Thanking Mediocre Nurses, A Play by Robyn O'Neil

ACT 1: Transparency about a failing enterprise
ACT 2: Two questions and an answer
ACT 3: Keep Dying, Keep Writing it Down
ACT 4: Get Quiet

LINKS
+Buy C.K. Williams' Writers Writing Dying
+Buy The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus
+My SHOP
+My WEBSITE
+My INSTAGRAM

+My SUBSTACK

“We are amazing beings. We are neighbors of fire.” - Anne Carson

Continuing to reread from some of ME READING STUFF's top rated books/writers, we celebrate living legend Anne Carson and Autobiography of Red, yet again. This is the 20th episode dedicated to Anne Carson, and it certainly won't be the last.

Other topics include: hot dogs, stuffers, vacuuming, and my "nine months in Colombia".

With love, Robyn

LINKS

+Buy Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
+Watch Anne Carson's "Lecture on the History of Skywriting"
+My SHOP
+My WEBSITE
+My INSTAGRAM

+My SUBSTACK

This week, we return to everyone's favorite poetry book, Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion: The Poetry of Sportstalk by Pasha Malla and Jeff Parker.

In Metta World Peace's poem, he discusses the difference between elbow and shell pasta.

Anna Kournikova's poem talks about how many boyfriends she’s gonna kiss. 

And we end with an impromptu reading of the lyrics of superstar and friend to the show Cécile McLorin Salvant ❤️

Sending you all love this week!
Robyn

LINKS

Buy Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion: The Poetry of Sportstalk
My SHOP
My WEBSITE

My INSTAGRAM

My SUBSTACK

🎙️ The 11th Anniversary of ME READING STUFF 🎂

Dear listener,

Well, we've officially been kicking it for ELEVEN YEARS. Through vasectomies, divorce, mystery illnesses, breakdowns, fevers, estrangement, Covid, moves, near-death experiences, remarriage, Las Vegas hotel rooms, heart surgeries, parenthood, hauntings, and meetings with the ©️Kleenex company.

Think of how much water we've drunk since 2015. I wonder how many books we threw across the room? Who remembers when Channing Tatum wrote us erotic poetry? And what the hell was "Robyn's Gate"?

To celebrate this anniversary, I’m reading you the very same poem I read in the very first episode — Wallace Stevens’ “The Man on the Dump.” I also respond to your questions in "Answer Corner."

Whether you’ve been listening since 2015 or this is your first time — I’m really glad you’re here. And honestly? I'm really glad I'm still here, too.

Let's keep doing this. I'll see you next time.

You doing more than enough. (But maybe make a dentist appointment. And organize your nightstand. And drink more water.)

With so much love and appreciation,
Robyn

LINKS:

Buy The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
My WEBSITE
My INSTAGRAM
My SHOP
My Substack

This week marks the return to THROWING BOOKS ACROSS THE ROOM!!!! So exciting.
Dionne Brand's "Islands Vanish" really had me feeling all sorts of things. It was a pleasure to read it to you. 

I extend appreciation to her for "hunting for slave castles with a pencil for explosives." Not many hunt so rigorously. It's shattering.

This episode also includes an impassioned Recommendation Corner, a Mini Question Corner, and I talk about a steakhouse for an awfully long time. I did it all for the caperberries. 

Thank you, as always, for listening.
xoxo, Robyn

LINKS

This week, I read to you from a 1992 poetry anthology called The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, edited by Robert Bly, James Hillman and Michael Meade. Wendell Berry's poem "Ripening" leads to a discussion about death and altar-building. I also kick a few people out of the podcast 😲, and bemoan my exhaustion levels.

Thank you for listening - I love you guys❣️

LINKS:

Buy The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart

Check out my new Website!

Follow me on Instagram!

"I know how furiously your heart is beating." ~Wallace Stevens, The Gray Room

"The tense American nerve relaxed. I lived
with a gray quietness that let the mind
grow inward like a root." ~Paul Engle

LINKS:
Taschen's The Book of Symbols 
My Website
My Shop
My Substack
My Instagram 

On today's episode, I read from a MASSIVE birthday gift, A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker (1925 – 2025), Edited by Kevin Young. The readings are: 

LINKS

Buy A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker 

MY NEW WEBSITE

Check out my friend Jack's website!

My Instagram

My Substack

“If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.” ~Charles Simic 

"I love to walk but I can't
I love to swim but I can't
I love to sit in the sun but I can't
I love to smell the flowers but I can't
I love to play tennis but I can't
I love to water-ski but I can't"
~Andy Warhol

"Lime flavored sparkling waters taste like Fruity Pebbles." ~Me

LINKS:
Buy The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Check out my Instagram
Check out my Substack
Check out my Website (FINALLY updating MAY 15TH!)

I love you guys! Thanks for listening. xoxo, Robyn

"I enjoy people best if I can be alone much of the time." – Octavia Butler

"Talk is a privilege and one must deny oneself that privilege." – Martha Graham

"I love saying "refrigerator."" – Me

LINKS

Pick up Mason Currey's Daily Ritual Books

Follow Mason Currey's Substack

Follow me on Instagram

Buy my book 20 YEARS OF DRAWINGS

Follow Anne J. Regan on Instagram

The BIG Eastfork Mug I bought myself.