Michael the Storyteller Tells Tales

When you pull the tail of the pooka, there’s no tellin’ where the tale might end!

Kathleen Green’s delightful Irish story of a pooka is brought to life by the Irish Storyteller Michael O’Malley.

(See Jimmy Stewart’s movie Harvey for another great pooka tale.)

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Children especially enjoy this light-hearted Ethiopian tale of the silly farmer, retold with oohs & aahs & old bones by Storyteller Michael Kasony-O’Malley. This story can also be found in Pleasant DeSpain’s collection of Tales of Nonsense and Tomfoolery.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Seeing the “Balcony” sign in an old theater at First Night Boston decades ago changed Michael’s life, along with Jay O’Callahan’s Raspberries.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Doing the Tibetan Buddhist phowa practice with Jesus Christ for HaHa (my Roman Catholic godmother, Aunt Mary).

Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus painting.

Dual or Double Belonging: On being a Buddhist Christian.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

This gentle tale from Japan is retold by Environmental Storyteller Michael Kasony-O’Malley (aka Michael R. Malley or Michael O’Malley).

It is found in Frances Jenkins Olcott’s 1919 collection: The Wonder Garden: Nature Myths and Tales from All the World Over.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Storyteller Michael Kasony-O’Malley (aka Michael R. Malley or Michael O’Malley) adapts and tells this tale inspired by Margaret Read MacDonald’s story “Old Joe and the Carpenter” found in her collection of Peace Tales.

Irish Storyteller Michael O’Malley (aka “Michael the Storyteller” or Michael Kasony-O'Malley) thinks of his own father whenever he tells this story from County Down in Northern Ireland. Michael tells this tale with permission from Maggie Kerr Peirce who shared it in the collection entitled Ready-To-Tell Tales.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Michael R. Kasony-O’Malley (“Michael the Storyteller”) shares an American pourquoi tale (aka as an origin story, an etiological tale, or a “reason why” story) about the bunny rabbit’s ears and tail.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

The simple wisdom of a poor, old farmer is highlighted in this Chinese tale of a horse, a son, and a farmer from a small village in China.

Retold by Michael R. Kasony-O’Malley, also known as “Michael the Storyteller.”

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )

Beltaine (May Eve) is one of the four turnings of the Celtic year (along with Lughnasa, Samhain, & Imbolc) when the wall between us and the Spirit World is particularly thin...

For more information about the Fairies/the Sidhe (Shee)/the Good People see Irish Earth Folk by Diarmuid MacManus, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, and Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales by Alwyn & Brinley Rees.

(Music: Courtesy of Adrian von Ziegler, "Prophecy." )