Shows
Lucky WordsAdvent, week 2: PeaceYes, yes it’s very late (again!). I apologize.ON PEACEWhen Elisabeth finally (finally!) got pregnant, she had to deal with the discomforts of carrying a baby all the while her husband was struck mute. She said that her “reproach” was taken away, but it is hard to imagine that it was a very pleasant time.Meanwhile, her young unmarried cousin, Mary, was also pregnant. More unpleasantness.Mary was “highly favored” among women, but still forced to deal with a pregnancy and the inevitable gossip that surrounded that. Not to mention: t...
2025-12-1107 min
Lucky WordsAdvent, week 1: HopeSo Advent started last Sunday. I had intended to get this out before then, but then things happened, and I didn’t get it out there. My apologies.About AdventAdvent is the season leading up to Christmas, starting the fourth Sunday before. Christmas, the twelve days of it, begins on Christmas Day. Right now, we are in the middle of Advent.For many Christians, they celebrate every Sunday of Advent with a little devotional thing and lighting of candles. We do it in my family.Just like last year, I ha...
2025-12-0306 min
Lucky WordsEdna St. Vincent Millay, a sonnet (Lucky Words Podcast 2025, episode 10)I recorded this while sitting on the shady bank of the Provo River, shoes off and feet in the water. It was over 90º outside, and my spot was one of the best places I can imagine along the entire Wasatch Front today.Text of poemThis is the second sonnet in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Renascence and Other Poems, published in 1917.Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rai...
2025-07-0806 min
Lucky WordsShakespeare’s sonnets 4-6 (Lucky Words podcast 2025, episode 9)Recorded on a lovely afternoon in early June 2025, up on Cascade mountain, a couple thousand feet above my house. In the recording, I promised a photo. Here it is:The recording might be a bit quiet, and I apologize about that. If it’s annoying to you, just send me a note so that I’ll be motivated to find a better solution next time.Text of poemsSonnet 4 Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth...
2025-06-2012 min
Lucky Words“One Patch of Quilt” by Susan Marsh (Lucky Words Podcast 2025, episode 8)Recorded on site and in one take on the banks of the Provo River, May 2025.Today’s poem is by Susan Marsh who is in her own words a “writer, poet, artist” based in Wyoming. That career description is one I aspire to, though, of course I’d choose Utah. The poem was published in 2022.Text of poem“One Patch of Quilt” by Susan MarshWe know about the way they treat the chickens But on a budget, buy the cheaper eggs. One man says wolves are m...
2025-06-0205 min
Lucky Words"Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?" by Carl Sandburg (Lucky Words podcast 2025, episode 7)In the spirit of getting more prescriptive, this is the first of an intermittent and irregular series about how and why of poetry. Today: the portability of poetry, illustrated with a classic by Carl Sandburg, “Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?”## Text of poem“Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?” by Carl Sandburg"Why did the children put beans in their ears when the one thing we told the children they must not do was put beans in their...
2025-05-2106 min
Lucky Words“Variations on the Word Love” by Margaret Atwood (Lucky Words podcast 2025, episode 6)Recorded live on the La Virkin Creek Trail in Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park, May 2025. You’ll hear the wind noise pretty prominently at times, and I’m sorry if it annoys you. Not sorry enough to do anything about it, because I personally find it kind of charming.There are a bunch of photos you can see if you visit the website (luckywords.net) that don’t show up in podcast notes.## Text of poem“Variations on the Word Love” by Margaret AtwoodThis is a word we use to plu...
2025-05-1512 min
Lucky WordsShakespeare’s Sonnet 3 (Lucky Words podcast 2025, episode 5)Text of poemLook in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,Now is the time that face should form another,Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.For where is she so fair whose uneared wombDisdains the tillage of thy husbandry?Or who is he so fond will be the tombOf his self-love, to stop posterity?Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in theeCa...
2025-05-0709 min
Lucky WordsDelmore Schwartz, “ Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day” (Lucky Words 2025, episode 4)Recorded on site next to the river, up Provo Canyon in the second week of April 2025. As I was talking, the sun came from behind the mountain on the east and I went from slightly chilly to filled with glorious light. It was a good day.Text of PoemHere is is: “Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day” by Delmore SchwartzCalmly we walk through this April’s day,
Metropolitan poetry here and there,
In the park sit pauper and *rentier*,
The screaming children, the motor-car
Fugitive about us, running...
2025-04-2414 min
Lucky WordsShakespeare’s sonnet 2 (Lucky Words 2025, episode 3)This was recorded two weeks ago, on a day that I woke up and it was dumping snow. I went up Rock Canyon, which was just gorgeous. Now, just twelve days later, it’s warm and delightful.Sorry about the sound quality, too. I was not planning to record, and this was just me and my phone.Text of poemWilliam Shakespeare’s sonnet 2, “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow”When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,Thy youth’...
2025-04-1506 min
Lucky Words“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (Lucky Words 2025, episode 2)Text of poem“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent MillayTo what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empt...
2025-04-0806 min
Why Boarding School? PodcastWhy Boarding School? - King's-Edgehill SchoolSend us a text🚨King’s-Edgehill School (Windsor, Nova Scotia)🚨 is featured on this episode of the 🎤Why Boarding School? Podcast🎤 as host Dr. Jeffrey Quebec interviews Director of Admissions Chris Strickey📚www.WhyBoardingSchool.com📚#podcast #education #boardingschool #privateschool #independentschool #prepschool #iloveboarding #educationalconsultant #WhyBoardingSchool #KingsEdgehillSchool www.KES.ns.ca 🎤Why Boarding School? Podcast🎤 with host Dr. Jeffrey Quebec 📚www.WhyBoardingSchool.com📚 #podcast #education #boardingschool #privateschool #independentschool #prepschool #iloveboarding #educationalconsultant #WhyBoardingSchool
2025-04-0555 min
Lucky WordsLucky Words Podcast 2025: Episode 1 — Shakespeare’s sonnet 1For the past few years, I’ve recorded a series of podcasts every April for National Poetry Month. It’s 2025, and I’m doing it again. Woohoo!The original goal was to do a new poem every day: 30 poems over the course of the month. That is always too much work: finding the poems, doing some research, recording (on site outdoors!), editing, and posting. A daily podcast, even just a little ten minute job, could be a full-time job. In the past, I’ve had a full-time job and I don’t have the energy for two, and so I’d...
2025-04-0111 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 5.01 Simon Dach’s “Written in Bed in The Year 1647…”It’s April again, which means it’s National Poetry Month! The podcast is back, again. My ambitions are much more modest this year, and also moving in different directions. The excitement, for me at least is that I’m going to be adding in video to the mix. I’ve been learning a lot, and the curve is steep. But it’s been rewarding to become acquainted with an entirely new set of skills. For today, however, we are going old school: just the audio like always. I’ve moved my podcast hosting from...
2024-04-0510 min
Beyond The WallsCommunion and story: Dorothea Jeffrey (07/01/24 pm)Communion & story; 7th Jan 2024 pm; Gordon Darragh interviews Dorothea Jeffrey
2024-01-0732 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.17 Kay Ryan’s “This Life”Recorded live on location at... my backyard. It was a lovely morning, and so I decided to read a poem. I didn't mention it in the recording because, well because I didn't think about it. I was thinking about Ryan's great poem. And so I recorded a nice short podcast about it.I love this poem. It's one that I've copied out, longhand, in my own notebook that I'm carrying around right now. It's nice and short, for one, and it's fun to read out loud. "It's a pickle, this life" is a great opener, and everyone...
2023-04-2107 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.16 Three Poems by Stephen CraneRecorded on West Mountain, just west of Spanish Fork, Utah. It was blustery and cold, but kind of weirdly beautiful regardless. Beautiful in its desolate ugliness, I guess.The painting I mentioned is indeed by Francisco Goya, but I got the name of the painting wrong. It is "Saturn Eating His Children" which you can see and read about [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son). It's still a perfect painting to accompany this, I think.I will be sending out a weekly email soon. Please sign up below so you can...
2023-04-2112 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.15 Wordsworth's "Lines Written in Early Spring"Recorded by the shore of Utah Lake on a windy but pleasant day, though not as pleasant as what Wordsworth described what with his green bower and all. My favorite part of this recording is the sounds of the killdeer, which I wish were louder, but of course every time I got close they decided to fly away.#### TEXT OF POEM"Lines Written in Early Spring" by William WordsworthI heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet...
2023-04-1913 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.14 Walter Scott’s “Innominatus”Recorded on the Watchman Overlook in Zion National Park. There are always too may people at Zion, but I found a spot where I could have some quiet privacy and record a poem. Unfortunately, technology was conspiring against me, and so this sounds kinda lousy. Sorry.Also, I referred to the trail as "The Watchman" but what I meant was the Watchman _Overlook_: a much less ambitious undertaking. This is another one of those poems that is popular with people who don't really like poetry. That's not fair, even if Walter Scott kinda deserves his...
2023-04-1810 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.13 Thomas Hardy’s “The Convergence of the Twain"Recorded in a tiny little canyon that I never learned the name for, but it was peaceful and quiet. Everyone should have a peaceful, quiet little place to read a poem every now and again. As I mention in the commentary, this is interesting because it's simultaneously modern -- I mean, it's talking about an event in the 20th century! -- but also has something older about it. All of Thomas Hardy does, I think, and this in particular. We don't worry much about the role that Fates play in our lives these days. #### TEXT...
2023-04-1510 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.12 W. H. Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts”Recorded sitting next to some trickling water just outside the mouth of Hellhole Canyon, in Ivins, Utah. In part, my analysis was a chance for me to talk a little about my process in reading a poem—the messy stuff that gets cut out in my editing.Because not only do I typically record things in a single take and live on a hike, I also don't use any notes or any script. I have, of course, read and thought about the poem, but I don't have a written plan: I read the poem and then talk ab...
2023-04-1510 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.11 Jim Harrison’s “I Believe”A reading and short analysis of Jim Harrison's poem, recorded live in [Hellhole canyon](https://hikestgeorge.com/hiking-trails/hellhole-canyon/), outside St. George, Utah. #### TEXT OF POEM"I Believe" by Jim Harrison, from his book [_In Search of Small Gods_](https://www.amazon.com/Search-Small-Gods-Jim-Harrison/dp/1556593198)I believe in steep drop-offs, the thunderstorm across the lake in 1949, cold winds, empty swimming pools, the overgrown path to the creek, raw garlic, used tires, taverns, saloons, bars, gallons of red wine, abandoned farmhouses, stunted lilac groves, ...
2023-04-1311 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.10 E. E. Cummings “sweet spring is your,” “old mr ly,” and “pity this busy monster,manunkind”Three poems (more than two!) poems by E. E. Cummings recorded on the shore of the Virgin River in northern Arizona, at the edge of the Mojave Desert. I was sitting on a big, jutting chunk of red sandstone, surrounded by Joshua trees and cacti.These three poems are of varying levels of difficulty, but for today, the only one that gets the double treatment is "sweet spring is your." One thing I didn't mention—because I am a man with great self-control—is that I can't read "viva sweet love" without thinking of Elvis sing...
2023-04-1212 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.09 An Easter reading of Rudyard Kipling’s “A Nativity”Recorded on site at the tiny, old cemetery in Charleston, Utah. Some of my ancestors are buried there, which makes it relevant for me at least, on this particular day.You can find some interesting commentary about what Kipling might have been thinking about while composing this poem on [the Kipling Society page about this poem](https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/readers-guide/rg_nativity1.htm). It talks much more about World War I and the death of Kipling's son Joseph—all things that I did not discuss.Because it's Easter! The poem works as a st...
2023-04-1015 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.08 Mark Gibbons’s “My Life as a Capitalist”Recorded live and on site right outside Utah Lake State Park, which means that there are also airplanes flying and birds chirping and other people walking. I have edited out the other people walking, but the rest of it is all here.[Mark Gibbons](https://gibbonspoetry.com/) is the Montana Poet Laureate for 2021-2023, and I hope he doesn't mind that I used this poem...#### TEXT OF POEM"My Life as a Capitalist" by Mark GibbonsMy Life as a Capitalist has been an abject failure. As...
2023-04-0919 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.07 John Donne’s “Good Friday 1613, Riding Westward”Five or six years ago, I read this poem here on Lucky Words. This is a new recording—recorded, edited, and uploaded on Good Friday 2023—looking at the best Good Friday poem ever written.Who am I kidding? Every poem by John Donne is the best ever written.I hope that you have (or had) a lovely Easter, filled with family, chocolate, poetry, and Jesus Christ. #### TEXT OF POEMLet man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, Th' intelligence that moves, devotion is; And as the...
2023-04-0714 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.06 Dylan Thomas’s “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”Redorded on location on the trail to Corona Arch outside Moab, Utah, in May of 2022. Some members of my family were with me, and I recorded in snatches while we were hiking—which is why there is some heckling going on. I tried to edit most of it out, but, you know...I have a soft spot for Dylan Thomas, but I don't know why. There's something about his poetry that just feelsgood to me. I feel the same way about Hopkins (maybe I should do some Hopkins...), even though they're both poets who really make me wo...
2023-04-0712 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.05 Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art”Recorded on location at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Specifically, at the La Sal mountains look out—not that I could see anything.While this is a lovely poem, it's also another poem that I recorded sitting down. At least this time I wasn't at my desk, I was still enclosed in a car. It wasn't quite as bad, and the view was nice, but it isn't my ideal. I'm not sure that you all notice, but my brian feels like it only works at half-speed when I'm sitting. To get access to my whole intellect (su...
2023-04-0610 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.04 The anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem “The Battle of Brunanburh”A very different thing today: I'm stuck indoors and so this was recorded at home. So weird. Still, I don't think you'll get bored, because I get all artsy: give it a listen and let me know how much you like (or dislike) it. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2023-04-0516 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.03 John Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”When I was in high school and probably completely insufferable, I used to walk around with a book of poetry in my back pocket. Keats was a big favorite then. I'm not sure why; I mean he is great, but it's not exactly stuff that should thrill an obnoxious young kid. And I was very obnoxious. I cringe looking back at myself in those days. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2023-04-0310 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.02 Czeslaw Milosz’s “And Yet The Books”Hiking in the snow is always harder than hiking on dirt, but there's still snow on the ground and so I'll take what I can get. The cold does present one particular difficulty, of course, that it makes my nose run and I have to edit out about a thousand sniffs. I didn't get them all, and for that I apologize. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2023-04-0309 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 4.01 John Ashbery’s “Just Walking Around”Reading and analysis of this poem by John Ashbery, while hiking in the Utah mountains Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2023-04-0209 min
Azure & DevOps PodcastDerek Comartin on Migrating to .NET CoreThis week on the podcast, Jeffrey Palermo is virtually sitting down with Derek Comartin to discuss migrating to .NET Core! Derek Comartin is a software developer with two decades of professional software development experience. He has written software for a variety of business domains such as distribution, transportation, manufacturing, and accounting. He is also the Director of Engineering at Full Circle TMS., where he develops transportation management software using a variety of technologies, including .NET. Derek has also founded and currently leads the Windsor-Essex .NET Developers Group, where they explore the use of .NET for...
