An episode from 9/27/21: In what may be my favorite episode, I talk about loneliness: is it really so bad, and is easy sociability really so much better? I also look at where my own experience of loneliness began, as a four year-old who suddenly found himself with hearing problems. For the next eight years…
Tag: History
William Wordsworth: The Immortality Ode & Three other Poems
An episode from 11/4/2021: A reading of four poems by William Wordsworth: I read these here tonight to celebrate the release of a Selected Poems of William Wordsworth that I put together, and was just published. Other small books of poems (Whitman, Tennyson, and Frost) in the same series can be found here. If you’d…
Emily Dickinson
Tonight I read from and comment on Brenda Wineapple’s wonderful book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. If listeners can recommend other books about Dickinson they have enjoyed, email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
Cecil Day Lewis: “My Mother’s Sister” (podcast)
You can support this podcast here, or by buying any of my books. Please consider subscribing to the podcast here. It is also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Cast, Amazon Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Radio Public Other Readings of Poetry:
First Person: Funeral Home Director & Telemarketer (podcast)
You can help support this podcast here, or by buying any of my books. Please consider subscribing to the podcast here. It is also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Cast, Amazon Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Radio Public Other First Person & History episodes:
Stubbornness (podcast)
You can help support this podcast here, or by buying any of my books. Please consider subscribing to the podcast here. It is also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Cast, Amazon Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Radio Public Listen to other autobiographical podcast episodes Listen to Aaron Berkowitz, editor of the Jewish Literary Journal, interview me about my poem, “Mr. Cassian’s Good Friend, Albert Einstein,” and…
Images: Edward Hopper
I had heard of Edward Hopper before, but it wasn’t until a summer or two after high school, when I was working the overnight shift at a gas station, that I was hooked. I saw his painting “Gas” and was shown how even my lonely hours at BP could become the subject of art. He…
Images: Gustave Courbet
Take a look through some of the best paintings of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877). Is the general claim true, that in his landscapes, portraits and self-portraits, that what we call modern art, began here? Click on each image to enlarge, or watch the video below.
Reading 3 new poems: The Harvest of 1665, The Historian, Mr Cassian’s 54th Dream
On 8/26/20, a virtual book launch was held in London to celebrate three new titles published by Dempsey & Windle. As part of the reading I read the following poems: “The Harvest of 1665,” on the harvest following the plague of London in that year “The Historian,” on the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh “Mr…
Images: Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) was a formative influence on artists as diverse as Salvador Dali and Vincent van Gogh (his famous sower was lifted from Millet). Looking at two dozen or so of his best paintings, I understood why. Click on any image to enlarge: