The Poetry Show: Like a Fly With One Wing, Walking

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

The Poetry of The Difficult Moment

 

 

"When you don't know which way to go. Your real journey has just begun." -- Wendell Berry. Keats, Jane Kenyon, Dean Young, Christian Wiman, and more

Wednesdays, 10 AM

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded Nov. 20, 2024

*******************

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

by Jane Kenyon

I am the blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years. . . .

I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper....

When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me. . . .

I am food on the prisoner's plate. . . .

I am water rushing to the wellhead,
filling the pitcher until it spills. . . .

I am the patient gardener
of the dry and weedy garden. . . .

I am the stone step,
the latch, and the working hinge. . . .

I am the heart contracted by joy. . . .

the longest hair, white
before the rest. . . .

I am there in the basket of fruit
presented to the widow. . . .

I am the musk rose opening
unattended, the fern on the boggy summit. . . .

I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name. . . .

 

 

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The Last Stop Cafe: Commanders lose, no news

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Mike Tyson Still Stands

Commanders Change Name To:

 

 

Mondays 7:15 AM

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini and John Case

Sports today: Reckoning Tomorrow

This Episode Recorded Nov. 18, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Veterans Day poems

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Poetry from the Foxholes: Flying Crooked

 

 

Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Marvin Bell, Brian Turner, Amelia Opie, and more ... from Europe, Vietnam, Ukraine, Gaza and Mississipppi

Broadcast Wednesdays 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded November 13, 2024

Veterans of the Seventies

by Melvin Bell

 

His army jacket bore the white rectangle

of one who has torn off his name. He sat mute

at the round table where the trip-wire veterans

ate breakfast. They were foxhole buddies

who went stateside without leaving the war.

They had the look of men who held their breath

and now their tongues. What is to say

beyond that said by the fathers who bent lower

and lower as the war went on, spines curving

toward the ground on which sons sat sandbagged

with ammo belts enough to make fine lace

of enemy flesh and blood. Now these who survived,

who got back in cargo planes emptied at the front,

lived hiddenly in the woods behind fence wires

strung through tin cans. Better an alarm

than the constant nightmare of something moving

on its belly to make your skin crawl

with the sensory memory of foxhole living.

 

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The Last Stop Cafe: So, What’s next, Doc?

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Last Stop Cafe: So, What's next, Doc?

The Yankees Could Have Won If the Scoreboard Operator Had Done His Job!!!

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini and John Case

Mike and John try to keep a lid on it. The Day Before It Happened. As it turns out everyone in the Cafe decided to leave by the Back Door. That sign that says "Warning! Abyss!!" was not a joke.

 

 

Mondays 7:30 AM

 

This Episode Recorded Nov 4, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Doctors of Verse

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

You and the Doc: Till Death Do Us Part

 

 

What the physician saw in me. What the Lobsterman saw in the sea.

Wednesdays, 10 AM

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded Nov 7, 2024

 

A Lobsterman Looks At The Sea

by Richard Berlin

His new hip healed in, we're working
on a bluff, talking doctors and health care
reform as we shove a new propane tank into place.
A shape on the surface catches his eye:
"Right whale," he says, but I can only see
endless swells rolling in from the east.
He points out the gradations of gray
and green that mark deep ledge, the tide's
shape along the islands and rocks,
the whale's glistening back suddenly in focus.
I react with the same surprise
my patients feel when I observe
what they can't see—
a sudden shift in gaze, or a crease in a cheek,
understanding how a doctor becomes
like a man who has spent sixty years
on a lobster boat, watching the world
swim fast and shining, right before his eyes.

 

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The Poetry Show: Ghosts

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Talk to Your Ghosts.

 

 

Emily Dickinson, Edna St Vincent Millay, Lola Haskins haunt the other side, of yourself.

Wednesdays, 10 AM

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded Oct 30, 2024

********************

Patsy Sees a Ghost

by Lola Haskins

I'm crossing the river where it narrows,
carefully, it being Sunday
and I'm past the root end of the log
when I look up,
and there's a haunt sitting
on the blossom end.
I can see trumpet vine and blackberries
through her white dress.
Gnats hang in the air.
The river runs, red-brown and deep.
The haunt sings
and it's my music, the blood song
of my heart and bones
and my skull dancing in the road.
And Chloe, she knows my name.
She says Oh Patsy, take care,
or you will surely fall
and the thick river
will pull you too to shroudy weeds
and you'll be gone,
gone as the moment you looked up
and saw the trumpet vine and
berrries, hot and ready
through my white dress,
gone as all the years since I died,
and waited here for you.