2020-08-3136 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 3.11: Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Preacher Ruminates Behind the Sermon"This is kind of a lonely poem for a lonely day hiking. Not lonely, exactly, but very alone. I spent probably five hours and saw, maybe, three human beings. It was good. I like to be alone.Sometimes. I also like to be with those I love. When I am with other people, I think about them. I am a person in society. When I am alone, I think about God, or nature, or poetry and art, or all of those things. I think about myself in relation to all those things.### TEXT OF POEM
2019-06-0709 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 310: Alexander Pope's "Ode on Solitude"More adventures in Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah.I hike to be quiet and alone. This hike took me on the White Rim Trail, one of the destination trails for 4x4 affectionados. Which is about the opposite of me. I like my peace and quiet, which never includes dirtbikes or ATVs.Of course, every one I saw at least waved at me, and often were very friendly and chatty. I tell a story of one of those encounters in this episode.### TEXT OF POEMAlexander Pope's "Ode on Solitude"
2019-05-1110 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 309: Karl Shapiro's "Interlude III"This recording was originally much longer than what I've got for you here. I took a fork in a trail which led me to an overlook that was so magnificent, so overwhelming, that I just stood there, mostly mute. It's vastness, it's quiet emptiness: it made me feel small and like a thing touching divinity.Later, on that same hike, I discovered tiny tiny flowers that I hadn't noticed before. They were just as shocking to me as the canyon. Big and small: this hike was really killing me aesthetically.It took a bunch of...
2019-05-0310 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 308: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "My Cathedral"I spent a few days in Moab, camping and hiking and writing and recording. It was lovely.This episode was recorded as I was hiking in Canyonlands National Park on the Murphy loop. I did edit out some long stretches of just me walking (not excatly compelling audio, that), and a couple of times were I got distracted by something I saw. I did leave in a couple shorter ones (a lizard in one instance, a butterfly in another) just to maintain the feeling of the recording, which is not some manufactured-in-the-studio-with-a-catalog-of-outdoor-sounds. Nope, this is really me...
2019-04-2718 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 307: Amy Lowell's "Fenway Park: Study in Orange and Silver"One of the beautiful days in April in Utah, talking about a beautiful sport in Boston. (OK, this year, there's very little beautiful about baseball in Boston, but last year was great and there's always next year.) Some American poetry today, because today feels like a good day to be an American.This is not an easy poem. It's weird. Don't worry too much about getting it "right." That's not the point. This is a poem to take an interpretation (or partial interpretation, in my case, and probably yours, too) and go with it. There's something powerful...
2019-04-2209 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 306: Margaret Atwood's "You Begin"On a trail up American Fork canyon, listening to the water rushing down the mountain as it melts from the snowpack. It's mesmerizing. I know it just sounds like a static hiss on the recording: maybe you can hear it as a natural sound and not just a background noise.There's something magical about this transition between seasons. There's something magical about seeing the world transform itself, to move from a monochromatic, cold environment to a verdant one: warm, green, vibrant.Today's poem is about the world, kind of. And it's about things that repeat...
2019-04-1609 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 305: Shakespeare's Sonnet 126While one a short hike right near the border between Utah and Idaho, I tried to capture the songs of all the [Western Meadowlarks](https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/western-meadowlark) around me. If you listen closely, you can just hear them. It's one of my favorite birdsongs, and they're not shy about singing it.Today's poem is another of Shakespeare's sonnets. If you didn't hear my episodes on the sonnets, I highly recommend heading back and listening to episodes 201, 203, and 205. I give a brief summary here, but only very, very briefly.There are still...
2019-04-1310 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 304: Emily Dickinson's "Tell all the truth but tell it slant"This was recorded on a super windy day in Moab. I didn't realize just how much it had affected the recording until I tried to listen to it at home. I tried to make it listenable in Audacity and GarageBand, and even still it sounds pretty lousy.Which is really too bad, because the poem is great and the locale was spectacular. There are few things more pleasant than sitting on warm slickrock when the day turns cool and breezy. There's such a lovely radiant heat from the stone.What I didn't actually get to...
2019-04-1106 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 303: Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring"Today's poem, perfectly titled for a beautiful day in April, is a pretty tough one for me. Even now, listening to what I said when I recorded, I'm only half-convinced of my interpretation. I have noticed some new stuff, that I would include if I could. But the recording is not a historical event, captured in this one-take.I did do a little editing in this recording, though. A good chunk is me getting distracted by birds, and it's boring to listen to me watching. The birds were too quiet to hear well, and it just isn't...
2019-04-0611 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 302: Mary Oliver's "Why I Wake Early"This was recorded at Arches National Park a while back, on a cold, cold morning. It was a great time to read this wonderful Mary Oliver poem about mornings (and happiness and goodness).I apologize that the sound quality on this is so lousy. I am clearly no professional sound engineer, and there is all sorts of clipping and sound that's blown out by the wind and my poor mic skills. I did what I could to fix it, but frankly, I'm just guessing here.One of my favorite things about recording these on outdoor...
2019-04-0405 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 301: Donald Justice's "Men at Forty"Squelchy, snowy hike up the Big Springs trail on a day that couldn't decide what weather felt right. There's a particular beauty in being in a monochromatic landscape like this; it makes me feel small and vulnerable.I've spent much too much time indoors this winter, and I feel more out of shape than I ever have before. I get out of breath more quickly, and the muscles on my legs are less defined than ever beore. It'll take some work this spring and summer to get back to where I was. A poem about middle age...
