The bonus track is above: “Better Than the Promise.”

This week’s episode of American Buddhist Poetry Radio sits with a hidden American wound.

Not just money.

Not just politics.

Not just the daily noise.

Something deeper.

The quiet fear that the future a lot of people were moving toward no longer feels solid. The rent, the groceries, the pressure, the broken promises, the way the old dream keeps slipping further out of reach. For some people, that dream was always partial. For others, it feels like it is cracking in public. Either way, a lot of hearts are carrying the weight of it.

This piece is about that grief.

It is also about what comes after the grief.

What in the dream was sacred.

What in it was bait.

How we hold the broken promise without becoming bitter, cruel, or numb.

How we become deeper, truer, and more human than the thing that disappointed us.

If the bonus track above hits you, let it open the room first. Then drop into the episode.

American Buddhist Poetry Radio — Episode 14

The Future We Were Promised

The broken American dream, hidden fear, and the fight to stay human

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