 

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The World Series of America: The Polls Are Open

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The World Series of America: The Polls Are Open

Its Over. We Just Don't Know It Yet.

 

 

Mondays 7:30 AM

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini and John Case

 

Special Guests:
Hector Lopez, Kim John Un, President Trumpet

Folks:

Did I do everything I could do to stop it??!! I do not want to tell myself, or anyone else, that I did not, ten days hence. The Dodgers are a wildfire consuming America. However, the Yankees have the Sisters of Fate in their pocket, who await us all.

This Episode Recorded Oct 28, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: The Troy Miller District 98 Delegate Campaign

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: The Troy Miller District 98 Delegate Campaign

A Knowledgeable and Progressive Democrat Takes on Some Established Interests On the ROAD AHEAD

 

 

Fridays at 7:30 AM EST, the show is hosted by Karen Valentine and John Case.

 

Special Guest: Troy Miller

 

Democrat Troy Miller takes on some of the complex questions facing Jefferson County, WV and its representation in the Republican dominated State legislature.

This Episode Recorded Oct 25, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: Stand UP

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: John and Karen Review the Elections

Time to Stand UP, Not Drop Out!

Fridays: 7:30 AM

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

We survey the experiences in the electoral ground game, and increasing concerns around the fascist dangers that persist, beyond liberal reasoning. Something more profound is going on.

This Episode Recorded October 18, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Last Stop Cafe: About that Picnic Gnat-Bopper

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Last Stop Cafe: About that Picnic Gnat-Bopper

MIke Cuccherini on the Lamb Chop Nationals,

Juan Soto Come Home.

"There's No Crying In Baseball".

 

 

Mondays 7ish in the morn, Eastern Time

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case

Its Playoff and World Series time. But the GNats won't be there this time. But don't worry. Don't worry. Stop biting your nails! Get it together! 

This Episode Recorded Sept 23, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Labor Beat Radio: Labor Day 2024 Special:

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Labor Beat Radio: Labor Day 2024 Special:

Ring Them Bells -- UE James Matles' Prophetic Farewell Address, 1975 -- Ring Them Bells

 

Jim Matles and Harry Bridges, circa 1970?

Regular Broadcasts LIVE, Tuesdays, 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case

Description: Jim Matles was a legendary, founding leader of the CIO and a national officer of the UE for 38 years. Unimpressed by the consequences of "business unionism", his prophetic remarks stand up unweathered by nearly 50 years of history since his death shortly after this 1975 farewell address.

This Episode Recorded Sept 2, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: Welcome, Takesha Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: Welcome, Takesha Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown

Ordinary citizens can confront the powers of the world, and make poetry while they work.

 

 

Fridays, 7:30ish AM

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

 

Special Guests:

James Boyd, Takesha Martinez

James Boyd joins Karen and John with a special guest: Takesha Ann Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown, Md. Takesha's story is one of the most powerful in US local politics.

This Episode Recorded August 20, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Classical Muses

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Prelude to a Lifetime of Preludes

 

 

Could there really have been life before Bach? And what about Passion Without Discipline? Angela Torres, Lars Gustafson, Diane Seuss, Nikki Wallschlaeger

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded August 28, 2024

Prelude and Fugue

by Angela Narciso Torres

Something of late November
sifting through a window
brings back this prelude-

two voices blend, I lean
into the keys, draw back
when the voices part.

How the body remembers-
Señora V in a floral sundress,
rose talcum hand soft

on the curve of my spine
imprinting what she knew
of love and time. How could I know

what those notes would mean
decades of preludes ahead.

 

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The Poetry Show: Jazz, Gin, Bourbon? Does not matter where ya been...

