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Enlighten Radio: The Storytelling Hour: May 11: Mothers and their special day

The Black Swan

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Dark -- But Untwisted
 
 
Poems to the "black swan" -- associated with magical rarity, or fantasy contexts, except in Australia whence they originate. Jeanine Leane, Bridget Pegeen Kelly, Katharyn Howd Machan, more
Wednesdays 10 AM
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded May 18, 2026
Odile, The Black Swan
by Una Mcdonnell
Impossible to look at her without thinking dark water, depths where light doesn't reach. In the diner on Dalhousie, her presence commands the booth, though only the decrepit at the counter sees the water rising, water- line gurgling just beneath her chin. Flutter of a dark wing that briefly stretches. Sally, a regular, orders coffee between johns, eggs at 4 a.m. They arrive, sunny side silicon perfect. Minivans line up to glean sorrow from her eyes. If only I could dance, says Sally. When the sky turns pink, she'll sleep. Odile once had an act involving lit black candles and a snake. Smoke she could conjure on demand. Rose on stage, an angel from the black lake. They all desired her, but one. Before Champagne Rooms, loose laws, when looking was enoughShe holds her mug as if it could contain her. The transistor radio tin-tin-tins demented heart songs tie a yellow ribbon -- and getting caught in the rain --¦ and I'll never have that recipe again --Pale-skinned fries rise like broken limbs from plates, tendrils of vinegar seep down. The scent is grease, acid, hot breath and chrome. There are no new ways to be alone. There are no new ways to mourn.
 
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Spring Training and the ”Thucydudes Trap”

 
Enlighten Radio Presents
Will it be "Baseball", a fair game, or War
 
Stand Still, if you can.
 
 
 
Broadcast Thrsdays 11 AM, player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: John Case, James Boyd, Mike Cuccherini
Mike updates the Spring Trainin Explosioins. Mean while, we await the likelihood of world war from the dice roll of the "Thucydides Trap"
This Episode Recorded may 14 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV
 
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The Poetry Show: Rivers

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Speakingof Rivers
 
 
Soulful flow of rivers: Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Oliver Tearl, Pablo Neruda, KLathleen Raine, Don Domanski, Rabindranath Tagore
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded may 6, 2026
The Negro speaks of Rivers
by Langston Hughes
I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
 
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Enlighten Radio: The Storytelling Hour: April 27: Interesting times and short getaways

The Poetry Show: Trees

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Stand Still
 
The Bristlecone Pine
A Magnificent collection of Tree Visions: Drink the undrinkable; Through a glass, darkly; The Trees are not lost. Joy Harjo, Adrienne Rich, Christian Wimen, WS Merwin, Jane Hirshfield. Poems of Peace.
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded April 29, 2026
 
The Bristlecone Pine
by Mary Jane Myers
For centuries, the stalwart pine has stood __in this unwonted spot. Its shallow roots and resinous hard wood __shield it from drought and rot. __Thin soil, high winds, cold air: it thrives where other living things cannot. __Dear tree, please hear my prayer. __Lend me your purple cone to plant inside my heart, its chambers bare, __arteries hard as bone. __For from your potent seed, that germinates on bleak and barren stone, __fresh hope will sprout. Indeed, to love's avowals I'd once again accede.
 
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The Poetry Show: Clouds

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
I Really Don't Know Clouds. At All.
 
 
Sandra Cisneros, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Sara Teasdale, Sara James, Phillis Levin, Joni Mitchell? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgtLZCe-GSM)
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded April22, 2026
Cloud
by Sandra Cisneros
Before you became a cloud, you were an ocean, roiled and murmuring like a mouth.
You were the shadow of a cloud crossing over a field of tulips.
You were the tears of a man who cried into a plaid handkerchief.
You were a sky without a hat.
Your heart puffed and flowered like sheets drying on a line.
And when you were a tree, you listened to trees and the tree things trees told you.
You were the wind in the wheels of a red bicycle.
You were the spidery Maria tattooed on the hairless arm of a boy in downtown Houston.
You were the rain rolling off the waxy leaves of a magnolia tree.
A lock of straw-colored hair wedged between the mottled pages of a Victor Hugo novel.
A crescent of soap.
A spider the color of a finger nail.
The black nets beneath the sea of olive trees.
A skein of blue wool.
A tea saucer wrapped in newspaper.
An empty cracker tin.
A bowl of blueberries in heavy cream.
White wine in a green-stemmed glass.
And when you opened your wings to wind, across the punched-tin sky above a prison courtyard, those condemned to death and those condemned to life watched how smooth and sweet a white cloud glides.
 
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Enlighten Radio: The Storytelling Hour: April 13: Interesting members of the family