2019-04-0206 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 300: Billy Collins' "The Effort"It's a new year, and a new season of Lucky Words. Or, rather, it's a new season! Of Lucky Words! I'm back! And I'm glad you're back, too. I've missed you; I hope you've missed me, too.It is almost National Poetry Month again, and so it's time to fire up the old recorder and get out hiking. Spring is springing (slowly), and it is a perfect time to be outdoors.This was recorded sitting in my car at a trailhead in Moab, Utah. Something was a little wonky with the recorder (although it is...
2019-03-3008 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 205: Shakespeare's sonnet 20There is a lot more that could be said about sonnet 20, but this should serve as a nice introduction to this one, especially for you listeners who are not regular readers of Shakespeare's sonnets. This is one of the crazy ones, or at least one of the difficult-to-categorize-Shakesepeare's-sexuality ones. I recorded this while out birding one morning (yes, I am a middle aged white male: so what?) and I had to edit out probably three or four planes landing or taking off. Not exactly the quietest place to record. I tried to get rid of them all w...
2018-04-1409 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 204: Edwin Arlington Robinson's "Cliff Klingenhagen"It's a lunchtime post -- or, rather, it's a lunchtime recording. I took a hike at lunchtime and recorded while I was hiking (literally, which is why my breathing is a little more apparent than usual) right before I stopped to eat. Today's poem is one that has been my favorite since about 1990, when I first read the poem. I was living in Brazil at the time as a Mormon missionary, and a girl sent this poem to me in a letter. I've never forgotten the poem (although shortly thereafter the girl forgot me and married someone e...
2018-04-1110 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 203: Shakespeare's sonnet 18For the second of our look together at some of Shakespeare's sonnets, today's selection is the most famous: sonnet 18, the famous "Shall I comapre thee to a summer's day?" The only sonnet that rivals it in popular consciousness is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." I approach this with a little reticence, since it's such well-trod territory, but it helps to fill in the whole narrative that I will be explaining as time goes on. So I press on and am posting it anyway. Don't like my interpretation? Let me know.
2018-04-0511 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 202: George Herbert's "Easter Wings"For Easter, a discussion of George Herbert's "Easter Wings." Recorded while out on a hike on a beautiful afternoon in the foothills under Mt. Timpanogos in beautiful Utah. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2018-04-0112 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 201: Shakespeare's sonnet 3Text of this poem (and all the other episodes of Lucky Words) are available at jeffreywindsor.net. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2018-03-3110 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 200: "How Frugal is the Chariot"Just a quick one today to remind you that National Poetry Month is coming back in April, and Lucky Words will be there, too, with another season of poems in the ourdoors. If the weather holds (it won't), this will be a perfect year for being outdoors in the mountain west. Today it is a perfect temperature and humidity: this is what heaven feels like to me. 55 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze and some moisture on the ground. Hot dang it's a good time to be alive.## Text of poem"There i...
2018-03-1304 min
The Jersey Educator PodcastLIVE from the NJEA ConventionFirst announced http://earlycareer.njeasites.org/2016/11/02/jersey-educator-will-broadcast-live-from-convention-16/ (here at njea.org/earlycareermembers), Jersey Educator broadcasted directly from the floor of the 2016 NJEA Convention in the TeacherCast booth.
Featured Guests:[1:36]: Ed Richardson, Executive Director, NJEA
[7:07]: Heather Sorge, Holland Township Education Association*
[13:09]: Hannah Pawlak, Highland Park Education Association
[18:01]: Anthony St Jean, Orange Education Association
[22:49]: Jerell Blakeley, New Jersey Work Environment Council (http://njwec.org/take-action/campaigns/healthy-schools-now/ (Healthy Schools Now))*
[28:38]: Tom Hayden, UniServ Field Representative, NJEA
[30:53]: Gene Woods, Bayonne Teachers Association (http://ilearnamerica.com/ (I Learn America program))
35.07: Joe Pizzo, Chester Township Education Association*
42.05: Miriam Richenbach & Ed Komczyk, http://www.njea...
2018-01-211h 39The Jersey Educator PodcastStanding up for our studentsWelcome to the Jersey Educator Podcast, a show created by NJEA members … for NJEA members. Whether you are a teacher, an education support professional, or a New Jersey Student Education Association member, this show will serve as a platform to help YOU bring out the best in your students . . . each and every day in your schools. The shows are hosted by Jeff Bradbury of http://teachercast.net/ (TeacherCast.net) (https://www.teachercast.net/twitter (@TeacherCast)) and Jim Boice, a field representative with NJEA (http://www.twitter.com/boiceinthehood (@boiceinthehood)). For more information, please visit ht...
2018-01-2032 minThe Jersey Educator PodcastThe "Jersey Jazzman" Mark WeberWelcome to the Jersey Educator Podcast, a show created by NJEA members … for NJEA members. Whether you are a teacher, an education support professional, or a New Jersey Student Education Association member, this show will serve as a platform to help YOU bring out the best in your students . . . each and every day in your schools. The shows are hosted by Jeff Bradbury of http://teachercast.net/ (TeacherCast.net) (https://www.teachercast.net/twitter (@TeacherCast)) and Jim Boice, a field representative with NJEA (http://www.twitter.com/boiceinthehood (@boiceinthehood)). For more information, please visit ht...
