The Two Boots Word Vault

The 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference was especially potent. The headliners were Robert Bly, James Hillman, Robert Moore, and Etheridge Knight. Bly's presentations focused on the deep meanings in William Blake's poetry.  I was one of the organizers that year and I was able to bring in poets Roy McBride and Thomas Smith. This is a recording of their part of an evening of poetry.

Since 2020 Walton Stanley and I have told and discussed important folktales and read important poetry with the Australian-based international mythopoetic community, The Fifth Direction. Our monthly sessions have been deliciously profound and we have made great friends through this connection.  If Walton tells a story I read a poem or two.  If I tell a tale, Walton reads poems.   The poems read here are Guardian Angel  by Rolf Jacobsen, For Eli Jacobson, Dec. 1952, by Kenneth Rexroth, a portion of A Dialogue of Self and Soul, by W.B. Yeats, The Thief  by Alden Nowlan, The Swan, by Rainier Rilke, a portion of Canto by Fernando Pessoa, Someone Digging in the Ground by Rumi. 

n 1986 my wife, Carol Ringer, and I produced a television documentary on the history of St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood through the support of the Frogtown History Project, the Frogtown Community Assoiciation, and The Compass Community Arts Fun.  She was the videographer. On a very small budget we created a television program which aired on KTCA public television in 1989.  The video is available on my YouTube channel, timtwoboots.

In 1993 this poem was recorded at the Minnesota Men's Conference on Lake Hubert, in north central Minnesota.  This version was read straight, without the usual musical accompaniment or hyperbolic enthusiasm.  I love this version, too.

Thanks to Ted King and Tom Cassidy with Tributary Reading Series for inviting me to read.  The original poem is usually a half-hour reading time, so I had to cut a few verses.  But you get the feel.

For over 40 years this Coyote tale from the Pacific Coast has intrigued me. In May 2025 I was able to tell it to the Elder Circle of the Internation Fifth Direction Mythopoetic Community based in Australia.

On March 16, 2019 Hardy Coleman was one of several poets who read at the Seeing Them Home: A Reading for the Ancestors hosted by Maureen Skelly. Hardy joined the ancestors himself on March 26, 2024.

On July 30, 2025 four poets were invited to read their work on the effects of war on the soul. Three were veterans, Frank Gioa, George Colburn, and Jessi Marie. I am not a veteran and represented those who share the suffering brought on by the effects of war.

While preparing for the 2025 Minnesota Men's Conference I spoke with poets, Jonathan Stensland and Jesse Dermody, about the value of poetry at our conferences, and at the personal level.  It was a delightful conversation.

The Swan of Tuonela is a story of a hero initiated into the maturity of living as a man, and his relationships to the powerful feminine.