Heartwork with Dale Biron–Poems For Heart and Soul

As the extraordinary teacher and public intellectual, Bayo Akomolafe once put it, “The times are urgent: Let’s slow down...” In this episode we contemplate what it would be like to start again, to start fresh, to start small and go slow...

If we really want to have greater "agency" in this world (and at the same time, joy) we're going to need our dear friends by our side. In this episode we'll look at poetry that celebrates those we call our friends.

Resistance, Resilience, Renewal: Poetry’s Power in Turbulent Times...  In this course, we’ll take a journey through the tumultuous landscapes of contemporary society, guided by the bright beacon of poetry. Through readings, discussions, and provocative inquiries, we will uncover the ways in which poetry serves as a practical and potent force for resistance, resilience, and renewal in the face of e...

"Look. The poppies  they are at it again exploding on the hills with their deep yellow flames and / supple hearts..." Excerpt from "Sun Trail" by Dale Biron

If you actually love poetry, it’s not because you chose to do so in any traditional sense. We choose poetry because something mysterious and deep in our body chooses for us.

Some mornings, despite the catastrophes, we wake up shining...

If you want to simultaneous enjoy your life, have better relationships, and get more things done, then you'll need to spend more time in your personal optimal zone. That includes having more fun. This week is all about that...

We all want to fulfill the "why" of our lives. Therefore, how we "pickle" ourselves matters. Or said another way, the "context" we create for ourselves and others will determine how successful we are at creating the vision and world that is most important to us.

The simple, basic, foundational fact we must understand to be successful in any creative (especially artistic) endeavor...

When we create stories about human nature, based upon observing traumatized humans, we get a picture that is both predictable and wrong. –Musings of a Poet

A Post-Humanist world would be one that fully embraced a "more than human world..." This week's episode continues to explore this theme, and features a powerful and poetic quote by David Abram, who coined the phrase used in the title. Plus one of the most famous poems written by the brilliant poet, Robinson Jeffers. 

"...We must un-humanize our view of the world just a little, make being of service, as needed and as sacred as sunlight. Invite both head and heart, home, to a welcomed wholeness. Declare joy and having "enough" the newest kind of envy..." –Dale Biron

What if we are up to our collective axels in mud? What if our political and ecological ideas, beliefs, and actions are getting us nowhere? What if we've got to get lost (on purpose) to actually move forward. What if a condition for sane progress is to first arrange for our own disappearance? What if philosopher-poet, Bayo Akomolafe is right when he says, "The way we respond to the crisis...

In these times of political, social, and ecological challenge and disruption, to what should we pay attention? Well certainly the ability to come back to our "center" is critical. In other words, having the ability to make our personal "optimal zone" a place where we spend more and more of our time. Solving your 37th problem is at the core of it all... PS: If you're intere...

Let's reimagine both hope and despair. Truth is, hope and despair make uneasy friends. Our categorical, binary culture, insists on our choosing one or the other. But what if both despair and hope live deep in our hearts and minds at this time? What if to be skillful and resilient in our lives, we must acknowledge and embrace both?

Forgiveness? It can become your super power. Start with others. Slowly. Pace yourself. It’s no cakewalk, but forgiving others can often be a tad easier. A way to get started. Eventually, as your powers increase you can do the really heavy lifting of forgiving yourself.

Real hope, meaning decent odds for passing through the coming political, social, and ecological bottlenecks we face throughout the world, will require a deep partnership between our minds and hearts. That is to say, our many civilization-threatening meta-crisis predicaments are too big, too mature, too complex for anything short of "artful" responses. Here's how...

Of course, there's no algorithm or "set of rules" for writing (or for that matter, discovering) beautiful, stunning, memorable poems. But after working with thousands of people and the poems they fell in love with, I've discovered a simple set of characteristics that can help. Three essential qualities that can point us toward the poetry we are much more likely to appreciate an...

WANTED: HUMANS TO CREATE AND SPREAD NEW, HELPFUL STORIES... When it comes to the META-CRISIS we face, we not only have an old story, it's a bad story. The kind that's leading us off a very high cliff. Replacing our own story is the first step, and is more critical than ever.

"You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or you can have democracy. But you cannot have both." –U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (See what happens when artificial intelligence meets artful intelligence.)

Perhaps there's never been a time on this earth, when tiny moments of restful joy, and small islands of utter happiness were more needed. The recipe for moments of utter happiness is no mystery. It's one part Attention, one part Gratitude, mixed with a generous portion of "Let it Be-ism."

Listen, you can’t just read a poem. Not a good one. Not a poem that moves you. Not one that stops you in your tracks, has you look closely, walk inside it, have your own experience. Without you, the reader, the listener, the poem is nothing...

What if a New Year could talk? What would it say? Maybe it feels like we lean on "it" a little too hard, for the things we want, but constantly choose not to do for ourselves...

"Because poetry, if it takes fire, cracks people’s masks, and assaults arrogance, and sucks you beneath the surface of words towards why we use them...." –Brian Doyle

Stay A Cheap Date… To up your gratefulness game, stay amazed by a cool glass of water, a summer tomato, a hug, a curious question asked by a loving friend, a simple walk in the forest, the sound of a guitar, a new poet you never heard before, (or many times before) that rocks your world.