Poems & Whiskey

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. *Episode contains themes of gun violence,* THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 2...

It is worth taking hold of your creativity as participant. You're part of the show and the making is the point. "...no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow." -- K.V. Jr. Cheers babies! Todd's Site & Insta & Blue Sky Buy The Ways We Vanish & Ragnarök at the Father Daughter Dance 🛋️ Come ove...

John Compton's s3 return! (cw: mentions of and poems read concerning sexual violence. take care y'all. ) Let's see! *cracks knuckles* John and I talk community, and community, and community this time. We are part of a community; how are we showing up for it? We often ask what we're getting out of something but what are we putting in? And a miracle on par with other well known phenomena, we actuall...

2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. *Episode contains themes of gun violence, euthanasia, and suicide. Take care of yourselves, friends.* Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age. Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Museum and Library The Website...

To define self, one must first be able to have the breathing room to distinguish the forest from the trees. As the spaces around letters tell us how to read them and the negative space around art gives us context for an image, so can creation gifts us opportunity for expansion and clarity. Elisheva and I turn over every card in the deck and then make up a few of our own in the damn near 3 HOUR con...

Welcome back to Poems & Whiskey, babies! Didja miss me? I missed you. It's good to be back. Kissing you all! (Appropriately, of course.) Charles K. Carter and I get rolling fast. Breaking down boundaries is the name of game. Why do we insist on separating our heads from our bodies? The mind is not better than our animal selves and doesn't know more. We are consistently being told who we are, w...

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪 Must Be Enough ep 1.5 I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. Headphones are recommended. Where We Must Look for Help : Robert Bly from Eating the Honey of Words There Will Come Soft Rains : Ray Bradbury from The Martian Chronicles It's a Little Anxious to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water - piglet : Sam Sax from Pig *in the sec...

So we meet again! Is anyone else as surprised as I am? All right. Hi, babies. This is Michael, and this whole thing is my fault. If you found Poems & Whiskey during the hiatus, things are about to change. Long form, rambling, mostly (?) sober conversations are back in about two weeks. I've got so many awesome artists lined up. Oh, God. I'm almost as nervous as I was in season one. I do have a...

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪 A Tender Blossom ep 1.4 I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. Headphones are recommended. (at about 6:62 in show, there's an awful sound, that I did on purpose, that lasts for less than a minute. My sincerest apologies to your ears.) The Heavenly Body : Leslie J. Anderson from Take This to Space Miss Temptation : Kurt Vonnegut from Welcome to t...

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪 Everything Might Spill ep 1.3 I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. Aubade : Kathryn Bratt-Pfontenhauer from Bad Animal The Sea Witch Sets the Record Straight : T. Kingfisher from Toad Words and Other Stories Ode to the Sublime by Monica Vitti : Anne Carson from Decreation Thanks for visiting. The Door is still open if you would like to play in...

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪 Before the Sun ep 1.2 I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. It is Easy to be Fascinated with Death : Jane Hirschfield from Of Gravity and Angels In This Soul of a Woman : Charles de Lint from Love in Vein I : Robert Hass from Praise Thanks for visiting. See you again real soon. Good people doing good things ---> TransSanta Food Not Bombs INA...

Happy Hogswatch to All! It's that time again for the P & W Holiday Special! This year I read from L. Frank Baum 's The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause . Yeah, that's the same fella who wrote The Wizard of Oz. You remember. It all starts with a Wood Nymph breaking the rules... The Rankin/Bass production Thank you for allowing me into your life, for spending your time with me. Merry Happy Wi...

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪 In My Hands ep 1.1 I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. I Dreamed of Touching : George Bataille tr. Rosemary Lloyd from The Milk Bowl of Feathers The Wife's Story : Ursula Le Guin from Buffalo Gals and other Animal Presences What Can I Tell My Bones : Theodore Roethke from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke Thanks for visiting. See you ag...

