The Poet (delayed)

In the summer of 1991, I nearly drown at Deer Creek Reservoir near Heber City, Utah. My poem, Comprehend Yourself, is a summary of that event, and in this episode of The Poet (delayed), Mechelle Wingle and I discuss that poem and its meaning and meanings.

COMPREHEND YOURSELF

I know,

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

My first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps, is availabe for purchase at

The King's English Bookshop

and

Amazon.com

Cover Photo/header by Photo of the boy in the water by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

Special Guest: Mechelle Wingle.

THEY WERE BEACONS ONCE

They are out there.

Addiction can be so consuming that it turns shining people into metaphorical black holes. It has the power, with drugs and alcohol, at least, to destroy people so completely that we eventually "know them by their void,/their masks of nothingness."

Thoreau wrote: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” This profound statement has its application in the struggle with addiction. In order to effectively take one’s life back, it is important to understand what addiction is and what it’s primary causes are so that we can strike at its root rather than just hacking at its branches.

Hungarian-Canadian physician, Gabor Maté defined addiction as follows:

"Any behavior that a person finds relief in and therefore craves in the short-term, but suffers negative consequences in the long-term and doesn't give up despite the negative consequences."

Importantly, Dr. Maté also explains that addiction is not a moral failure or an indication of weakness. “Addiction is not the primary problem. It’s an attempt to solve a problem.”

In this episode of The Poet (delayed), I'm joined by Las Vegas based therapist, Brad Singletary as we read my poem, "They Were Beacons Once," and have a discussion about addiction, its cause and recovery.

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

My first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps, is availabe for purchase at

The King's English Bookshop

and

Amazon.com

Special Guest: Brad Singletary, LCSW.

Links:

• Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong by Johann Hari

It’s safe to assume that we all suffer from bouts of depression at times. As Neil Diamond sang:

Song sung blue

Song sung blue

Me and you are subject to

"Song Sung Blue," Neil Diamond

And, while more often than not, most of us have been able to take Neil’s advice to “take the blues and make a song [and] sing them out again,” whether metaphorically or literally, some of us have suffered or are suffering through depression so deep and encompassing that song is unable to penetrate and the desire to even sing a song is, at best, like a drop of water on a hot skillet, and, at worst, a stomach turning, repulsive thought, and that is a scary and dangerous place to be. In those times, it’s especially vital that we are able to notice the signs in ourselves and others and then reach out for help or reach out to help, respectively. Because, in those times, we can lose the ability to lift ourselves up. We lose the ability to put a smile on our face. We lose the ability to have an attitude of gratitude. And so, we need to be lifted up, and we need to lift up. In the words of Townes Van Zandt:

If I needed you

If you needed me

If I Needed You, Townes Van Zandt

In this episode, Jackie Pack and I discuss depression, situational and clinical (major depressive disorder) including what differentiates them. We discuss ways that we can help ourselves and each other as we pass through those days, weeks, months or years when we feel hopelessness covering us.

"He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" by Neil Diamond

"If I Needed You" by Townes Van Zandt

Dark Canopy

Hopelessness covers me:

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

My first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps, is availabe for purchase at

The King's English Bookshop

and

Amazon.com

Special Guest: Jackie Pack, LCSW, CSAT-S, CMAT.

I've come to believe that those works of literature and poetry that have stood the test of time have more to offer those seeking a meaningful life than all the self help books in the world. They have the ability to bypass the protective walls that so many of us build around our gentle, scared and vulnerable hearts - those walls that stand firm and umoveable in the face of seeming frontal assaults by the well meaning self help books (which, tellingly, often reference those works to make their point). This is so, it seems, because they speak to us through stories and myths that set themselves in our hearts and minds - ready for recall when we are ready to learn, much like Christ's reason for teaching in parables: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Also, I believe that the reason these great works of literature and poetry persist is because they were inspired by and deal with the human condition - the basics of which remain constant as evidenced by the fact that the adventures of Odysseus still permeate our culture, whether in print, on stage or on film ("O, Brother Where are Thou?" - classic) more than 2,500 years after Homer handed them down. "The Odyssey" and "The Illiad" persist because the same passions that ran through the veins of Homer run through ours and, more importantly, he, like the great writers throughout history, had the gift to genuinely infuse that passion into his stories and characters. ("East of Eden" in my hands or probably in most hands, for instance, wouldn't have even found a publisher, but in Steinbeck's hands, we were given as powerful a story/lesson as I've ever read.) So, we feel their pain with defeat and their joy with victory. We relate when they stumble and fall from grace, and as a result, we don't feel so alone in our brokenness.

