democracyroad

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome
 
 
Better Break up than Death poems from some experienced lovers: Catherine Wing -- Yehuda Amichai -- Billy Collins -- Janet Harrison -- Marjorie Agosin
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded Jul 29, 2026
Darker Sooner
by Catherine Wing
 
Then came the darker sooner, came the later lower. We were no longer a sweeter-here happily-ever-after. We were after ever. We were farther and further. More was the word we used for harder. Lost was our standard-bearer. Our gods were fallen faster, and fallen larger. The day was duller, duller was disaster. Our charge was error. Instead of leader we had louder, instead of lover, never. And over this river broke the winter’s black weather.
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com
 

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
Waterfall Poems
 
 
Waterfalls --- dining in the Wake of, or On-The-Way-To The Big One --- with Kay Ryan. Accross the world from drainpipes to torrents: drenched.
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded Aug 5 2026
_____
 
The Niagara River
by Kay Ryan
 
As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice -- as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced--
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com
 

Welcome to our first published show from STown 
(a somewhat Mythical West Virginia town located in Our County, Our Country, our World.)
 
Let us be mindful of the Rainbow Crow, and her Sacrifice.
 
We follow the News Cycle: Local, National, Global, Cosmic!!
STown  Reporters include the Birds (Nature's own Flockers). So very little will remain unobserved.
 
The Last Stop Cafe Hosts: Karen Valentine, James Boyd, Erik Janus, JB Christensen, John Case.
 
Our First Guests: Susan Pipes, Sara Thomsen
 
Questions, Comments, Contributions, Complaints
host@enlightenradio.org
 

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Stop The Car!! Mark Dody, Erin Murphy, Matt Del Gusto, Joshua Frank, Meril Crabtree
 
 
The Interstate existence is largely indifferent to human values. Leave it -- what has been left behind?
Wednesdays 10 Am on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded July 15, 2026
Heaven for Helen
by Mark Doty
 
Heaven for Helen Mark Doty 1953 Helen says heaven, for her, would be complete immersion in physical process, without self-consciousness
to be the respiration of the grass, or ionized agitation just above the break of a wave, traffic in a sunflower's thousand golden rooms.
Images of exchange, and of untrammeled nature. But if we're to become part of it all, won't our paradise also involve
participation in being, say, diesel fuel, the impatience of trucks on August pavement, weird glow of service areas along the interstate at night?
We'll be shiny pink egg cartons, and the thick treads of burst tires along the highways in Pennsylvania: a hell we've made to accompany
the given: we will join our tiresome productions, things that want to be useless forever.
But that's me talking. Helen would take the greatest pleasure in being a scrap of paper, if that's what there were to experience.
Perhaps that's why she's a painter, finally: to practice disappearing into her scrupulous attention, an exacting rehearsal for the larger
world of things it won't be easy to love. Helen I think will master it, though I may not. She has practiced a long time learning to see I have devoted myself to affirmation,
when I should have kept my eyes on the ground.
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com
 

 
Enlighten Radio Presents
last s top preview 2
last stop cafe
 
 
thursdays 6 pm
Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case, James Boyd
test show 2
This Episode Recorded 7/2 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com
 
 

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
Diamonds in my Coal Bucket
 
Appalachian poets deliver compelling and powerful stories and images of (among the) most ancient mountains. Dora Malech, Robert Lewis Weeks, Frank X. Walker, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Pauletta Hansel, and more...
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded 07072026 --
Mountain Mama
by Sara Loudin Thomas
 
Mountain MamaThere is truth in the trailer park
and honesty in the car on blocks.
Starvin’ Marvin and “as seen on TV”
live cheek by jowl with the likes
of handmade quilts and apple butter;
old-time music and the oral tradition.
Some folks say it isn’t True,
isn’t the way things used to be.
But lose a grandfather to the mines,
an uncle to the war, your mother
to a cancer that gnaws at her soul—
lose a child for no reason you can see.
Then you’ll find the fragile beauty
in the never-ending yard sale.
You’ll learn to love the tourists
who buy corncob pipes, coonskin caps,
and lumps of coal carved like bears.
When the giant timber companies
run the local sawmill out of money
and Aunt Eunice can’t remember your name—
when your best friend moves to California
and minimum wage is doing alright, man.
Then you’ll find the potent wisdom
in workers’ compensation, food stamps
and tonight’s lotto number—
dear God let me win.
A one in a billion chance is better
than watching the land your ancestors
cleared wash away . . . no wish away
on the promises of strip mines
and a future you can’t afford to wait.
At night, the lights from Wal-Mart glow
like the promise of a better tomorrow.
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com