2018-01-1938 min
The Marc Jeffrey ShowI Love My Simba MattressEpisode 34 Marc and Liam talk about various topics that have interested them over the last week. We discuss topics such as. This week in the UK it is UK Sausage week, Liam tells us more. This week it is also Halloween and Guy Fawkes night. Marc tells us about his road trip to Lego Land Windsor and how nice it was to go surfing again after 5 years. What is all the fuss about the Iphone 10 and what is Supreme all about? Well done to Lewis Hamilton for...
2017-11-021h 12
LGBTQ&ACameron Esposito: To Be Apolitical & an Artist is a Waste of TimeCameron Esposito talks about making comedy in the Trump era, saying that to be apolitical and an artist right now is a waste of time. She also describes life without her iconic asymmetrical haircut, the ways we police different people's gender, and the stress of having to decide whether or not to come out to strangers in a heteronormative society. Cameron also talks about the great impact Edith Windsor had on all aspects of her life.
LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1
You can recommend a guest or let us know what you think about the show on Tw...
2017-09-2646 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 142: "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me"Happy Fourth of July! It's Independence Day, and I'm finally putting up a new post. Today's recording was actually over an hour long, most of which was my listening to a fellow hiker tell me all his stories about encounters with Sasquach. I have no idea what to do with that. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-07-0419 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 141: "yes I said yes I will yes"Happy Bloomsday! For this holiday, I've released the first non-poetry Lucky Words! I am sure you are as excited as I am. Actually, as this hits the internets, I am camping with a bunch of Boy Scouts: getting sunburnt, making fires, sleeping in the dirt. It would be great if I weren't in charge of keeping a bunch of fifteen-year old boys from buring down a national forest. If you haven't heard of any major fires in national forests, I'm doing ok. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-06-1613 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 140: "I Should Know What God and Man Is"I recorded this midway on a hike last week, watching the spring run-off block my path. What I do not explain in the recording is that the angle where the run-off crossed the trail was steep enough and the flow was strong enough that I wasn't brave enough to ford it. After recording this, I turned around and walked back to the trailhead. It was shorter than I had planned, but it wasn't a bad hike. I stretched my legs and I thought some thoughts -- so: mission accomplished.Also, if you're reading this, you might want to...
2017-06-1305 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 139: Edgar Lee Master's "Lucinda Matlock"The long quiet section before the poem is me standing still, trying to keep a very large moose feeling calm and unthreatened. It must have worked, because he did not trample me, but wandered off in the opposite direction. Whoa, nelly: that was awesome in all senses of the word. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-06-0809 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 138: Walt Whitman's "I Hear It Was Charged Against Me"I was on a dusty, dry trail somewhere in the American Fork canyon, all by myself (except for the bee that interrupted me while I was recording. You can hear it at the end). Being all by myself made me think of this poem by Whitman who had a thing or two to say about the way people interact with each other. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-06-0607 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 137: Emily Dickinson's "A narrow Fellow in the Grass"Enough with the heavy Wordsworth! (OK, not forever, but for a little while, at least.) You have probably read this poem before; it's often read in schools. But don't let that turn you off: look at how Dickinson uses her awesome, creative diction here; note how she describes the snake without using any conventional descriptors of a snake. Its clever-quotient is high, but it doesn't feel twee or too-clever-by-half. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-06-0106 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 136: William Wordsworth's "Ode"Huzzah! We've made it! I'm sorry this took a while to post, but here is a reading of the complete text of William Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood."I recorded this at various stops on a hike up along the Deer Creek - Dry Creek trail in the Lone Peak Wilderness. It's a spectacular area and a great hike -- until I reached the water flowing under a snow field and didn't want to risk a crossing. It was visibly hollow underneath and I didn't want to fall into the icy running water...
2017-05-3113 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 135: William Wordsworth's "Ode", sections 9-11This is the final episode that discusses individual sections of Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." If you're just joining us, start at episode 131, where the poem actually begins. Next time: the whole poem, uninterrupted! How exciting!I got a fancy new digital recorder (thanks, generous listener!), but now I have to learn the appropriate technique for field recording. Lesson for today: turn off your dang cell phone. This was in glorious stereo, but I had to reduce it to mono to cut out a bunch of obnoxious digital interference. Well, now I know...
2017-05-2317 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 134: William Wordsworth's "Ode", sections 7-8Wordsworth is getting kinda depressing here. All by itself, this section doesn't have the punch that it gets in context. We'll be at a full read soon, and then, I hope, the whole thing will make good sense. It's such a great poem, but it does require some effort to get the whole thing. Recorded while camping, and I almost made the life-altering decision to grab a rattlesnake as it slithered by. I didn't know it was a rattlesnake at the time, not until it started shaking its tail at me. It was pretty obvious then. I ran...
2017-05-2012 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 133: William Wordsworth's "Ode", sections 5-6This is the third episode about Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." If you're just joining us, start at episode 131, where the poem actually begins. We are at the good part of the poem. The first few lines of the fifth section are the most famous of the poem. They are lines I have heard quoted over pulpits all my life, but as you'll hear, I don't think Wordsworth would have liked the interpretation that's often given there. Good thing he's not around to get all snooty about it.May is a...
