Human Voices Wake Us

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.

In this fourth episode on Celtic mythology, I read the story of how the great Irish hero, Cúchulainn, got his name. 

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.

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.

A reading from Louis-Sébastien Mercier's twelve-volume Le Tableau de Paris. The translation is from Helen Simpson's 1933 selection, The Waiting City: Paris 1782-1788.

The excerpt comes from the Winter 2019 issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

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.

A reading of two war poems by Ted Hughes: "Six Young Men," from his first book, Hawk in the Rain, and an uncollected poem, "My Uncle's Wound." Both can be found in his Collected 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.

A reading of my poem "Cauldron & Drink," from the book Bone Antler Stone. This poem originally appeared in the Irish poetry journal Crannog.

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

Read about the Gundestrup Cauldron from c.200 BCE-AD 300 Denmark, and the Vix Grave from c.500 BCE France. 

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.

A collection of all the poems by Seamus Heaney I have read here over the past few months, spanning his entire career.

Each of his collections of poetry can of course be purchased on their own, but nearly everything I read here can be found either in his career-spanning 100 Poems, or in the two volumes of his selected poetry: Selected Poems 1966-1987 and Selected Poems 1988-2013. 

Death of a Naturalist (1966)

Door Into the Dark (1969)

Wintering Out (1972)

North (1975)

Field Work (1979)

Station Island (1984)

The Haw Lantern (1987)

Seeing Things (1991)

The Spirit Level (1996)

District & Circle (2006)

Human Chain (2010)

from Heaney's translation of Beowulf

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.

A reading of a handful of poems from the second half of Seamus Heaney's career. Aside from his book Seeing Things, his poetry doesn't seem nearly as powerful to me as his earlier work, and so it seemed best to sum up my favorite poems from his later life here. 

The poems are: 

Station Island (1984)

from The Spirit Level (1996)

from District and Circle (2006)

from Human Chain (2010)

And a final section from his translation of Beowulf

You can buy the individual volumes, or find nearly all of these poems in the career-spanning 100 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.

A reading of 3 poems from Seamus Heaney's last collection from 2010, Human Chain. The poems are:

Human Chain can be purchased here.

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.

The last in a series of four episodes on the atomic bomb, from its development to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, drawn from the words of those who were there. The full text of the quotations used here can be found in the blog versions of these podcasts.

The books used to make these episodes are:

The book that comes to different conclusions than me, and which I hope to devote an entire episode to in the future, is A. C. Grayling's Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan

John Else's documentary, The Day After Trinity, can be watched here.

John Bradley's anthology of poets writing about the bomb is Atomic Ghosts: Poets Respond to the Atomic Age.

My essay, "Blindness, War & History," first published in the Concho River Review in 2014, can be read here.

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.

The third in a series of four episodes on the atomic bomb, from its development to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, drawn from the words of those who were there. The full text of the quotations used here can be found in the blog versions of these podcasts.

The books used to make these episodes are:

John Else's documentary, The Day After Trinity, can be watched here.

John Bradley's anthology of poets writing about the bomb is Atomic Ghosts: Poets Respond to the Atomic Age.

My essay, "Blindness, War & History," first published in the Concho River Review in 2014, can be read here.

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.