Dr. Barbara Mossberg » Poetry Slowdown

I I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not contain’d between my hat and boots, Aand peruse manifold objects, no two alike and every one good, Tthe earth good and the stars good, … Continue reading →

 e.e. cummings says it all in his invocation “i thank You God for most this amazing,” the gratitude expressed in robust humility and grand spirit for every thing that is “natural,” “infinite, “yes”. Spirits of trees are leaping greenly. He … Continue reading →

(Poetry of Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Theodore Roethke, Stanley Kunitz, Barbara Mossberg aka Fat Lady Flying)   THAT APRIL! This April. This here April. –-No locked doors here, April’s welcome on our Poetry Slow Down, as we note Emily … Continue reading →

It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous—T.S. Eliot I cannot rest from travel, I will drink life to the lees, come, my friends, tis not too late to seek a newer world, that’s Alfred, Lloyd Tennyson, exhorting … Continue reading →

To the tunes of Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong, we are Poetry Slow Down, stopping to listen, we are heeding Gerald Stern, Yes SIR! Welcome to our show today, with me your host … Continue reading →

RECIPES OF UNNECESSARY ESSENTIALS –FOR A DAY OF LOVE, A WAY OF LOVE, IN POETRY’S PANTRY, or, how to have your cake and eat it too and give it away with poetry—including steaming fragrant poems by Poet Maker Bakers Pablo … Continue reading →

Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Radio Jones sing of it, Shakespeare bards it, Dickinson escoffiers it: the topic is dust. Yes, dust. Glorious dust. I cannot get away from this theme of sweeping and cleaning. I am like Monica on Friends. … Continue reading →

MORE DUST UP ON POETRY’S PHILSOPHERS OF SWEEPS AND SACRED SWEEPINGS, FROM RUMI, KABIR, HAFIZ, TO WENDELL BERRY TO WILLIAM CRONON, TO EMILY DICKINSON TO RITA DOVE TO JULIANNA BAGGOTT TO GINGER ANDREWS TO ELEANOR LERMAN, TO DOROTHY BARRESI AND … Continue reading →

My heart rouses to bring you news, that concerns you and concerns many men. It is difficult to get the news from despised poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. That’s Dr. William … Continue reading →

A show which starts humbly in musings of humble arts, sweeping and ironing, and ends with a transcendent vision of transcendent arts of sweeping and ironing as nothing less than Truth and Beauty, and along the way picks up four … Continue reading →

A FRESH START IN THE NO-COUNT NEW YEAR, featuring Henry David Thoreau’s Chanticleer and the Morning Risers, a cast of thousands of epic minds from every culture and clime: who doesn’t write about morning? Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Hirsch, Billy … Continue reading →

John Muir, of such currency in our culture that California’s quarter features him, died almost one hundred years ago today, Christmas Eve, at a hospital here in Los Angeles. On his death certificate, his occupation was listed as “Geologist.” . … Continue reading →

“I’ve known rivers.” That’s Langston Hughes. Perhaps the human soul has known rivers forever. Certainly there are soulful songs about rivers in our lives today. There’s Paul Robeson’s Old Man River, and Moon River and Billy Joel’s River of Dreams, and Joni Mitchell’s “wish … Continue reading →

Bring Forth the Nobody and Send In the Clowns: The Wild Spirit of Emily Dickinson’s Creativity and Freedom We Celebrate on Her Birthday “lest any doubt that we are glad that they are born today”   I have come to … Continue reading →

In Memory of Ruth Stone, b. 1915, d. Nov 19, 2011 And honoring Robert Hass, former poet laureate, Library of Congress “Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind.” Georg Simmel Thanksgiving, Football, Pumpkins, Shopping, a Little Time Out! It is … Continue reading →

From my journal: I read the paper, The San Francisco Chronicle, that Christer puts for me in the back room to savor and drink my first cup of coffee before the morning email. This day’s first page deals with a … Continue reading →

My heart rouses to bring you news that concerns you and concerns many men. It is difficult to get the news from despised poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. You know who … Continue reading →

What is not flighty but soars? You, Poetry Slow Down Listeners!   “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Kahil Gibran “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position … Continue reading →

    Live from Butterfly Town, USA. We’re talking about butterflies today, in honor of their incredible desire and ability to migrate thousands of miles—straight here. The haven Monarch butterflies come home to is Pacific Grove, where I’m Poet in … Continue reading →

Greetings, fellow harvesters of earth’s bounty in mental and literal fields, psychic soil which nourishes and sustains us. I am thrilled to return to you, at this time of traditional harvest celebration, following our recent full moon, the time of … Continue reading →