democracyroad

democracyroad

By John CaseSociety & Culture
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democracyroad episodes

  • The Poetry Show: Break-up Poems
    Enlighten Radio Presents

     

    You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome

     

     

    Better Break up than Death poems from some experienced lovers: Catherine Wing -- Yehuda Amichai -- Billy Collins -- Janet Harrison -- Marjorie Agosin
    Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
    Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
    This Episode Recorded Jul 29, 2026

    Darker Sooner

    by Catherine Wing

     


    Then came the darker sooner,
    came the later lower.
    We were no longer a sweeter-here
    happily-ever-after. We were after ever.
    We were farther and further.
    More was the word we used for harder.
    Lost was our standard-bearer.
    Our gods were fallen faster,
    and fallen larger.
    The day was duller, duller
    was disaster. Our charge was error.
    Instead of leader we had louder,
    instead of lover, never. And over this river
    broke the winter’s black weather.

     

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    31 min
  • The poetry show: The Great River
    Enlighten Radio Presents
    Waterfall Poems

     

     

    Waterfalls --- dining in the Wake of, or On-The-Way-To The Big One --- with Kay Ryan. Accross the world from drainpipes to torrents: drenched.
    Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
    Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
    This Episode Recorded Aug 5 2026

    _____

     

    The Niagara River

    by Kay Ryan

     

    As though


    the river were


    a floor, we position


    our table and chairs


    upon it, eat, and


    have conversation.


    As it moves along,


    we notice -- as


    calmly as though


    dining room paintings


    were being replaced--


    the changing scenes


    along the shore. We


    do know, we do


    know this is the


    Niagara River, but


    it is hard to remember


    what that means.

     

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    29 min
  • The Last Stop Cafe: It's Late, but Everything Comes Next
    Welcome to our first published show from STown 
    (a somewhat Mythical West Virginia town located in Our County, Our Country, our World.)

     

    Let us be mindful of the Rainbow Crow, and her Sacrifice.

     

    We follow the News Cycle: Local, National, Global, Cosmic!!
    STown  Reporters include the Birds (Nature's own Flockers). So very little will remain unobserved.

     

    The Last Stop Cafe Hosts: Karen Valentine, James Boyd, Erik Janus, JB Christensen, John Case.
     
    Our First Guests: Susan Pipes, Sara Thomsen

     

    Questions, Comments, Contributions, Complaints

     

    1 hr 5 min
  • The Poetry Show: Mama Sez --- ”Don’t Drive, on I-95”
    Enlighten Radio Presents

     

    Stop The Car!! Mark Dody, Erin Murphy, Matt Del Gusto, Joshua Frank, Meril Crabtree

     

     

    The Interstate existence is largely indifferent to human values. Leave it -- what has been left behind?
    Wednesdays 10 Am on player.enlightenradio.org
    Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
    This Episode Recorded July 15, 2026

    Heaven for Helen

    by Mark Doty

     

    Heaven for Helen

    Mark Doty
    1953 
    Helen says heaven, for her,
    would be complete immersion
    in physical process,
    without self-consciousness


    to be the respiration of the grass,
    or ionized agitation
    just above the break of a wave,
    traffic in a sunflower's thousand golden rooms.


    Images of exchange,
    and of untrammeled nature.
    But if we're to become part of it all,
    won't our paradise also involve


    participation in being, say,
    diesel fuel, the impatience of trucks
    on August pavement,
    weird glow of service areas
    along the interstate at night?


    We'll be shiny pink egg cartons,
    and the thick treads of burst tires
    along the highways in Pennsylvania:
    a hell we've made to accompany


    the given: we will join
    our tiresome productions,
    things that want to be useless forever.


    But that's me talking. Helen
    would take the greatest pleasure
    in being a scrap of paper,
    if that's what there were to experience.


