An episode from 9/13/21: Tonight, I read a small section of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." For those who want to find it for themselves, it later ends up as part of section #33. I can't think of a more life-affirming passage in Whitman's or anybody else's poetry, than this rolling, glorious, catalogue.

The best place to find Whitman's poetry and other writing online remains the ⁠Whitman Archive⁠, and you can find every edition of Leaves of Grass ⁠here⁠ (as plain text downloads) and ⁠here⁠ (facsimiles of the original editions). You can find the poem in an edition of Whitman's poems that I edited, ⁠Selected Long Poems⁠.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

An episode from 9/12/21: Tonight, I gather together all of the poems I've recorded from my 2018 book of poems from prehistory, Bone Antler Stone. You can buy the book here, and read reviews and essays about the book here. The poems are:

Poems from traveling through Orkney

Poems of artefacts, burials, and sites:

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

An episode from 9/10/21: In this sixth episode on Celtic mythology, I read the famous story of the wanderings of Oisin/Oisín in the Irish Otherworld, the Tir na nÓg.

As usual, I make use of from James MacKillop's Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. The two versions of the story I read from can be found in James MacKillop's Myths & Legends of the Celts and Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. You can also read W. B. Yeats's 1888 narrative poem, The Wanderings of Oisin.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

I assume that the small amount of work  presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or  other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work  presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I  will remove the episode immediately.

An episode from 9/7/21: Tonight, I read from an interview conducted by the Federal Writer's Project, with a man working the late shift at an all-night diner in Vermont. The excerpt comes from the Winter 2019 issue of Lapham's Quarterly, but a larger collection of WPA interviews can be found in the 2004 book, Men Against Granite.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

A reading of my poem on the prehistoric painted caves of France and Spain, "Chauvet, Lascaux, Altamira," from the book Bone Antler Stone. You can buy the book here, and read reviews and essays about the book here.

My favorite books on these caves are listed below. For some reason, many of them are hard to find or by now are inordinately expensive. The best general introductions to prehistoric art that are affordable include Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind, by Randall White, and Paul Bahn's Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art. If you can find the following at your library, they are well worth a look:

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

An episode from 9/4/21: In this fifth episode on Celtic mythology, I read the famous "pillow talk" between Queen Medb and King Ailill of Connacht. Their dispute over who owns more riches, land, and animals leads to the start of the famous Táin Bó Cúailnge/Cattle Raid of Cooley.

The text of the story is taken from Thomas Kinsella's translation of The Táin. I also read a passage about Medb from James MacKillop's Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

An episode from 9/2/21: A reading of Harry Kessler's diary from July 10, 1895, visiting the French poet, Paul Verlaine. From the English translation by Laird Easton, published as Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler, 1880-1918.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

A reading of my poems "Star Carr" and "Newgrange" from the book Bone Antler Stone. 

You can buy the book here, and read reviews and essays about the book here.

Read about Star Carr and Newgrange on Wikipedia. 

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at [email protected], and I will remove the episode immediately.

An episode from 8/27/21: In this fourth episode on Celtic mythology, I read the story of how the great Irish hero, Cúchulainn, got his name by replacing a guard dog at the home of the smith, Culann. In one brief episode, there are so many strands: the early deeds of a hero, the precocious child who outdoes the adults, the Irish system of fosterage, and the mythical link between characters and animals.

The text of the story is taken from Thomas Kinsella's translation of The Táin. I also read a passage about Cúchulainn from James MacKillop's Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].

An episode from 8/25/21: Tonight, I read from Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Le Tableau de Paris. The translation is from Helen Simpson's 1933 selection from its twelve volumes, The Waiting City: Paris 1782-1788.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also suddpport the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].