  

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Soledad Grandfather

 

 

The Featured poem is Robert Hayden's 'Soledad'. It turns out that Case's speculation about a poetical connection to the Soledad Prison rebellion of 1971 and the "Soledad Brothers" is complete fantasy! Hayden's poem does address imprisonment, and race, and addiction, but first appeared in the 1940's.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded August 14, 2024

Soledad

by Robert Hayden

(And I, I am no longer of that world)

Naked, he lies in the blinded room
chain-smoking, cradled by drugs, by jazz
as never by any lover's cradling flesh.

Miles Davis coolly blows for him:
O pena negra, sensual Flamenco blues;
the red clay foxfire voice of Lady Day

(lady of the pure black magnolias)
sobsings her sorrow and loss and fare you well,
dryweeps the pain his treacherous jailers

have released him from for a while.
His fears and his unfinished self
await him down in the anywhere streets.

He hides on the dark side of the moon,
takes refuge in a stained-glass cell,
flies to a clockless country of crystal.

Only the ghost of Lady Day knows where
he is. Only the music. And he swings
oh swings: beyond complete immortal now.

 

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The Poetry Show: The Blues Poetica

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

So weary....I might as well be Dead.

 

 

Poetry inspired by the Blues music traditions. Langston Hughes, WH Auden, Shelly Ann Williams, Billy Collins

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded August 7, 2024

Riverbank Blues

Sterling A. Brown
1901 – 1989

A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank,
A man git dis yellow water in his blood,
No need for hopin', no need for doin',
Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.

Little Muddy, Big Muddy, Moreau and Osage,
Little Mary's, Big Mary's, Cedar Creek,
Flood deir muddy water roundabout a man's roots,
Keep him soaked and stranded and git him weak.

Lazy sun shinin' on a little cabin,
Lazy moon glistenin' over river trees;
Ole river whisperin', lappin' 'gainst de long roots:
"Plenty of rest and peace in these . . ."

Big mules, black loam, apple and peach trees,
But seems lak de river washes us down
Past de rich farms, away from de fat lands,
Dumps us in some ornery riverbank town.

Went down to the river, sot me down an' listened,
Heard de water talkin' quiet, quiet lak an' slow:
"Ain' no need fo' hurry, take yo' time, take yo'
time . . ." Heard it sayin'—"Baby, hyeahs de way life go . . ."

Dat is what it tole me as I watched it slowly rollin',
But somp'n way inside me rared up an' say,
"Better be movin' . . . better be travelin' . . .
Riverbank'll git you ef you stay . . ."

Towns are sinkin' deeper, deeper in de riverbank,
Takin' on de ways of deir sulky Ole Man—
Takin' on his creepy ways, takin' on his evil ways,
"Bes' git way, a long way . . . whiles you can. Man got his
sea too lak de Mississippi Ain't got so long for a whole lot longer way,
Man better move some, better not git rooted Muddy water fool you, ef you stay . . ."

From The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown by Sterling A. Brown.

 

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The Last Stop Cafe: Is Football Dying?

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Last Stop Cafe: Is Football Dying?

Is Pro Football a sport anymore? Or Just a Biz?

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Mondays, 7:15 AM Eastern

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case, James Boyd

The Turd Sandwich Cafe has been sold. It found a better offer. The Last Stop Cafe cannot guarantee you won't be served a shit sandwich by Fate. But you do not have to eat it here. Outside -- a big decision, maybe a big mistake, awaits. But in here, it's a game -- and we are playing along, noting the desert, wolves, mountains and abyss beyond.

This Episode Recorded August 26, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: The Theme of Song

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

That Singer Stole My Coat:

From the Heel to the Throat

 

 

Poems on the theme of Song from Alice Ostriker, WB Yeats, Alan Shapiro, Elizabeth Bishop, and Susan Jackson, and Langston Hughes

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded July 31, 2024

 

The Radio Is Playing Ray Charles

by Susan Jackson

Georgia, Georgia the whole day through…
just an old sweet song…
I’m leaning into you
in the smoke and the slow dancing
those low notes
working their way up my spine
stirring up the night
throaty voices in the corner singing along
our hips touching
like moonlight through the pines
moonlight like a folded handkerchief
slanting through the window that night
Georgia, Georgia just a sweet and simple song…
and our whole life laying out like a road
still ahead of us.

 

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The Turd Sandwich Cafe: The Olympics!