2017-05-1810 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 132: William Wordsworth's "Ode", sections 3-4Recorded while I was fishing (or maybe just casting, since I didn't catch any fish) and sat down to record this. Happy program note: all the background bird sounds were just recorded with my one single mic right there when they show up in the recording. I don't know how to add things in post (I'm not exactly sure I'm using the phrase "in post" correctly); it's all just serendipity. And who doesn't love serendipity? Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-05-1609 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 131: William Wordsworth's "Ode", sections 1 & 2The first of five or six episodes on this poem, so we can spend a little time discussing it one stanza at a time. At the end, I'll read the whole thing straight through, and it'll mean a lot more to you then (I hope). **CRITICAL NOTE**: I do not know what my mouth was doing when I say the title of this poem. It is called "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." You know and I know that the second word is "intimations" and **not** "imitations." And yet, somehow I said "imitations" twice. I...
2017-05-1006 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 130: Walt Whitman's "Darest Thou Now, O Soul"Recorded by the Diamond Fork River, but there was a bunch of obnoxious wind that sometimes you'll hear with lousy noise. Endure through it and you'll learn about a great poem by Walt Whitman. It's about death, but listen anyway. Would you be interested in supporting this podcast? I would be interested in receiving your support. Visit https://www.patreon.com/jeffreywindsor for details and rewards. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-3008 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 129: Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"Recorded in my father's-in-law truck on a dirt road between Spanish Fork and Springville, on my way to Hobble Creek. It was raining, and I decided to turn around, but the road was deserted so I just stopped right there and recorded this episode. I didn't mention in the recording that this poem is a villanelle, which is a quirky little form that requires a lot of planning on the poet's part. The repeated lines that echo and then repeat in the final stanza? That's the villanelle at work. There's usually something kind of audacious about a villanelle, but this...
2017-04-2909 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 128: Poems by Robert Frost and Wendell BerryThese two poems are favorites of mine (aren't they all?), and I love the way the comment on each other. I discussed mostly how Wendell Berry's poem seems to be deeply antisocial but, upon some reflection, really isn't. But there's a lot more to say than just this. Check the show notes or the website for some more thought-provoking questions. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2806 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 127: Michael Blumenthal's "For My Son, Reading Harry Potter"Recorded in my secret grading-fishing spot (hint: it's south of Provo) because it's beautiful and secluded and quiet and I can change out of my pants and into my waders by the side of the road and never worry about anyone driving by and seeing me pantsless. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2707 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 126: Wendell Berry's "Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front"Recorded on a quiet, little used trail while I sat down to eat something and rest a while. Actually, even though the trail had very few human tracks, and though I thought I was leaving the trail to a place of untouched solitude, I found a bunch of garbage within a single pace of where I sat. There's nothing that says "I'm in the authentic backcountry" like sunbleached beer cans and balls of aluminum foil and brittle plastic wrappers. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2609 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 125: John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"Recorded at night, while camping in southern Utah, under a clear, dark sky of a million million stars. I love camping, but I love it more when I've got Kate with me. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2508 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 124: Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day"Recorded a couple of days ago after finishing a couple of slot canyons called Ding and Dang. They're outside Goblin Valley. They're not difficult, I think rated just 2BII, but having a handicapped twenty-something man in our party made it into a much more intense adventure. It was, in fact, one of the greatest things I feel I have ever done outside. What a great day. And so I'm going to read a great poem, too. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2408 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 123: George Herbert's "Prayer (I)"Recorded while on the outskirts of the San Rafael Swell, where I could not find anywhere that was completely out of the wind. But even if it isn't a great place to record, it is one of my favorite places, and I am so grateful to live close enough that I get to visit a couple of times a year. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2308 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 122: Sheenagh Pugh's "Sometimes"I have inherited my sense of direction from my mother, who has learned that, when in doubt, she should go exactly the opposite of what feels like the right direction. I get lost all the time, and absolutely depend on the topo map app on my phone. I recorded this while trying to find my way to the right trail, which eventually required a little off-trail bushwhacking. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2205 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 121: Haiku by BashōI had something of a haiku moment: sitting by the side of a trail and watching the grass bend in the wind. I felt like maybe I should learn some more haiku, but then I decided that the feeling of needing more is probably antithetical to what I was feeling at the time. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2109 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 120: Theodore Roethke's "Dolor"It's the day after the last day of classes for the semester, and so I chose this poem about offices and businesses. I think it's funny that my students think that they are the only ones who are glad at the end of a term. Recorded on the Little Baldy trail, which my children will probably think is a funny and appropriate name considering the state of my scalp. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2107 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 119: Anne Bradstreet's "Upon my Son Samuel, His Going for England, November 6, 1657"Recorded in the rain, but under a pavilion. You can hear both the river and the car traffic near me. This is such a great poem, however, that I didn't want to wait, but I did skip a critical part of the analysis: that's what I get for doing it in one take and without notes. Check the website for details about what I skipped. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-2006 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 118: From Federico García Lorca's “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias”Recorded at about 5:00pm, not so coincidentally, for obvious reasons. For a number of years I somehow mixed up this poem with Francisco Goya's painting "The Third of May, 1808" which isn't about bullfighting at all, but rather about the Spanish Civil War. Even now, there's some weird overlap in my head, that I still imagine the (totally unrelated) painting with this poem. There are worse things, I suppose. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1808 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 117: Billy Collins' "The Lanyard"Recorded on the Dry Canyon trail, just sitting down on a rock. This is perhaps the most popular poem that I've read on Lucky Words yet, but it's still not nearly as well known as it should be. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1707 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 116: Donne's Holy Sonnet VII ("At the Round Earth's Imagin'd Corners, Blow")Happy Easter, everyone! For this Sabbath holiday I've chosen a holy sonnet by John Donne. This poem is about Jesus' second coming rather than his atoning sacrifice, so I guess it's not a perfect Easter poem, but it's still pretty close. It's in the right ballpark. This is recorded while sitting on a tree over a stream, and there's a lot of water noise in the background. It might not make great audio, but it was a fun place to record. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1606 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 115: Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America"It's a little weird for me to read this poem about race and America, but that's not stopping me. Just a short episode today, recorded on the Curley Springs trail. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1504 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 114: Donne's "Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward"Longest episode yet, but in part because it's a longish poem. And I barely scratch the surface here. We could easily spend an hour on this one alone and just start digging in. But you don't need that much time to start to appreciate it. And on a lovely Good Friday, you'll be a better person after reading this poem. Recorded while hiking up Dry Canyon, above Lindon, Utah. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1412 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 113: William Carlos Williams' "This is Just to Say"You could stop listening at 4:45 if you want just the standard experience, or you can keep listening beyond for a special bonus (*bonus!*) story that kinda-sorta-almost relates to the poem. It's a personal story, and it makes me laugh, but no guarantees that it'll have the same effect on you. I'd be curious: do you have any good fruit-related stories to share? Visit luckywords.squarespace.com and let me know. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1410 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 112: Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Blackbird"Recorded while I was unwilling to hike any further up the snowcovered and avalanche-prone Mount Timpanogos. I love the trail, but I don't want to get caught in a avalanche, and I've seen them from too close up there in the past. So I recorded this podcast about a great modernist poem. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1308 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 111: Anonymous' "Wulf" (translated from the Anglo-Saxon by Kevin Crossley-Holland)Recorded while hiking up the Squaw Peak trail again, in a spot with lots of wind and hence the distracting and omnipresent wind noise. Still, an awesome poem that you probably haven't head before because it's a translation from a fragment of an Old English (Anglo-Saxon) manuscript. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1105 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 110: Keats' "To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent"Recorded while hiking through the snow on the Stewart Falls trail above Sundance. It's technically the Stewart Cascade trail, but no one around here calls it that. It's just Stewart Falls. I didn't make it too the falls, however: too much snow and too little trail. But it was still a nice hike. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1105 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 109: Dickinson's "Some Keep the Sabbath by Going to Church"Recorded on a trail from the Squaw Peak Lookout, I was at an elevation of about 7200, just over 2000 feet above my house. Not recorded on a Sunday, because, unlike Emily Dickinson, I do keep my Sabbath by going to church. But I like her sentiment. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-1003 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 108: Frost's "Two Tramps in Mud Time"Kind of a longer poem today, and recorded indoors--or rather, in car, trying to get out of the wind enough to make myself audible. I was birding at the Provo Airport Dike, which is one of the best spots around here for waterbirds (and other birds as well, of course). Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0911 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 107: Yeats' "Lake Isle of Innisfree"Recorded while hiking, which explains but does not justify the noise of the wind, stream, footsteps, and worst of all, my heavy breathing. But the poem is beautiful, and the background noise might help you intuit the setting I recorded in, which is about as beautiful as it gets. It is, in fact, up South Fork in Provo Canyon, on my way to the Cascade Saddle (among other places). Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0807 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 106: Silverstein's "Sick"Recorded during a pause while fishing on the lower Provo River, just a couple of miles up the canyon from my house. I had a #14 Elk Hair Caddis fly on about four feet of tippet at the end of a 12' Tenkara rod. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0706 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 105: Shelley's "Ozymandias"Episode 105-Shelley's "Ozymandias" Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0606 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 104: E. E. Cummings' "i thank You God for most this amazing"Recorded at the Indian Road trailhead, which leads to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. I was in the car for this recording, because I wasn't sure about my outdoors setup. Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0508 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 103: Louis Simpson's "Chocolates"Recorded while hiking on a section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, part way up Provo Canyon. There's some wind and I have to breathe heavy because, well, I'm hiking at an elevation that looks down on Denver by 1000 feet. Except Denver is eight hours away. I'm also 1000 feet higher than Salt Lake or my beloved Provo, but they don't claim to be "Mile High." Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0406 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 102: Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays"101: Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0308 min
Lucky WordsEpisode 101: Milton's "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent"Discussion on John Milton's poem, "When I consider how my light is spent" Get full access to Lucky Words at luckywords.substack.com/subscribe
2017-04-0109 min
Beyond The WallsThe Jesus Film Project - The Jesus Film Project in MunduDorothea Jeffrey talks about the challenges in bringing The Jesus Film to the Mundu speaking people.
2015-05-0331 min
Windsor Baptist ChurchThe Jesus Film Project - The Jesus Film Project in MunduDorothea Jeffrey talks about the challenges in bringing The Jesus Film to the Mundu speaking people.
2015-05-0334 min