    Perhaps that's why she's a painter,
    finally: to practice disappearing
    into her scrupulous attention,
    an exacting rehearsal for the larger


    world of things it won't be easy to love.
    Helen I think will master it, though I may not.
    She has practiced a long time learning to see
    I have devoted myself to affirmation,


    when I should have kept my eyes on the ground.

     

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    35 min
  • last s top preview 2
    Enlighten Radio Presents
    last s top preview 2
    last stop cafe

     

     

    thursdays 6 pm
    Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case, James Boyd
    test show 2
    This Episode Recorded 7/2 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

     

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    50 min
  • The Poetry Show
    Enlighten Radio Presents

    Diamonds in my Coal Bucket

     

    Appalachian poets deliver compelling and powerful stories and images of (among the) most ancient mountains. Dora Malech, Robert Lewis Weeks, Frank X. Walker, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Pauletta Hansel, and more...
    Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
    Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
    This Episode Recorded 07072026 --

    Mountain Mama

    by Sara Loudin Thomas

     

    Mountain Mama

    There is truth in the trailer park


    and honesty in the car on blocks.


    Starvin’ Marvin and “as seen on TV”


    live cheek by jowl with the likes


    of handmade quilts and apple butter;


    old-time music and the oral tradition.


    Some folks say it isn’t True,


    isn’t the way things used to be.


    But lose a grandfather to the mines,


    an uncle to the war, your mother


    to a cancer that gnaws at her soul—


    lose a child for no reason you can see.


    Then you’ll find the fragile beauty


    in the never-ending yard sale.


    You’ll learn to love the tourists


    who buy corncob pipes, coonskin caps,


    and lumps of coal carved like bears.


    When the giant timber companies


    run the local sawmill out of money


    and Aunt Eunice can’t remember your name—


    when your best friend moves to California


    and minimum wage is doing alright, man.


    Then you’ll find the potent wisdom


    in workers’ compensation, food stamps


    and tonight’s lotto number—


    dear God let me win.


    A one in a billion chance is better


    than watching the land your ancestors


    cleared wash away . . . no wish away


    on the promises of strip mines


    and a future you can’t afford to wait.


    At night, the lights from Wal-Mart glow


    like the promise of a better tomorrow.

     

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    36 min
  • The Last Stop Cafe: Preview
    Enlighten Radio Presents
    The Last Stop Cafe: Preview
    It Ends Here. The Last Stop

     

     

    Player.enlightenradio.com
    Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case, James Boyd
    Karen, James and John try out a new news follower show with a legacy WSHC style news show. Thursdays at 6 PM Eastern on player.enlightenradio.org
    This Episode Recorded 6-25-26 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

     

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    questions, comments: [email protected]

     

     

    47 min
  • The Poetry show: Streets
    Enlighten Radio Presents

     

    When a man passes, the streets get shorter.

     

     

    London streets, county roads, streets of Jerusalem, Is moonlight warmer than the city lamps? W. Ethelbert Miller, Amy Lowell and Naomi Nye headline the feeling of being followed, or following: Nobody?
    Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
    Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
    This Episode Recorded 06/24/2026

    Streets of Jerusalem

    by Homer

     

    Streets

    Naomi Shihab Nye
    1952 –
    A man leaves the world
    and the streets he lived on
    grow a little shorter.
    One more window dark
    in this city, the figs on his branches
    will soften for birds.
    If we stand quietly enough evenings
    there grows a whole company of us
    standing quietly together.
    overhead loud grackles are claiming their trees
    and the sky which sews and sews, tirelessly sewing,
    drops her purple hem.
    Each thing in its time, in its place,
    it would be nice to think the same about people.
    Some people do. They sleep completely,
    waking refreshed. Others live in two worlds,
    the lost and remembered.
    They sleep twice, once for the one who is gone,
    once for themselves. They dream thickly,
    dream double, they wake from a dream
    into another one, they walk the short streets
    calling out names, and then they answer.

     

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    27 min

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