Poems for the Speed of Life

Richard Brautigan was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1935 and died in 1984. He had an unhappy childhood marked by poverty, and in his teens was committed to Oregon State Hospital where he received electroshock therapy. Moving to San Francisco, he published the novel Trout Fishing in America in 1967 which established him as a literary force. That same year, while poet-in-residence at the California...

This is the fifth episode of the Nature, Wilderness and Wildness series of the podcast. Francis Harvey was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 1925 and died in 2014 at the age of 89. Though born in Northern Ireland, he lived most of his life in County Donegal in the Republic, and was a member of Aosdána, the Irish association that honours artists who have produced distinguished work of genui...

This is the fourth episode of the Nature, Wilderness and Wildness series of the podcast. Lucille Clifton was born in 1936 in Depew, New York, and died in 2010. She served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1979 to 1985, was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Award for Blessing the Boats in 2000. Clifton’s style was a minimalist one — without standard capitalization or...

This is the third episode of the Nature, Wilderness and Wildness series of the podcast. Ada Limón was born in California in 1976 and was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2022 until 2025. She is one of the most notable and noteworthy voices in contemporary American poetry. Some of the themes of her work include love, loss, the body, and the natural world. Limon has published eight collections, including...

This is the second episode of the Nature, Wilderness and Wildness series of the podcast. Seamus Heaney, who died in 2013, was one of Ireland's most celebrated and most loved poets, and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. He grew up on a farm in County Derry, Northern Ireland, and the landscape of his childhood—its bogs, fields, and rural rhythms—saturated his work throughout...

This is the first episode of the Nature, Wilderness and Wildness series of the podcast. Wendell Berry is an American poet, farmer, and environmental activist who has spent most of his life on a small farm in Kentucky. Born in 1934, Berry has been writing for over six decades, exploring themes of agrarian life, community, and our relationship with the land. He's both a working farmer and a thin...

Announcing a new series of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin.  This series of the podcast is overdue, and it's great to be back. This series is all about the world around us. Nature. Wilderness. Wildness. The other living things that share our space and our place on this earth. Included in this series of Poems for the Speed of Life will be poems from Sharon Olds, Mary Oliver, Seam...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin. This is Episode 10 of the Christmas series and today's piece is "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the piece here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can get notified about new episodes, receive more detailed episode descriptions, and if you are so moved, support the podcast financially, by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joining on...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 9 of the Christmas series and today's piece is the lyric of the song "Silent Night (Christmas 1915)" by Cormac MacConnell. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the piece here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watc...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 8 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "A Jewish Mom's Christmas Poem" by Amy Sue Nathan. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can get notified about new ep...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 7 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "My hero the whirligig" by Bob Hicok. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can get notified about new episodes, receive...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 6 of the Christmas series and today's piece of writing is "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus", by Francis P. Church. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can get n...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 5 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "A Christmas Childhood" by Patrick Kavanagh. ⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can get notified about new episodes, rece...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 4 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "Christmas" by John Betjeman. ⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠ You can get notified about new episodes, receive more detailed...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 3 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "The Christmas Letter" by John N. Morris. ⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠ You can get notified about new episodes, receive mor...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 2 of the Christmas series and today's poem is "Advent" by Mary Jo Salter. ⁠You can read the poem here⁠ *** Listen back to the ⁠ introductory episode of the Christmas serie...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner and advocate of poetry and the written word to be our mentor and guide through the world and through our lives. This is Episode 1 of the Christmas series: "Christmas Trees" by Robert Frost. You can read the poem here *** Listen back to the ⁠⁠ introductory episode of the Christmas series on Spotify...

Introducing a new series of Poems for the Speed of Life, with your host, Shane Breslin. This podcast is about the transformative power of poetry, literature and the written word in general, to help us, to teach us, to guide us on the road through the life we’d like to lead. The theme for the new series is Christmas. You can look forward to poems from all over the world, plus a song lyric or two, a...

Welcome to another episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. To finish this series on fathers and fatherhood, I decided to offer a sort of couplet. Two poems, written maybe a century apart, one by a man who was read by millions when he lived and is now long since dead, the other by a young woman who immigrated to Canada from India...

Welcome to another series of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is the fourth episode of this series of the show on the theme of "Fatherhood”. Today's poem marks a new departure for this podcast and this project. It is one of my own poems, "The Time" by Shane Breslin. Typically in this podcast I read the poem twice straight throug...

Welcome to this episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is Episode 10 of this series of the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the theme of "Fatherhood”⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Today's poem is "Follower" by Seamus Heaney. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read today’s poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, please check out Episod...

Welcome to this episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is Episode 9 of this series of the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the theme of "Fatherhood”⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Today's poem is "Because" by James McAuley. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can read today’s poem here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, please c...

Welcome to this episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is the eighth episode of this series of the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the theme of "Fatherhood”⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Today's episode is a different format, because the typical format - reading a poem twice straight through, and then offering some thoughts - couldn't work for a 500-li...

Welcome to this episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is the seventh episode of this series of the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠the theme of "Fatherhood”⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Today's poem is "Weakness" by Alden Nowlan. ⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can read today’s poem here ⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, pl...

Welcome to this episode of Poems for the Speed of Life with Shane Breslin, writer, business owner, poetry advocate and poet. This is the sixth episode of this series of the show on ⁠⁠⁠the theme of "Fatherhood”⁠⁠⁠ . Today's poem is "On my First Son" by Ben Jonson. ⁠⁠⁠ You can read today’s poem here ⁠⁠⁠ *** For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, ple...