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Turd Sandwich Cafe: The Olympics!

The Decimation of Trump, and the Rise of Cooperative, Olympic values, is at Hand. Else - make your reservation NOW for the TS Cafe.

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Mondays, 7:30 AM Eastern

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case, James Boyd

James Boyd, formerly of Berkeley County, WV joins our program as a co-host. James, a Vietnam veteran, has a long record working to save lives threatened by opioid addiction, prison and poverty. In both West Virginia and New Jersey. He now resides in New Jersey. Mike does the sports and Olympics report. Then we dig into the stakes for the US and the world in the next 100 day campaign to elect Kamala Harris. and decimate the Confederate forces behind the Trump phenomenon. Case goes to 1860, and Lincoln, searching for a comparable context.

This Episode Recorded July 29, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: Hey Stranger!

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: Hey Stranger!

Darkness Darkness: Take Me To The Light

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE Fridays 7:30 AM Eastern

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

Karen and John are feeling better! Kamala is uplifting our spirits, and hopes --- from the Bottom --- and a Handmaid's Tale

This Episode Recorded July 26, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: West Virginia Poet Ruth MacQuade

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

A Coal Country Requiem

 

 

Ruth MacQuade, -- a retired federal prosecutor turned short story writer and poet now residing in Shepherdstown --- joins us to share 3 beautiful poems closely tied to her West Virginia coal country upbringing in a family of 15 children.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded July 23, 2024

The Making of a Family Portrait

by Ruth MacQuade

It was to be a festive affair.

Making a family portrait at the Greenbrier Resort.

Painted by the famous portraiture artist W.H. Anderson,

who, before us, painted the portraits of Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon.

Preparations for the portrait were hectic.

The girls needed permanents and matching dresses.

the boys, starched white shirts,

Mother, a new dress, Daddy, a new suit

Designed by my father, it was to be a symmetrical portrait.

The older children to be shown in four sets of three.

The youngest girl in the center, between my mother and father, and

the two youngest boys, at the bottom, facing each other.

Finished, the large 5-foot square family portrait

hung on the wall of my parents living room.

Proudly shown to anyone who wanted to see

the number of happy and healthy children my father sired and my mother reared.

But hidden behind the smiles are

the fearful face of my mother in the presence of my father,

the wincing faces of children caused by the belt lashing of their father,

and the sad faces of two brothers who died by suicide.

 

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The Turd Sandwich Cafe: Take that thing off yr EAR

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Turd Sandwich Cafe: Take that thing off Your EAR!

Trump's Shit Sandwich for America:

Kamala Harris Responds: "NO One, NO American, Should Eat This"

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Mondays, 7:15 AM Eastern

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case

Mike and John note improvements in the Nationals baseball team, while ordering up, from the 69 SDS convention an "eat shit and die, fascist-imperialist business administration majors" SOS breakfast sandwich. The Harris campaign is not planning to show up at the cafe. they have to save the country. She may even need OUR help.

This Episode Recorded July 22, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers Radio: The Presidential Fiasco

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers Radio: The Presidential Fiasco

"Canada must feel like they live in an apartment above a meth lab."

 

 

Broadcast Fridays, 7:30-is AM Eastern

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

The rise and normalization of Donald Trump and the Democratic Party crisis over Biden's alleged infirmities are setting our hair on fire.

This Episode Recorded July 19 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Poetry about Paintings: Go Van Gogh!

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Art as the subject of Art Yields Masterpiece's Multiplied

 

 

Janet introduces some poems about paintings and painters: Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Monet. Poets include Robert Hayden and Robert Murre

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded July 17, 2024

Monet's Water Lilies

by Robert Hayden

Today as the news from Selma and Saigon
poisons the air like fallout,
I come again to see
the serene, great picture that I love.
Here space and time exist in light
the eye like the eye of faith believes.
The seen, the known
dissolve in iridescence, become
illusive flesh of light
that was not, was, forever is.
O light beheld as through refracting tears.
Here is the aura of that world
each of us has lost.
Here is the shadow of its joy.

 

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Labor Beat Radio: Sean O’Brien at the RNC

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Labor Beat Radio: Sean O'Brien at the RNC

Teamster President normalizes Trump: Good, or Bad?

