Heartwork with Dale Biron–Poems For Heart and Soul

Silence speaks volumes—before, between, and after words and lines. Listen carefully to what poems don't say, as much as what they do. Sometimes a pause will include repeating a line or lines, and playing with inflection. And if we listen deeply, poems will signal precisely where the quiet wants to be.

Don’t Perform – Speak The Poem… Let the poem live and breathe through you. Speak as if sharing something private and true, not putting on a show.

Despair is that feeling of "ending" full stop. As if nothing can, or will ever change again. Cahnge can, and will happen. No feeling is final... Just begin again!

Stay tuned for a new format and new episodes beginning July 4, 2025. In the meantime, I'll be giving talks and teaching at The Fromm Institute. More details here: https://courses.fromminstitute.org/posts/84396387?utm_source=manual

This poem is wonderfully subversive when it comes to exposing the biggest lie reinforced by our cultural stories...

A good poem will interest, excite, and move you. You don’t need to “try” to like a good poem. So if a poem does not move you… move on! There is so much poetry, you can be picky.

A greatefulness practice can transform your life. But what happens when feeling grateful seems difficult, or even impossible? Here's a story and a poem that may help. (PS: GRATEFUL.ORG is an amazing resource for your gratefulness practice, co-founded by Brother David Steindl-Rast)

Some poems are so good... they can give us a kind of fresh start. Deliver gifts for the head and heart. Help us change our minds and moods...

"Heroes are all about straightening things out. The courageous love the curves as much as the straights..." –Dale Biron

That old kind of hope, "hope 1.0" is no longer up to the task. It is being replaced, and not a second too soon...

Use this poem to regain your center, agency, and way... even in these most difficult times!

"Friends, we’re trying to understand, as one, as many, as Mother Earth. And it can be as daunting as catching smoke with our bare hands." –Dale Biron

Asking Me To "Stand With The Dems" You keep asking for more money, and for me to “stand with the Dems.” I’ll stand with the Dems when they actually take a stand for us all. I’ll stand with the Dems when they break a few rules, peacefully yes, creatively for sure, forcefully, of course, as when dealing with any bully. I’ll stand with the Dems when they clean up their own act, rejecting ou...

We are helpless mapmakers. We can’t stop drawing lines, creating meaning, and shaping stories to explain the world around us. It’s how we navigate life—through beliefs, assumptions, and the mental landscapes we construct. But if we combine this irresistible human trait with the deepest wisdom we have—the kind that recognizes our profound interconnectedness—then maybe, just maybe, we can chart a pa...

If we look inside ourselves, each of us has places in our lives of brokenness, sorrow, and grief. Places that have strung us out to dry... What then? That's when this week's poem comes in handy.

Can a humorous poem make serious points? Yes. Poems can help us make sense of the world. Poems can help us ask new, sometimes uncomfortable questions. A just right poem can help us write whole new ways of seeing and feeling the world, and what's going on in it...

How To Be Less Fearful (to remind myself)  "What if we, are the only Calvary that’s actually coming? What if the kindness we seek, we must bring ourselves...?" –Dale Biron

Finding moments of sanity, refuge, and even joy, is more critical than ever. This week's special poem is a potent reminder of this...

Listen to one of the most popular poems, from one of the most popular poets in the last 100 years...

"There is no requirement to read, or hear, or write anything!  But why not?  If I were empowered by The Great Gods of Permission, I would provide you vast Amazon rivers of it.  Baptize, forgive, and bless you with it. After all, language is  your human super power, the only tool you can’t put down...." –Dale Biron

Of all the things poems can do, one of them is to help us work with catastrophic loss, to grieve and make sense of the senseless...

We would be shocked and eventually saddened to hear someone say this to us. Everyone has a favorite song, right? Of course, they do! But today, let's go beyond our favorite songs and ponder our favorite poems. I want us to be equally shocked if someone cannot name their favorite poem. It may actually become even more critical in our lives. Also, we'll feature a brilliant poem for we mort...

How can we weave more beauty and meaning into our lives in 2025, in the face of so many profound challenges and difficulties?

Thanks so much to each of you who have been on this poetry-based journey during 2024. In case you're in need of a collection of essays that hitches up some amazing poems with those traits that are most needed by leaders, here it is. The book is a few years old, but the poems and leadership qualities featured are timeless. Stay tuned for 2025 and a whole new series of poetry enhanced podcasts....

"The world is not made of atoms but of stories," said poet Muriel Rukeyser. This means good, beautiful, pro-social stories (which are often poems!) can help overcome the most unjust, anti-social, and destructive stories. Here's a poem that does just that...