Words by Winter

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A listener from England named Hugh writes in about the poems he found in a notebook after his father's death, poems he never knew his father had written.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese, with additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, The Wild Swans at Coole, is by William Butler Yeats and is in the public domain. It was read by Luke O'Brien.  Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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A listener from Arizona named Russ writes in about his fear that in the unending awfulness of 2020 he's turning toward animals as a defense against humans. That he's always been a "defender of humans" and doesn't want to turn into one of those people who only loves dogs.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese, with additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, is by William Butler Yeats and is in the public domain. It was read by Luke O'Brien.  Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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Technology and its gadgets bring the seen and unseen worlds closer, begin to dissolve the boundaries we live by, have believed in. But is it possible that the boundaries were never there to begin with?

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese, with additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Young Relics , is by poet Emma Hine and read with her kind permission. Please check out her website: emmahine.com. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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In the beginning of the pandemic, we did an episode about a listener from the Czech Republic, who had gone two months without touch. . . and now here we are, eight months in.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese, with additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Two Countries, is by the wondrous Naomi Shihab Nye and read with her permission. Naomi Shihab Nye's work can be found everywhere --she is one of our most beloved poets--and I encourage you, for your own sake, to seek it out. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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What's your definition of a "small luxury"? That morning cup of coffee? Chocolate? Time? 

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese, with additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Leisure, is by William Henry Davies (I can find no copyright information for it). Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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How does someone survive a childhood spent with a sociopathic parent? My friend Sarah, who was the inspiration behind the character of Sesame in my new novel, not only survived but emerged triumphant, and she agreed to be interviewed for the podcast. Featuring the beautiful poetry of Danusha Lameris.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Bonfire Opera, by Danusha Lameris, is from her new book by the same name. It was read by Luke O’Brien with permission of the poet and the University of Pittsburgh Press. For more of Danusha Lameris’s gorgeous work, please check out her website, danushalameris.com. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected].

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All around my kayak and me and the birds and wildlife, Minneapolis was bubbling and churning with city life. But you wouldn’t know it from where I sat in my orange and yellow and red kayak, in the middle of the lake.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, "Zazen on Ching Ting Mountain," is by Li Bai and was translated by Sam Hamill and found in his book Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese. It was read with permission of the poet and Tiger Bark Press. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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It was a strange job at a strange and broken period of life. But I did have one thing going for me, which was all the books piled in the backseat of the car.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Today’s poem, Speed Reading, originally appeared in the Cumberland River Review and was read by Luke O'Brien with kind permission of the author, poet Julie L. Moore. Please check out her books and other poems on her website: julielmoore.com.  Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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When I first noticed Walking Man, I was in my twenties and he probably wasn’t much older. The difference between us was that he never stopped walking.

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Art by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Walking to Jerusalem, is by Philip Terman and was read by Luke O'Brien. The poem originally appeared in Our Portion: New and Selected Poems, published by Autumn House Press, and was read with kind permission of the poet. For more information about Philip Terman, please check out his website: philipterman.com. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

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How do people let their lives be taken over? How does a charismatic person slowly, and inexorably, draw others into his orbit? Why are so many so afraid to stand up to people like that?

Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.

Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today's reading is from Where We Are, by Alison McGhee, which can be found everywhere you buy or borrow your books. Today’s quote, by Walt Whitman, is in the public domain and was read by writer and voice actor Luke O’Brien, who can be found at lukeobrien3216@gmail,com. Words by Winter can be found at [email protected].