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Tuesdays, 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case, JB Christensen, Scott Marshall

 

Special Guest: Joe Henry

Description: Special Guest Joe Henry joins the LB team to discuss the pros and cons of Teamster President Sean O'Brien's remarks and presence at the Republican National Convention. Joe is a retired Teamster active for many years and a former staff organizer for President Ron Carey, a legendary reformer in the Teamsters union.

 

This Episode Recorded July 16, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: The Solar Farm Flap, Part 2

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: The Solar Farm Flap, Part 2

Corporate Tax Breaks for Development -- Are they worth it?

 

 

Broadcast LIVE Fridays, 7:30 AM Eastern on player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

 

Special Guest: Dr. John Aldis

Dr John Aldis appears and weighs in on the pros and cons of the Solar Farm projects ongoing in the county. Dr Aldis retired from Federal service as a physician at US embassies across the world. In retirement he has been an advocate for medically assisted treatment of addiction. He has been a frequent commentator on local media, and past versions of this radio program.

This Episode Recorded 07/12/1014 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Hiram Larew -- Poems of Gratitude

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Special Guest -- Hiram Larew

 

 

Hiram Larew shares poems of gratitude and wonder, and a delightful tiptoe across images and moments as if they were jeweled islands in a sea of stars.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded July 10, 2024

 

The Irish Potato Famine occurred from 1845-1849.

Achill Sound

by Hiram Larew

When the roads curve like sound

    and dip as if lifting to bow

Whenever all thoughts round or cluster

    or when hearts call down

        is Ireland

And as rich when poor was

    or as wise as bare heads in snow seemed

and as twigs so frail broke into song

    and as true as any blight or potato could be

        was Ireland

So when sand laps the senses

    or salt drips the edges as dreams

Whenever hope streams through such heavens

    and moss comes home

    or hearts beam down

            is Ireland.

 

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The Poetry Show: Poems with Questions

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Question: What Would Happen if This is the Answer?

 

 

Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Mary Oliver, Nancy Willard, Lawrence Raab get the READER directly involved in the Poem.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded July 7, 2024

 

The Book of Questions, III
Pablo Neruda

https://poets.org/poem/book-questions-iii

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?
Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?
Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?
Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

 

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Winnes and Losers: The Solar Farm Flap, Pt 1

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winnes and Losers: The Solar Farm Flap, Pt 1

Political Mud-fight Over Development while the whole Republic Burns Down?

While they weren't looking, debating other matters, this happened:

 

 

 

(The photo is from Haiti, so its cheating a bit, but does not overstate "What's going on!".). 

 

Broadcasts LIVE Fridays, 7ish AM

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

Economic Development. What are the right answers weighing jobs, environment, taxation? Another Jefferson County Flap over development that, in the absence of any comprehensive plan, will likely be settled by simple market forces. 

Will anyone pay attention to details with national politics so agitated and divided?

This Episode Recorded July 5, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: Time to Sober Up, Folks.

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: Say It Aint So, Joe

Time to Sober Up, Folks.

If Jaime Dimon steps in, we can stop debating whether finance capital zillionaires are running the country.

 

 

Broadcasting LIVE Fridays at 7:30 AM Eastern: http://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

Karen and John mourn the Biden Trump debate. Could be the end for Biden. Whoever pushed him over the edge may be guilty of elder abuse.

This Episode Recorded June 28, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Belief

 

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

What Does It Mean 'To Believe'?

 

 

Themes of "belief" are the mosaic of poems displayed this week: from Bob Kaufman, William Blake, DH Lawrence, Mark Gibbons and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded June 26, 2024

