Human Voices Wake Us

An episode from 11/9/20: Tonight, I read one of the most moving sections of George Orwell’s 1937 book, The Road to Wigan Pier . In the book, Orwell goes to live in the mining district of Northern England, and this passage comes after he spent only a small amount of time in the mines himself, amid their horrible conditions. The question to ask after listening to what Orwell has to say is, "Wha...

An episode from 11/5/2020: Tonight, I read a handful of poems from Robinson Jeffers's late collection, Hungerfield . The book, especially the title poem, is taken up with the death of Jeffers's wife, Una, in 1950: Animals Time of Disturbance The Beauty of Things The World's Wonders The Old Stone-Mason excerpt from Hungerfield De Rerum Virtute The Deer Lay Down Their Bones Jeffers remai...

An episode from 11/01/20: Tonight, I read two passages from Franz Kafka's The Trial : the fable known as "Before the Law," and the concluding scene, where Josef K. is executed. Kafka's ability to portray those who are powerless when faced with vast bureaucracy, or simply before the rituals of everyday interaction (which many also find impenetrable), is still so important to exper...

An episode from 10/28/20: Tonight, I read from Stephen Ambrose's book on the Lewis & Clark expedition, Undaunted Courage . I've chosen a scene from the end of the book, detailing the last night of Meriwether Lewis's life, in October of 1809. Unlike his more famous companion, William Clark, Lewis suffered from what we today would call depression, and this passage is one of the sadde...

An episode from 10/26/20: Tonight, I read six poems from the Last Poems of Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962): Explosion Vulture 'The polar ice-caps are melting, the mountain glaciers' 'As the eye fails through age or disease' 'It nearly cancels my fear of death, my dearest said' 'I am seventy-four years old and suddenly all my strength' Jeffers remains one of the few poe...

An episode from 10/25/20: A reading from the poet W. S. Merwin’s memoir, The Mays of Ventadorn , where he recalls meeting the poet Ezra Pound in 1949. Merwin, who died in 2019 at the age of ninety-one, was just starting out when he paid a visit to Pound. For his part, by 1949 Ezra Pound (1885-1972) had already known and influenced every great Modernist poet since 1900, going to university in Ameri...

An episode from 10/23/20: Tonight, I read from Michael Ondaatje’s 1993 novel, The English Patient . The book beautifully captures the experiences of time and nostalgia, especially when they are connected with romantic love. I also talk about how certain books become reference points in our lives. Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us  on Substack , where you can also get our newsletter and...

An episode from 10/22/20: Tonight, I read five poems from a (as yet unpublished) book, School of Night . Each circle around the strange feeling of being awake and alone at night, in an empty house or an apartment shared with family or friends, and the creativity and paranoia that can result. You can find links to more poems from the book here . Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us  on Subs...

An episode from 10/15/20: Only the third episode in this podcast (and you can hear it in my voice, where I still sound a little uncomfortable), tonight I read Carl Jung's description of his famous "Dream of the House." In the dream, Jung walks from the top floor and down through the rest of the house, into the basement, and beyond. As each lower level in the house appeared to represe...

An episode from 10/10/20: A reading from Mary Pipher’s 1994 book, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls . It is fascinating to see how the internet is nowhere to be found here, and how in the years after the book was published, technology and smartphones have only exacerbated these age-old difficulties. Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us  on Substack , where you can als...

An episode from 10/8/2020: In the first episode of Human Voices Wake Us, I read Louise Glück's poem, "Messengers," on the morning that it was announced that she had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Buy her Collected Poems: 1962-2012 . Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us  on Substack , where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast...