The Two Boots Word Vault

The Como Cottage Salon on November 9, 2025 featured a poetry scrum, hosted by Timothy Young.  Featured readers  were Scott Vetsch, Jesse Dermody, Thomas R. Smith and Timothy Young.

Rappers are not the only freestyling poets.  Here is an example of one poem I freestyled in December 2017 while the SpiritHouse Quartet played at a Como Cottage Salon.   Later with slight editing, I prepared the poem for publication.

This episode is my telling of a Metis tale, Little Man with Hair All Over. I used to tell a version of this tale to my son when he was a boy.  This version is a recording from my telling to The Fifth Direction Men's Elder Circle.

In 2019 Dalyce and I produced an after-dinner program for her sister and friends  at the Crave restaurant. We put together a program of poetry, music, and storytelling for their enjoyment and relaxation. 

Here are six poems prompted by pictures of horses painted in the Caves of Lascaux.  The first three I read for the Elder Circle of the mythopoetic group, The Fifth Direction, on October 2, 2025.  The final three are read from the book.

This episode is a recording of a poetry reading at the 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference at Camp Lake Hubert in Nisswa, MN.  John Lang and I were introduced  by Todd Davis.  Roy McBride and Thomas R. Smith also read that evening and were featured in an earlier podcast, number 28.

This is my version of the creation story with Raven comes from the Pacific Northwest. This telling specifically is from the Haida people, as provided by the transcription by the poet and writer Robert Bringhurst.  I told this tale to the Australian-based Fifth Direction mythopoetic community's Men's Elder Circle. 

Timothy Young with SpiritHouse Quartet December 9, 2017. Here is some extracted poetry with music, performed at the 80th Como Cottage Salon. Gary Waryan tablas, Dalyce Elliott Young, violin, Michelle Kinney, cello, Jeff Waryan, guitar, Timothy Young, recitation.

The 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference was especially potent. The headliners were Robert Bly, James Hillman, Robert Moore, and Etheridge Knight. Bly's presentations focused on the deep meanings in William Blake's poetry.  I was one of the organizers that year and I was able to bring in poets Roy McBride and Thomas Smith. This is a recording of their part of an evening of poetry.

Since 2020 Walton Stanley and I have told and discussed important folktales and read important poetry with the Australian-based international mythopoetic community, The Fifth Direction. Our monthly sessions have been deliciously profound and we have made great friends through this connection.  If Walton tells a story I read a poem or two.  If I tell a tale, Walton reads poems.   The poems read her...

n 1986 my wife, Carol Ringer, and I produced a television documentary on the history of St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood through the support of the Frogtown History Project, the Frogtown Community Assoiciation, and The Compass Community Arts Fun.  She was the videographer. On a very small budget we created a television program which aired on KTCA public television in 1989.  The video is avail...

In 1993 this poem was recorded at the Minnesota Men's Conference on Lake Hubert, in north central Minnesota.  This version was read straight, without the usual musical accompaniment or hyperbolic enthusiasm.  I love this version, too.

Thanks to Ted King and Tom Cassidy with Tributary Reading Series for inviting me to read.  The original poem is usually a half-hour reading time, so I had to cut a few verses.  But you get the feel.

For over 40 years this Coyote tale from the Pacific Coast has intrigued me. In May 2025 I was able to tell it to the Elder Circle of the Internation Fifth Direction Mythopoetic Community based in Australia.

On March 16, 2019 Hardy Coleman was one of several poets who read at the Seeing Them Home: A Reading for the Ancestors hosted by Maureen Skelly. Hardy joined the ancestors himself on March 26, 2024.

On July 30, 2025 four poets were invited to read their work on the effects of war on the soul. Three were veterans, Frank Gioa, George Colburn, and Jessi Marie. I am not a veteran and represented those who share the suffering brought on by the effects of war.

While preparing for the 2025 Minnesota Men's Conference I spoke with poets, Jonathan Stensland and Jesse Dermody, about the value of poetry at our conferences, and at the personal level.  It was a delightful conversation.

The Swan of Tuonela is a story of a hero initiated into the maturity of living as a man, and his relationships to the powerful feminine.

On March 16, 2019 the poet, Maureen Skelly, hosted a Celebration of Ancestors at the Walker Church in South Minneapolis. Numerous musicians and poets and a quilter celebrated family and ancestors. These are four of the readers, Maureen, Rebecca Paradis, Mike Finley, and myself.  

Often I am lucky to recite poems with the accompaniment of the SpiritHouse Quartet. Their unique music is the perfect container for poems. This song with two poems, one by the Persian saint, Attar, and one of my own was recorded at the Como Cottage Salon on April 21, 2017.  Spirithouse Quartet is comprised of Gary Waryan on tablas, Michelle Kinney on cello, Jeff Waryan on guitar, and Dalyce Elliot...

The Midstream Reading Series has been a favorite series for Minnesota poets ever since David Shove began the series in 2013. After his passing in 2019 a number of other hosts picked up the load to continue this series.  I have been fortunate enough to read in 2014, 2018, 2020, and in 2022. Dave invited me in 2014 and 2018, Diane Jarvenpa invited me in 2020 and 2022.

I am lucky I get to recite poems with the accompaniment of the SpiritHouse Quartet. Their unique music is the perfect container for poems. This song, Freida, with two poems, my own The Glass Brick and my version of the 11th century Andalusian poet, Abu Bakr al-Turtushi, was recorded at the Como Cottage Salon April 21, 2017.  Spirithouse Quartet is comprised of Gary Waryan on tablas, Michelle Kinne...

For a couple weeks in 2008, thanks to the storyteller Martin Shaw, I traveled to the United Kingdom's West Country with a "brigand band of poets and musicians". We appeared at a festival, on the radio, in coffeehouses, schools, in the wilds, and in churches. The entire crew consisted of Robert Bly, Gioia Timpanelli, Thomas R. Smith, Danny Deardorff, Judith-Kate Friedman, Tim Frantzi...

Shortly after the second election of an artless president, the Como Cottage hosted a salon of poetry, a scrum honoring the deeper art of grace and humor with words. This scrum featured Thomas R. Smith, Michael Moos, Scott Vetsch, and Timothy Young.   

Many of my poems are reactions to or inspired by music and musicians. This section from my book, Herds of Bears Surround Us, is titled Blue Music from the Star Cafe.   The Star Cafe was a small cafe and bar in Stockholm, Wisconsin, along the Mississippi River, where travelling musicians often stopped for a short gig.