I Believe I Remember Love

by Mark Gibbons

My mother was transforming
another tough pot roast into meat loaf,
grinding up chunks of gristly beef, bovine scraps
she’d boned off a shoulder blade.
As she bore down on the stiff
crank handle & fed the iron gullet
of the meat grinder, the auger hole, I stood
beside her, a shadow, not yet two,
held onto the counter & cutting board, listened to
the squish & roar of meat pushing through
spaghetti sized holes. I was mesmerized
by those oozing red hamburger strings.
In a flash I reached up & plugged a hole
with my finger to stop the flow, didn’t know about
the slashing, windmilling knives
turning industriously, cleaving all meat.
My mother & I screamed, cried hysterically,
held hands & a dish towel full of blood
while my dad drove the thirty miles of curvy
road, a two lane along the river, cussing,
full throttle. They hustled me through the lobby
of the clinic, brick & glass. I saw wheel chairs,
white gowns running about, watched
an overhead light fade. Finally, at home
I remember sitting on the floor in overalls,
a lemon sucker in one hand & plaster
cast on the other, people laughing, smiling at me:
the fabled "Little Dutch Boy" who survived
the flood. I was the talk of the neighborhood,
the focus of the family. My first memory,
that trauma, was perfect drama. An audience brings
us joy. Our greatest happiness is
the belief we are loved. It’s what we live for,
what we desire most. We learn to tolerate
any pain, risk blood or breath, anything, if
we believe we are loved, right now, forever.

 

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Labor Beat Radio: Teamsters Take on Amazon, and Headline RNC

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Labor Beat Radio: Teamsters Take on Amazon, and Headline RNC

Trump Woos Teamsters

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Tuesdays, 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case, JB Christensen, Scott Marshall

Description: The Teamster merger with the Amazon Labor Union, its invite to headline the Republican National Convention, The Mercedes Co foregoes raises promised if union defeated.

This Episode Recorded June 25, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Turd Sandwich Café: Say Hey, Willie Mays

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Turd Sandwich Café: Say Hey, Willie Mays

Willie is gone. And a world with him.

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Mondays, 7:15 AM Eastern

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case

A tribute to Willie Mays. The Baseball Movie About A Peg Leg Slugger, The Commanders look good to Mike. A sandwich special where you get to eat your enemy, after stabbing it.

This Episode Recorded June 24, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Recovery Radio: Donny 99

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Recovery Radio: Donny 99

Recovery of the Country from Poverty and Racism and War -- in Doubt

 

 

Fridays, 2PM

Hosts: James Boyd, John Case

Back on the radio, James and John talk about the mess the country is in, and yet there is beauty in unexpected places. Also, James returns to work!

This Episode Recorded June 21, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Winners and Losers: Lucia Valentine For Delegate

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Winners and Losers: Lucia Valentine For Delegate

Clean Air, Clean Water and Higher Pay 

 

Broadcast LIVE Fridays, 7:30 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case

 

Lucia Valentine is the Democratic candidate for the WV House of Delegates 97th district. Endorsed by numerous local groups, including the AFL-CIO, she joins other young progressive voices claiming a voice in West Virginia's future.

This Episode Recorded June 21, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Celebrating Juneteenth, 2024

Enlighten Radio Presents

Remember the Pullman Porters

 

 

Nikki Giovanni's "Rosa Parks" headlines this celebration of Juneteenth. Lucille Clifton, Margaret Walker, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Dudley Randall, and Langston Hughes.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded June 19, 2024

"won’t you celebrate with me"

by Lucille Clifton

1936 - 2010

 

won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into

a kind of life? i had no model.

born in babylon

both nonwhite and woman

what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up

here on this bridge between

starshine and clay,

my one hand holding tight

my other hand; come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.

 

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Labor Beat Radio: WV AFL-CIO President Josh Sword on WV Jobs

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Labor Beat Radio: WV AFL-CIO President Josh Sword on WV Jobs

The Arch2 Hub: 20,000 Jobs and vast taxable wealth

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Tuesdays, 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case, JB Christensen 

Guest: Josh Sword

Description: President Sword gives updates on the ARCH2 Hub project as well as other projects included in the bi-partisan Infrastructure and Inflation reduction acts

This Episode Recorded June 18, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Labor Beat Radio. Things were looking up....then the Starbucks ruling

Enlighten Radio Presents

Labor Beat Radio. Things were looking up....then the Starbucks ruling

Big Rock Candy Mountain not yet in sight

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Tuesdays, 10 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case, JB Christensen, Scott Marshall

Description: JB Scott and John note new developments with Starbucks and Amazon campaigns, and layout the steady and broad mobilization into the 2024 election cycle,.

This Episode Recorded June 11, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Winners and Losers Radio Program:

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Winners and Losers Radio Program:

The Revolution  Café is open -- Got Nuthin'? 

