Lucky Words

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 a...

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....

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

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

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...

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...

This 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 techniqu...

Wordsworth 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...

This 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 t...

Recorded 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...

The 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...

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....

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 re...

These 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.co...

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

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 alumin...

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

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 gre...

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

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...

I 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

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 luck...

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

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,...

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