No Way Out but Through

After long winter, giving each other nothing, we collide with blossoms in our hands. by ChiyoChiyo (1703-1775) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period, a Buddhist nun, and widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of haiku (then called hokku). After Long Winter is one of the best haiku ever written. Period. Translated by David Ray.This piece originally appeared in The Sleep of Rea

The Playlist:Thanks Gratefulness puts the pedal to the metal and crashes into the void in W.S. Merwin's poem Thanks.Once Once I was in love with my future. It was lit like a Japanese city. My life was charmed. I got into fistfights. I turned on a dime. I was fiercely optimistic. I was the luckiest man alive.Self Portrait It doesn't interest David Whyte if there is one god

Kindness is the second single from my upcoming podcast episode, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, and an amazing poem by Naomi Shihab Nye. The Transcript can be found here

Once is the first single from my podcast episode, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. OnceOnce I was in love with my future. It was lit like a Japanese city. My life was charmed.I got into fistfightsI turned on a dime.I was fiercely optimistic.I was the luckiest man alive. Once, I was shot out of a canon,I landed on the moon,I killed seven with one blow,I balanced ten torpedoes

Excerpted from Separation EnergyIt is also included in my upcoming book, October.October 20thThe temperature has dropped, the constructs have vanished, and the woman the lab assistant’s been seeing will not return his calls.He shakes his head, saying,The tensile strength of the bridge cableswill not hold if the vibration continues at these unprecedented levels. How will it co

This is excerpted from Episode 4: Separation EnergySweet Darknessby David WhyteWhen your eyes are tiredthe world is tired also.When your vision has gone,no part of the world can find you.Time to go into the darkwhere the night has eyesto recognize its own.There you can be sureyou are not beyond love.The dark will be your hometonight.The night will give you a horizonfurther than you

This is excerpted from Episode 4: Separation EnergyWhen Death ComesBy Mary OliverWhen death comeslike the hungry bear in autumn;when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purseto buy me, and snaps the purse shut;when death comeslike the measle-poxwhen death comeslike an iceberg between the shoulder blades,I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:wh

Lines to a Poetby Josephine JacobsenBe careful what you say to us now.The street-lamp is smashed, the window is jagged,There is a man dead in his blood by the base of the fountain.If you speak,You cannot be delicate or sad or clever.Some other hour, in a moist April,We will consider similes for the budding larches.You can teach our wits and our fancy then;By a green-lit midnight in

A performance of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's great poem I am Waiting—excerpted from episode 4: Separation Energy. Music and performance by Scott Taylor ©2020. Listen to the whole show here: Separation Energy

Stories, poems, and monologues with music for that special sheltering-at-home time of your life.1. Messages (Taylor): A woman sends messengers into the afterworld 2. Sweet Darkness (David Whyte): Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love.3. Cosmodemonic (Taylor): If you want to speak to a human being who wi