Yondercast 030 – Caesar’s Blood!
Listen:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yondercast/~3/5cbsmH3L-U0/yondercast030.mp3
Poem 1:
- “The Barrels” was written by Jennifer I. and read by Joanne S. Thanks to you both!
- Background music was “Introduction” by Kourosh Dini from the album Live At Bliss Gardens. Thanks to Magnatune for providing podcasters with wonderful music!
History Piece:
- “The Ides of March” was written by Jason “The Swami” and read by Shane Shennan. Thanks, Jason!
- Background music was a Bach violin concerto, “BWV 1042 : II. Adagio,” performed by Lara St John on her album, Bach Violin Concertos. Thanks again to Magnatune!
Poem 2:
- “City Risks” was written and read by Shane Shennan. Thanks to Jordan “FunkMaster” for providing acoustic guitar inspiration!
- Background music was “High And Lonesome” by Justin Gordon. Found on the Podsafe Music Network.
Sound Effect:
- The bell sound effect was ding30603-spedup.wav by theta4. It was a remix of Goblet_G_Medium.wav by acclivity. Thanks to The Freesound Project!
Few
The birds
singing before dawn
know it’s better to sing then
than at midday.
True, the audience is limited
to a wakeful few:
a jogging insomniac,
a dog owner,
a nightsky nerd.
However, that limited audience, that wide-eyed handful,
cannot help but pay sharp attention.
Pre-dawn, the distractions are so few:
not-so-many sounds-of things-on-the-road,
fewer sights; vision restricted to moonlight,
the whirling mind stiller sometimes when outside in cooler dark air.
Birdsong at that time is clear and insistent, an earful of pleasure.
More than that, then birdsong does magical work:
The insomniac forgets about attempting sleep,
but decides to meet the dawn at the edge of town.
The dog owner scoops a brown lump off a lawn,
letting her irritation go,
and thinks instead of the lovable puppy the dog once was.
The nightnerd thinks that this star-pocked night
is too fullwonder to amass just for himself;
he thinks of someone he will ask.
All the while,
all
that the birds know
is that singing
before dawn
is better than
singing at midday.
Opposites
I mountaineer trash;
you heap wonder.
I escape the lash;
you feast on wonder.
You built this city
on-a lake-of tears.
I built these string bridges from
fears and hopes.
(The only way to be together
is to build, is to create,
but I’ve never made more
than sand castles and tissue paper kites.)
You dig treasures for the world;
I uncover deepness dark.
You travel entouraged;
I live here, loneless.
The Glee of a Porpoise Then
I’m rereading The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White’s magical fantasy about the young King Arthur. Here’s a wonderful quotation from Chapter Five. (The Wart is King Arthur’s childhood nickname.)
The Wart did not know what Merlyn was talking about, but he liked him to talk. He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him like a baby, but the ones who just went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He has the glee of a porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas.
This reminds me of my own childhood. No, I was not nicknamed The Wart. 
My parents and their friends never talked down to me, so I learned the vocabularies of my schoolteacher mother and pastor father. I really appreciate that knowledge these days as I write my poetry and tutor a couple of students. I still love words; I still have the glee of a porpoise. 
Thoughts on Thirty
I don’t feel depressed about turning thirty. I think I dealt with any age-related depression a couple of years ago. Instead, I am excited to turn thirty! That’s because my last decade was amazing. Here is a list of the good stuff that happened to me from the ages 20 to 29:
- graduated high school
- started writing poetry
- discovered podcasting
- earned an Honours BA in English Literature
- held a steady job
- started to emotionally understand God’s love for me; started to yearn for heaven
- discovered a gift for tutoring and teaching
- made all the friends I have now!
Some of these things my seem basic, but each of these items is very meaningful to me. That list represents countless late nights, caffeinated mornings, deep breaths, ragged notebooks and resonating heartstrings.
I can hardly wait to see what will happen during my journey from 30 to 39.
The Singularity is Coming!
Need a new way to warn your friends and family about the approaching Singularity? (That’s when the robots are going to take over.)
Here you go: sing this little ditty repeatedly to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
When the machines get good AI,
When the machines get good AI,
Then I’ll be no more than a number,
When the machines get good AI.
Yard Sale Announcement/Poem
My friends Grant and Robin
are holding a yard sale
on Saturday, May 23, 2009
at 221 Grantham Avenue.
The yard sale will start at 7:00 AM
and will end around 5:00 PM.
There will be tons of fascinating things for sale,
because Grant and Robin are fascinating people.
You will want to buy some of the objects they are selling.
For instance, there will be coffee and baked goods for sale.
In my imagination, this will be
much more than an ordinary yard sale.
For instance, stilt-walkers will roam the yard
like giraffes roaming tasty-tree places.
There will be fire-breathers (in my imagination)
breathing fire like human dragons.
There will be cotton candy,
pink and purple-blue,
dripping from the branches
of the yard’s one tree.
In my imagination,
ordinary objects will fly off the tables,
circling you, the customer.
These objects will beg you to purchase them,
promising you things:
“I am a quilt that’s warm like no other.”
“I will be the best sandwich-maker you’ve ever used!”
“I’ll be the best coffee mug ever; I’ll never lose myself.”
No thing wants to be unwanted.
Children with Sticks and Stones
This is the final sign that
Spring is finally fading into Summer:
young children
gathering stones,
looking around for sticks,
gravel and twigs.
They make things:
a circle of rocks here,
a stick stuck into the ground there,
being propped up by a rock.
Others take to the
greening grass,
and sit there plucking blades.
They wait for the Spring breeze to leave,
so they can feel warm sunlight on their faces.
Mangle Your Moleskine!
Some of you need break the spine of your Moleskine notebook. Some of you need to throw your Star Wars notebook onto the sidewalk and stomp it a couple of times. Some of you need to buy a cheap student notebook from your nearest dollar store.
Here’s why.
Perfect notebooks can limit our creativity. Notebooks with unblemished covers, perfect handwriting and unsmudged pages do not encourage us to doodle, scrawl, experiment and fail. Those are Perfection Notebooks. They are not Idea Books. They are not Work Books.
Perfection has it’s place. Perfection’s place is in the final stages of a creative project. When you are brainstorming, developing ideas and chasing down tangents, you need a notebook you can be rough on. If you want to dig beneath the surface of your creativity, you may need to draw ugly doodles, cross-out unfit phrases, and messily download your brain onto paper.
If you have a notebook you spent a bunch of money on, or if you have a notebook you want to look perfect, you may need a different notebook. Creative work is hard work. You need a notebook you can fill with blood, sweat, tears, elbow grease and muddy fingerprints.
Yondercast 029 – TBE!
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yondercast/~3/4h6SK31qj2A/yondercast029.mp3
Guest Host!
- Rick B, thank you for reading Rob’s poem and for cohosting the eposide! I have unlocked the door; you are now free to go.
Poetry!!
- It is Love by Sarah L
- Checkmate by Sarah L
- Pieces of a Puzzle by Sarah L
- Act I Scene I by Rob the Honourable Box Cutter
Music!!!
- You’re the Big Sky (rock guitar instrumental) by Derek K. Miller
- Sweeter Than This by Katie Herzig
- Both songs found on the Podsafe Music Network
[Lions, Tigers and Bears Disclaimer]
- Lions, tigers or bears did not appear on this episode because I am not currently able to purchase such creatures. All I have to offer you is poetry. If you wish to donate lions, tigers, bears, or a good-sized circus tent, please email me at shane@yonderman.com.