Hey you guys! Here I am like a week (?) late and let's just not say how short, hm? I'm fine, mostly. I'm getting some more character development and slogging through plot. Could use a helpful deus ex machina, btw. If anyone out there is listening lol. A little mano a mano makes light work? I'm tired. Anyway! The Hiatus Zone is still a GO. Details in the episode but it boils down to if you wanna pl...

Hey y'all. Last week was somethin, huh? Yeah. Me too. 🫀 The Hiatus Zone will soft launch next time. In this episode, I needed to share things that helped me find a foothold in the fallout and make something...well just make something, really. I needed to push back. A few dear friends offered what they had to give too. I'm scared but I'm also resourceful, creative, and brave. And so are you. You a...

Happy Halloween Y'all! Trick or Treat! What is the maddest thing a man can do? No. Not die. It's releasing an unedited podcast episode! Duh. The Horror!!! This special is even more chaotic than usual, if you can imagine. It is 3 hours of pure, undiluted, unedited poetical puddle jumping but I don't think we actually got around to talking about poetry. We are pretty funny. Figures lol I guess the S...

We've got work to do! Make a plan! It is tempting to identify with what we make, but what we produce is not the sum of our parts. We must to allow what galvanizes, to strike and use it for what we will. We are the "imperfect blessings" of creator and creature locked in the same body. Every creative act does something terrible and wonderful and it is up to us to decide what that means. This is the...

Make a plan to vote!--> We've got work to do! <-- It comes as no real surprise that the theme of this episode, and indeed the show, is self acceptance. There are as many ways to being an artist, as there are artists. Sure, it sounds trite and maybe it is. But Okay then. Trite things also get to be helpful and true. Funny, that. Anyone who's telling you there is only one way to do the thing,...

Register to vote!--> We've got work to do! <-- In fairy tales orphaned children often must attempt a task multiple times until they get it just right to get the magic to let them go. The children must be tested though, or they won't be strong enough to actually break the spell. Which is just a long way of saying, to every time there is a season. Which is just a snotty way of saying, chill, y...

Surprise! This is sorta kinda, not really, a Third Wednesday with Kurt. I recorded this KV speech from If This Isn't Nice, What Is? (penguin 3rd edition), Chapter 12: How to be Wise Boys and Girls from 1981, directly after the Geeks & Nerds for Harris rally last night. It's a little messy but I think y'all forgive me. Here's all that information I promised on how to be honorable. So get out th...

Register to vote!--> We've got work to do! <-- Process, process, process, pro-cess. (I do hope you're getting all this down. It will be on the quiz.) Francesca and I dig into the tender, wet, smelly, underbelly of creation and poke at it until it squeals. (Which is how writing is made, children.) You have to have a special sort of courage (or dumbassery) to create anything real for yourself,...

**Do not be alarmed. There is a transmission from The Hiatus Zone before the show. Regularly scheduled programming will resume after the transmission.** We've got work to do! Willie Carver Jr. said it best, "I don't want anybody picking up this food and not knowing that I made it because I love them." You are loved. You belong. Poetry is community. Y'all should know how to find me by now. Names an...

This winter, step outside and through with me, into The Hiatus Zone.👁🤚🏻🚪 When I break from interviewing this winter, I still want to create something with all y'all. Enter The Hiatus Zone! What do you need to do to join? Simple! Pick horror, spec, or surrealist poetry or flash fiction you like, or that you've written, record yourself reading it (or send me the text and I'll happily read it for...

We've got work to do! You've not come unstuck in time void babies, this episode is very late. I got the 'vid over the weekend and it pushed everything back. My dear 20 -30 weirdos who listen every other Wednesday, this is for you (and for me, mostly for me if I'm being really honest, but I'm delighted and grateful you're all here!). What say you all about that Poets Stay Human sticker? I'll figure...

There's a short-ish ad for my winter project, The Hiatus Zone before the episode AND I have an announcement! INARA Cease Fire Today MAP Islamic Relief for Palestine The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund Demine the Ukraine Legacy of War Foundation Doctors without Borders UNHCR Here's your VERY OBVIOUS LINK I tackle the last two chapters from my Dell edition of Slaughter-House 5 and a tiny section...