The same can be said for the enduring stories, poems and mythologies of all cultures: they endure because they resonate with our humanity and they remind us what it means to be human. And then, when we are ready, we can find in them comfort or learning or both as has so many people before us.

In episode 18 of The Poet (delayed), read my poem, "I'm a Poet" and I am joined by Salt Lake City based author, poet, editor and my new friend, Jennifer Adams. I read my poem, "I'm a Poet," and Jen and I discuss the power of literature and poetry as well as her newest of book, "All's Right With the World," inspired by Robert Browning's poem, Pippa's Song, which will be released March 7, 2023. It can be pre-purchased at

The King's English Bookshop

and

Barnes and Noble

I'M A POET

I'm a wordsmith.

I'm a word weaver.

I'm a painter.

I'm a wordsmith

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, my first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps is available for purchase at

Amazon.com

and

The King's English Bookshop

Special Guest: Jennifer Adams.

On April 11, 1984, my family moved to Bountiful, Utah from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. My mom had just passed away a few days earlier. One of the first orders of business when we got to Bountiful, was to enroll me and my siblings in school. I was enrolled at Hannah Holbrook Elementary School for the last couple of months of 4th grade, and was assigned to Ms. Boulton’s class. I don’t remember much from those couple of months nor do I really remember meeting anyone at the time other than a few friends who lived close to my house, John Mayer, for instance – but not that John Mayer. But in my class was a girl named Allison Coombs (now Spencer). We didn’t spend time together or hang out per se. In fact, I don’t have any memories of her. But last June, she friended me on Facebook and I knew her name and I knew her face immediately. She’s told me since that she doesn’t have any memories of me either – I was just the boy who came and went. In the months since, she has commented on a few of my posts and has been very kind and encouraging to me about my poetry and my podcast. And I’ve learned a few things about her as we’ve reconnected a friendship neither of us remembered having.

Among the things I’ve learned is that in November 2021, Allison was diagnosed with Stage 2 Unfavorable Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. (By the way, “unfavorable”? Who comes up with these terms, soccer match announcers? - “That was unlucky!”) But as terrifying as that was, she rose up to battle and, with the help of family, friends and competent medical providers, she waged battle as a head shorn warrior and the cancer is now in remission.

And now, nearly 39 years after we became (apparently) forgettable classmates, Allison joined me on The Poet (delayed) to discuss the topic of “truth” and ways in which her experience with cancer has shaped the lens through which she sees the world.

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, my first book of poetry, My Mother Sleeps, is available at:

Amazon.com

The Kings English Bookshop

Special Guest: Allison Spencer.

Nirvana

I crave silence - clear and still,

I was joined by Monte Wingle as I read my poem, Nirvana, and we discussed thoughts and ideas that came. Also, in the spirit of craving nothingness, we visited True Rest Float Spa to experience their float tank and see how close we could get to nothingness.

True REST Draper

Cover photo by: Lenka Sluneckova

Music: Prelude 2, by Max Richter

USA National Suicide Hotline (voice and text): 988

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, I recently published my first book of poetry which is available at the following place:

Amazon.com

The Kings English Book Shop

Special Guest: Monte Wingle.

TERRIBLE POTENTIAL

I see it now

But I see it now

I know you’re coming, I whisper,

This is not defeat, I reassure myself

But my mind keeps moving – defiantly

You were born with claws

And I remember and feel them

I have claws and I feel them

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, my poetry that I read on this podcast was recently published in my book My Mother Sleeps which is available at

Amazon.com

and

The King's English Bookshop

Special Guest: Justino Foster.

BEACONS

In the days

I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, I recently published two books of poetry which are available on Amazon.com:

Special Guest: Aunt Kash.

Inconsequential

At what point is my absence

When they’re too young to know the need?

Certainly not now

Perhaps that time will be

But here’s the better question:

I’ve given it a go.

Would the idea of me

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

I'd love to hear any thoughts about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].

If you're interested, I recently published two books of poetry which are available on Amazon.com:

My Mother Sleeps & On Becoming a Black Hole

Special Guest: Jason Langston.

I'd love to hear what your thoughts on the topics that were discussed in this episode. You can email me at [email protected].

"The noble soul has reverence for itself." - Frederic Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

If you're interested, I recently published two books of poetry which are available on Amazon.com

Special Guest: Nate Morris.