To speak rarely is natural.
That is why a gusty wind doesn’t last the morning,
a downpour of rain doesn’t last the day.
Who does this? Heaven and earth.
If even heaven and earth cannot go on forever,
how much less can human beings!
Therefore those who follow the Way assimilate to the Way;
the virtuous assimilate to virtue,
those who have lost assimilate to loss.
Those who assimilate to the Way are happy to gain it,
those who assimilate to virtue too are happy to gain it,
and those who assimilate to loss are also happy to gain it.
When trust is insufficient, there is distrust.

– Thomas Cleary

 

Whispered words are natural
a gale doesn’t last all morning
a squall doesn’t last all day
who creates these
Heaven and Earth
if Heaven and Earth can’t make things last
how much less can Humankind
thus in whatever you do
when you follow the Way be one with the Way
when you succeed be one with success
when you fail be one with failure
be one with success
for the Way succeeds too
be one with failure
for the Way fails too

– Red Pine

 

The whirlwind’s spent before the morning ends;
The storm will pass before the day is done.
Who made them, wind and storm? Heaven and earth.
If heaven itself cannot storm for long,
What matter, then, the storms of man?

But those who attend and serve the Way
Correspond to the Way;
Those who attend and serve the power
Correspond to the power;
Those who decline to attend and serve them
Correspond to their decline.
Those who correspond to the Way
The Way will favor;
And those who correspond to its decline
The Way will decline to favor.

“Those unworthy of trust are met with distrust.”

– Moss Roberts


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#226: The Vitality and terror of cities Human Voices Wake Us

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 Invention describes the author’s travels to research the book, and his conclusion that the messiness of urban life is key to its vitality and innovation.Finally, I read letters from twentieth-century Jewish immigrants to New York City. Originally published in the Jewish Daily Forward and later collected in The Bintel Brief, the letters describe the difficulties faced by newly arrived immigrants who had rarely (if ever) experienced life outside of the insular world of shtetl.    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.
  1. #226: The Vitality and terror of cities
  2. #225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
  3. #224: Let's talk about William Blake
  4. #223 – How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens
  5. #222: Seamus Heaney – 10 Essential Poems
  6. #221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
  7. #220: The working poor and a so-so murder show
  8. #219: When a paragraph changes your life
  9. #218: Poetry to Live By
  10. #217: Voices from 1900-1914

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