A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 19: “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong, a raw, intimate piece written as a letter from a future self to a younger, hurting one. It explores trauma, identity, self-forgiveness, and the long journey toward learning to inhabit your own name — and your own body — with tenderness.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• why Vuong writes to himself in the second person,

• how the poem’s fragmented structure mirrors the experience of trauma and healing,

• and what it means to promise oneself a future where self-love is finally possible.

Originally published: 2015

Approx. runtime: 6:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 18: “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.

Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye, a profound meditation on compassion and the intimate relationship between kindness and sorrow. Nye explores how grief and loss deepen our capacity to recognize and respond to the suffering of others — how vulnerability opens the door to a more spacious, more generous understanding of what it means to care.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• why Nye believes true kindness can only be understood through the experience of loss,

• how the poem blends personal emotion with universal human wisdom,

• and why this piece has become a touchstone for readers seeking solace and grounding in difficult times.

Originally published: 1980

Approx. runtime: 7:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 17: “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound, his luminous adaptation of a classical Chinese poem attributed to Li Bai. This is a quiet, heartbreaking meditation on transformation, longing, and the deepening of love across time and distance. Through restrained, vivid imagery, the poem captures a young woman’s evolving devotion as she writes to her absent husband.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• how Pound’s translation preserves the emotional subtlety of classical Chinese poetry,

• the poem’s delicate portrayal of a love that strengthens in absence,

• and why this intimate, centuries-old letter continues to resonate so powerfully with modern readers.

Originally published: 1915

Approx. runtime: 7 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A modern Sherlock Holmes audio drama — where deduction meets the dissection of the mind.

WARNING: MATURE LANGUAGE AND SITUATIONS

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Analysis – Episode 7: “Paradox” (Chapters 13 & 14)

As the investigation tightens, Sherlock Holmes confronts a contradiction he cannot easily resolve. His pursuit of those who exploited Molly Hooper brings him face to face with power, cruelty, and moral compromise — while an unexpected moment of intimacy threatens the emotional distance he relies on to function.

In this pivotal episode, control becomes both shield and weapon, and insight itself begins to feel dangerous. Holmes is forced to reckon with the unsettling truth that some forms of understanding do not bring clarity — only consequence.

The Last Analysis continues the BBC Sherlock legacy through an original, serialized story of psychological mystery, restraint, and the cost of brilliance.

Released bi-monthly on The Porcupine Presents.

Originally aired: February 2026
Approx. runtime: 30:30 minutes

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 16: “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott, a luminous meditation on healing, self-recognition, and the quiet joy of returning to the person you once were. Walcott invites us to imagine a moment when we finally welcome ourselves home after heartbreak or self-forgetting — a moment of grace, forgiveness, and profound emotional clarity.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• how Walcott reframes self-love as a reunion rather than self-indulgence,

• why the poem’s domestic imagery makes its message feel intimate and grounding,

• and how this gentle, restorative vision of love continues to resonate with readers seeking solace and renewal.

Originally published: 1976

Approx. runtime: 5:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 15: “Love Song” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Love Song” by Rainer Maria Rilke, a meditation on intimacy, individuality, and the delicate harmony created between two souls. Rilke explores the tension between closeness and independence — how love can bring people together without erasing the space that allows them to grow.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• Rilke’s belief that true intimacy requires spaciousness rather than fusion,

• how the poem portrays love as a kind of resonant music between two distinct lives,

• and why this vision of connection continues to feel both mystical and deeply human.

Originally published: 1907
Approx. runtime: 5:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 15: “Love Song” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Love Song” by Rainer Maria Rilke, a meditation on intimacy, individuality, and the delicate harmony created between two souls. Rilke explores the tension between closeness and independence — how love can bring people together without erasing the space that allows them to grow.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• Rilke’s belief that true intimacy requires spaciousness rather than fusion,

• how the poem portrays love as a kind of resonant music between two distinct lives,

• and why this vision of connection continues to feel both mystical and deeply human.

Originally published: 1907

Approx. runtime: 5:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 14: “Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold” by William Shakespeare

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold” by William Shakespeare, a work that explores aging, vulnerability, and the way love can deepen when we recognize the fleeting nature of time. It’s a sonnet filled with quiet beauty, where the awareness of mortality becomes a tender invitation to love more fiercely.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• how Shakespeare uses three vivid metaphors to chart the speaker’s gradual movement toward acceptance,

• why the sonnet’s honesty about aging creates emotional intimacy rather than despair,

• and how this poem continues to resonate as a reflection on love, time, and the human condition.

Originally published: 1609

Approx. runtime: 6 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 13: “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe, a work that explores idealized desire and the dreamlike fantasies we often construct at the beginning of love. Overflowing with pastoral charm, it imagines a world free of labor, sorrow, and time — a seductive landscape shaped by longing rather than reality.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• how Marlowe uses the pastoral tradition to craft a world of irresistible, impossible beauty,

• why the shepherd’s promises feel both sincere and theatrical,

• and how this poem sparked centuries of poetic replies, parodies, and reinterpretations.

Originally published: 1599

Approx. runtime: 6 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A classic radio comedy from the golden age — plus bonus commentary and trivia after the show.

Our Miss Brooks – “First Day” (1948)

Step back into the golden age of radio with Our Miss Brooks, the beloved comedy centered on Connie Brooks, a sharp, underappreciated high school English teacher navigating students, administrators, and the quiet absurdities of professional life. In this 1948 episode, “First Day,” the optimism of a new school year collides almost immediately with reality, as expectations meet bureaucracy, personalities, and the limits of patience.

After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including why Our Miss Brooks resonated so strongly with working audiences, how the show balanced humor with realism, and what made Connie Brooks such a quietly subversive character in mid-century radio.

Originally aired: 1948
Approx. runtime: 33:30 minutes