The Two Boots Word Vault

There is a deep yearning for communal feelings in our digital age. There is a deep grief at its loss.  In my ruminations on the 2024 presidential election, I see that yearning across all divisions and divides. Individualism as a cultural concept has led to this.

Juan Ramon Jimenez admired Walt Whitman as a truly aristocratic man.  At the 40th anniversary of the Minnesota Men's Conference, I present this essay about the type of man I believe should be considered an Aristocrat.

My violinist wife, Dalyce Elliott Young composed and performed five small vignettes to play when she read the Beatrix Potter's tales, Squirrel Nutkin, Benjamin Bunny, Two Bad Mice, Tom Kitten, and Flopsy Bunnies to children at storytelling events near our home. 

In 2001 a collection of poets was featured in the book, Poetry Speaks.  Three CDs were included, and I have a few here for your listening, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Robinson Jeffers, William Stafford, Etheridge Knight, W.B. Yeats, and Walt Whitman. 

Timothy Young presented a number of aphorisms and quotes by various poets and authors at the 2024 Minnesota Men's Winter Conference, Utter Darkness/Shining Brow on February 3, 2024.  Let them fall like birch leaves dropping from the tree on an autumn morning.

This election year I revisit the prefaces from my 1984 chapbook, Meen Don't Dance in America, and the 1985 chapbook, Fairyland After Carnival. I also include my 2016 poem, Trump Never Laughs, recorded at Como Cottage in January 2017. It is important to acknowledge the darker material of our culture and work toward the more joyous aspects of life.

I have worked with Dan Cavanagh for over twenty years.  He has many award-winning compositions and is currently the Music Director at the Mead-Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is also my nephew. The Jazz Ecstatic featured my poetry with Dan's original compositions and included Tim Ishii, saxophones, Jaime Reyes, drums, and Lou Carfa, bass, and Dan on piano,.

During the 'shelter in place' times during the Covid 19 pandemic, my good friend Dave Ballman took six of my small poems and turned them into songs.  He then recorded them. I am honored to have his artistry merging with mine and now I get to share them with you.

In 2004 my essay I Love the Single Deer Path was included in the book, Eco-man, New Perspectives on Masculinity and Nature, edited by Mark Allister for University of Virginia Press. The essay explains my various relationships with my brothers, friends, my search for deeper meaning in the rites of hunting.  In 2009 an edited version was translated and published in Oslo, Norway's Dag og Tid pub...

In 2010 Scott King and Red Dragonfly Press published my book of poems, Herds of Bears Surround Us. This is the final section of poems from that book. The opening music is from Pundela's Farewell by The Spirit House Quartet. The end music is the musical accompaniment of Glen Helgeson on the poem  Tears with Timothy Young on their CD, Riding a Dark Wind

Scott King, who published each of us at one time or another, has since died. Tom Hennen is no longer able to venture out.  Thomas R. Smith and I feel so privileged to have read with them as part of the Como Cottage Salon Series. April 23, 2016. 

In May 1988 I reprised poems I had written while working in the Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I wrote these three poems in the election year of 1984 about my ancestral neighborhood, which some 40 years later has rejuvenated commercially and maintains a cultural vitality. I ask my musician friends to please excuse my lack of muscianship in favor of the poetry.

In this episode I read an essay published in the summer of the year 2000. It addresses the excursions of Youth to the edge of culture, especially the At-risk youth I taught at the Red Wing Youth Correctional Facility. And I explain how I used traditional folktales to prod the young men toward usefulness.

Perfect Harmony is one of the world's finest spiritual poems, by the master Ibn El Arabi.  This version was recorded in 2010 at Worldview Studios in Minnesota.  Dalyce Elliott composed and performed the music for Timothy's version. Dan Cavanagh composed the interludes which were played by the Aurora String Quartet.

Here are two long poems about our singing adventures. From 2010 to 2012 I drove to New Orleans to sing with The Sturgeon Lake Bottomfeeders Medicine Lodge at the 29 hour Bach-Around-The-Clock, a celebration for Bach's birthday.  Musical groups of various genres gathered and performed for 29 hours straight.  We were an acapella group who had met and sang at numerous Minnesota Men's Confer...

After 37 years working for the State of Minnesota, upon retirement I took a pilgrimage from the source of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  As one part of my life died and the next began, I wrote this long poem about the trip. It was published as a chapbook by the University of Wisconsin Madison Library's Parallel Press in 2013.   The opening music is from Pundela's Farewell...

This episode has 9 of my poems with musical accompaniment from three CDs and one live performance.  Over the years I have had great experiences reading my poems with wonderful musicians. Here are Dalyce Elliott, Glen Helgeson, and Michael Bissonette on Perfect Harmony,  Glen Helgeson, David Ballman and Mark Anderson on Riding the Dark Wind , , Yata, Burce Hecksel, and Dalyce on Snow Has Fallen, an...

On April 27, 2024 men from the Minnesota Men's Conference met in Duluth, MN to talk about the impact of Prose writing upon the individual, the community, and men's souls.  This is Timothy Young's presentation on the prose pieces, novels, and essays, that helped him break from one stage of consciousness to the next.

Fellow Minnesota poet, Tim Nolan, invited me to series' season finale.   It was a wonderful audience of knowledgeable folks interested in Minnesota poetry. The opening music is from Pundela's Farewell by The SpiritHouse Quartet. The end music is the musical accompaniment of Glen Helgeson on the poem Tears with Timothy Young on their CD, Riding a Dark Wind

In late August and early September 2008 a number of poets, musicians, and storytellers associated with the Minnesota Men's Conferences and Robert Bly had been invited to the UK to perform over a period of two weeks. This troupe of artistic brigands included Robert Bly, Martin Shaw, Danny Deardorff, Judith-Kate Friedman, Thomas R. Smith, Jay Leeming, Ben Dennis, Timothy Young, the Brothers Fra...

In late August and early September 2008 a number of poets, musicians, and storytellers associated with the Minnesota Men's Conferences and Robert Bly had been invited to the UK to perform over a period of two weeks. This troupe of artistic brigands included Robert Bly, Martin Shaw, Danny Deardorff, Judith-Kate Friedman, Thomas R. Smith, Jay Leeming, Ben Dennis, Timothy Young, the Brothers Fra...

Published in 2004, this essay is an expanded version of my written affection for the poetry and prose of the Spaniard, Juan Ramon Jimenez, 1956 Nobel Laureate.  His work was the first poetry I fell in love with. The opening music is from Pundela's Farewell by The Spirit House Quartet. The end music is the musical accompaniment of Glen Helgeson on the poem Tears with Timothy Young on their CD,...

So many poets wonder about the relevance of poetry, and the poet's place in the world. I also write about the poet, John Keats', idea of negative capability and how poets live in that psychological place.