from c. 1500)
Alas! what shul we freres do,Now lewed men cun Holy Writ? cun/knowAlle aboute where I go They aposen me of it. They confront me with hard questions about itThen wondreth me that it is so,How lewed men cun alle wit. Sertely, we be undoBut if we mo amende it.I trowe the devil brought it aboute,To… Read more: “A Friar Complains” (anonymous poem from c. 1500) - 2 Early Versions of “The Holly and the Ivy”
from c. 1525: Holly against Ivy Nay! nay! Ivy, It may not be, iwis: iwis/indeed For Holy must have the mastry, As the maner is. Holy bereth beris, Beris rede inough: The thristilcok, the popingay cock thrush, the parrot (?) Daunce in every bough. Welaway! sory Ivy, What fowles hast thou? But the sory owlet,… Read more: 2 Early Versions of “The Holly and the Ivy” - Patti Smith / Mazzy Star & Living Colour / Philip Glass (from the archive)
An episode from 11/13/23: Tonight, I talk about our attachment to music as teenagers and adults, and the lessons that loving music—and finding meaning in musicians’ life stories—can teach us. First, I read two passages from Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids. Those parts on her early life with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, before either of… Read more: Patti Smith / Mazzy Star & Living Colour / Philip Glass (from the archive) - Thomas Wyatt, “What does this mean?”
What menethe this? When I lye aloneI tosse, I turne, I sighe, I grone;My bed semes as hard as stone:What menes this?I sighe, I plaine continually; The clothes that on my bed do lie Always, methinks, they lie awry: What menes this? In slumbers oft for fere I quake, For hete and cold I burne… Read more: Thomas Wyatt, “What does this mean?” - Shakespeare: 3 Sonnets on Love, Lust, and ExhaustionSonnet 27Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,But then begins a journey in my headTo work my mind when body’s work’s expired.For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,Looking on darkness which the blind… Read more: Shakespeare: 3 Sonnets on Love, Lust, and Exhaustion
- Shakespeare: “I stay too long by thee; I weary thee” (from Henry IV pt. 2)
King: I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chairThat thou wilt needs invest thee with my honorsBefore thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth,Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignityIs held from falling with so weak a windThat… Read more: Shakespeare: “I stay too long by thee; I weary thee” (from Henry IV pt. 2)