Nuthin' to Lose but Chains

 

 

Broadcasts LIVE, Fridays 7 AM Eastern

Hosts: John Case

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle -- Free at Last: Juneteenth

Bob Dylan: It's Alright, Ma

"...not dark yet, but is getting there"

This Episode Recorded June 14, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Poetry Show: Fathers Day

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

Portraits of a Father as a Young Man

 

Special Guest: Robert Tobias

 

Robert Tobias headlines our Fathers Day poetry show with his striking poem -- "The Gift". Thanks to him for joining us in our red caboose zoom studio. 

Also to fulfill our neuro-diversity mission, father stricken poems from Stanley Kunitz, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Hayden and Bruce Weigl.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded June 10, 2024

The Portrait

by Stanley Kunitz 1905 - 2006

My mother never forgave my father
for killing himself,
especially at such an awkward time
and in a public park,
that spring
when I was waiting to be born.
She locked his name
in her deepest cabinet
and would not let him out,
though I could hear him thumping.
When I came down from the attic
with the pastel portrait in my hand
of a long-lipped stranger
with a brave moustache
and deep brown level eyes,
she ripped it into shreds
without a single word
and slapped me hard.
In my sixty-fourth year
I can feel my cheek
still burning

 

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The Poetry Show: Storms

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

 

The Raindrop on Your Cheek -- Not Just Weather - or is it?

 

 

The poetry of storms: rain, wind, thunder, lightening. Janet brings some beauties to the show from Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson, Soran M. H.

Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org

Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case

This Episode Recorded June 5, 2024

A House in Taos

by Langston Hughes

 1901 -- 1967

Rain
Thunder of the Rain God:
And we three
Smitten by beauty.
Thunder of the Rain God:
And we three
Weary, weary.
Thunder of the Rain God:
And you, she and I
Waiting for nothingness.
Do you understand the stillness
Of this house in Taos
Under the thunder of the Rain God?
Sun
That there should be a barren garden
About this house in Taos
Is not so strange,
But that there should be three barren hearts
In this one house in Taos,—
Who carries ugly things to show the sun?
Moon
Did you ask for the beaten brass of the moon?
We can buy lovely things with money,
You, she and I,
Yet you seek,
As though you could keep,
This unbought loveliness of moon.
Wind
Touch our bodies, wind.
Our bodies are seperate, individual things.
Touch our bodies, wind,
But blow quickly
Through the red, white, yellow skins
Of our bodies
To the terrible snarl,
Not mine,
Not yours,
Not hers,
But all one snarl of souls.
Blow quickly, wind,
Before we run back into the windlessness
With our bodies”
Into the windlessness
Of our house in Taos.

From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), edited by Countee Cullen.

This poem is in the public domain.

 

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The Turd Sandwich Café: The Supreme Court Serves up the You’re Fired Sandwich

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Turd Sandwich Café: The Supreme Court Serves up the You're Fired Sandwich

Al Capone: When at Bat -- your turn to shine. In the field, ITS A TEAM

 

 

Mondays 7:30 AM

Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case

 

Achilles as Usual

The Wayans, Jason Bourne, Achilles, Cassandra, the Ghost of Victor Robles. Its all about the immigrant.

This Episode Recorded June 10, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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The Turd Sandwich Cafe{ Mike to Victor Robles: ”GO! BE Bone!”

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

The Turd Sandwich Cafe: Mike to Victor Robles: "GO! BE Gone!"

Don't Cry for Caitlin, America.

 

 

Mondays 7:30 AM

Hosts: Achilles, Hector

 

Special Guest: Cassandra

Mike claims the Nats are getting better. At what, I ask? Losing with Hope?

This Episode Recorded June 3, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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Recovery Radio: The Miracle Thomas Interview

 

Enlighten Radio Presents

Recovery Radio: The Miracle Thomas Interview

 

 

 

Broadcasting LIVE, 2 PM Friday Afternoons

Hosts: John Case, James Boyd

 

Special Guest: Miracle Thomas

James welcomes Miracle Thomas, an American multi-genre singer, songwriter and producer, to Recovery Radio. The talk is about concert performances could contribute to recovery causes -- and the survival of hardworking and talented musicians too!

This Episode Recorded May 17, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV

 

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