The Two Boots Word Vault

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. 

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 HIDDEN PEARL with two poems, one by Rumi, and one of my own, plus poignant teaching words by Marti'n Prechtel, was recorded at the Como Cottage Salon April 21, 2017. The Quartet includes Dalyce Elliott Young, violin, Jeff Waryan, guitar, Michelle...

Each year at the Minnesota Men's Conference, each day begins with poetry. Men read and hear poems aimed at the masculine soul. This recording is from the first morning of the 2012 Conference, Bears at the Tree of Slumbering Honey. Danny Deardorff, Martin Shaw, Thomas R. Smith, myself, Doug Von Koss, and Tom Gambell read.

In 2007 Robert Bly introduced me before I read for the Minnesota Men's Conference. This was one of my favorite readings. A number of the poems were published in my second book,  Herds of Bears Surround Us  published by Red Dragonfly Press in 2010.

On January 20, 2024 The Tributary Reading Series hosted a literary tribute to the great Minnesota writer, Frederick Manfred. This is the second of two recordings from that tribute at the MCN6 TV studio in Minneapolis.  

On January 20, 2024 The Tributary Reading Series hosted a literary tribute to the great Minnesota writer, Frederick Manfred. This is the first of two recordings from that tribute at the MCN6 TV studio in Minneapolis.  

On April 11, 2025, I spent the evening reading poems and telling two stories about my predicaments as a young man in Mexico and Alaska. Soul-singer David Ballman provided an acapella Soul-chorus commentary, and an percussion egg.  Thanks to Loren Niemi and Christine Mounts for providing the stage at the American School of Storytelling.

This is a recording from April 27, 2019 at the 92nd Como Cottage Salon.

Over the years many have asked me, "What was it like to teach at Red Wing?" This episode is a recording of a short essay report about what it was like to be a teacher at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Red Wing.

The podcast is the third in my Music Critic Series of poems. This collection, The Music Critic at the Baroque Festival. all began as quick notes made at various concerts.  Later I turned the notes into poems. My wonderfully talented sister-in-law, Theresa Elliott plays beautifully and has educated me on the deep quality of some great baroque music.

This is one of my Music Critic chapbooks.  While accompanying my future wife to her weekly gigs at a Bloomington Tandoor Restaurant, I would quickly draft lines to form into cinquains. Her trio's instruments included tabla, guitar, and her violin. They played Hindu folk tunes and instrumental kirtans as curry clouds moved through the air.

Music has been a part of my poetic life for over 40 years.  Each of my published books holds poems about music and musicians, and I have performed and recorded poems with musicians throughout my life with poetry.  My Music Critic Trilogy of Chapbooks have been inspired by the music I listened to and the first drafts were usually written while the music played.

Walton Stanley and I gave a presentation on Communal Soul and its needs to The Fifth Direction, an online community interested in myth, poetry, story, and the development of community.  This presentation is similar to the one I gave at the 2025 Minnesota Men's Conference's Winter Retreat a week earlier.  The new intro is from Yata Peinovich's guitar work from the CD Snow Has Fallen...

Poets Mike Hazard, Patricia Barone, Norita Dittberner-Jax and I read poems about family relationships, going around one after another with deep feelings rising in the room among the poets and the listeners.

Brother and Sister is a folktale collected by the Grimm Brothers and was the springboard for my 1992 essay, Drinking at the Well of Instinct--the Way of the Hunter.  This recording was made as I told the tale to the Folktale Gardening Club of Minnesota.

From 1997 until 2006 I taught at-risk youth at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Red Wing Minnesota. This section of my 2010 book includes the poems I wrote about my time there.   

In 2015 my wife Dalyce published her first picture book for children. She wrote, illustrated, and composed the theme for her book.   Sue Scott, previously with The Prairie Home Companion, narrated the audio version. Dan Chouinard composed and played the underscore for the audio book.  Here is the url for the YouTube version. Ellie and the Golden Cricket by Dalyce Elliott Young .

Poet and friend Maureen Skelly invited Dalyce and me onto her show at KFAI 90.3 Fresh Air Radio on December 15, 2024.  In the 1980s Maureen and I were cohosts with Roy McBride and Susu Jeffreys for the weekly Northland Literary Review. It was a pleasure to be back in the chair presenting some of the work Dalyce and I have done.

Here is the first section of my 2010 book of poetry, Herds of Bears Surround Us, published by Red Dragonfly Press.

At a Como Cottage Salon I told the Greek Tale of Orion.  My version tells of how Orion was cast into the night sky, and chases Scorpio because of the shadow in Apollonian divinity.

On December 22, 2018 Como Cottage Salon Series hosted an Evening of Stories. The storytellers included Timothy Young, Jesse Young, Walton Stanley, and Marty MIller.  This is the recording of a tale from the Finnish saga, The Kalevala.  Here is The Minstrel and the Maid of Beauty.

Thomas R. Smith introduced me to the poetic form of the Cinquain. At the beginning of the 20th century Adelaide Crapsey, who loved haiku poetry, thought that American English did not suit the haiku form and developed the cinquain as an American alternative for the short poem.

Decades ago I found this story among those collected by William Butler Yeats.  I always felt that highly educated men needed to hear it and learn something. In 2012 I told it at the Minnesota Men's Conference Winter gathering, Into the Belly of Ice and Snow.  Ten years later I told it to two men's gatherings, the Australian group, The Fifth Direction, and the Minnesota group, The Folktal...

On October 29, 2022 the Como Cottage Salon Series featured a poetry scrum with poets Thomas R. Smith, Michael Moos, James Lenfestey, and Timothy Young.  A poetry scrum is our way of describing a poetry reading where the poets take turns choosing a one of their poems to read, inspired by a word, a theme, an action, or rhythm in the poem the previous poet read. One after another the series of poems...