(A GOOD LOOK IN SHIRTS, NOT SO MUCH ON YOUR COMPUTER), AND DAYS ARE DARK, AND THE NEWS IS FRIGHTFUL, IT’S TIME TO LET GO THE NEWS FEED FOR THE NEWS YOU NEED: POETRY! YOU NEED TO GET OUT YOUR DANTE, WHEN YOU’RE FEELING DAUNTED, AND SEE YOUR NOBLE SELF EMERGE . . . AND WE’LL HEAR WHAT YOUTHS IN THE CLARK HONORS COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE MIDDLE OF THEIR LIVES DID WITH THEIR VERSIONS OF BEING IN HELL ON EARTH . . . WE’LL HEAR IDEAS FOR HOW TO GET BACK ON TRACK IN YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR OWN VIRGILS, POETS WHO DO RESCUES OF US HUMANS, GEN-I-US-ES WHO LEAD US UP MOUNTAINS IN MORNING LIGHT . . . And this includes poets of morning and light and mountains, so slow down, and be ready for Thoreau, John Muir, Rumi, Mary Oliver, Kay Ryan, Gary Snyder, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Wendell Berry. Brian Doyle!
THE POETRY SLOW DOWN, or, as a listener corrected me, OUR POETRY SLOW DOWN, as I’m radio waving, streaming and beaming my way into your private space, where we are engaged with the most ancient and enduring activities known to humans, telling each other stories, from one mind to another, our voices in the darkness, around a campfire your host Professor Barbara Mossberg, Dr. B, and you, good listener, honored listener, or as Cervantes said, gentle (he also said idle, but that’s not you . . .no, we’re slowing down, which is far far different from idling), slowing down for the news you need, the news  you heed, the news without which men die miserably every day; this latter, that we die miserably without this news, is said by a poet, about poetry, as you might expect, but here’s the thing; in his day job, he’s a physician; he’s trying to heal people; people are dying; he’s got blood on his hands, and he should know . . he goes home at the end of the day, and he writes poems on prescription pads, to save his life, to save his patients’ lives, all of ours . . . And so that’s what we’re doing here, right now, together, we’re gathering with sound waves and we’re listening to poetry.
The Poetry Slow Down, podcast Barbaramossberg.com
© Barbara Mossberg 2018
