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Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Happiness
 
 
 
 
Gemini's vision of Jane Kenyon's famous poem
 
The poetry of Happiness. Jane Kenyon, Naomi Shihab Nye, Peter Cooley, Nomi Stone, Nathalie Handal, Jack Hirschman
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded 09/30/2026
Happiness
Jane Kenyon 1947 – 1995 There's just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. And how can you not forgive? You make a feast in honor of what was lost, and take from its place the finest garment, which you saved for an occasion you could not imagine, and you weep night and day to know that you were not abandoned, that happiness saved its most extreme form for you alone. No, happiness is the uncle you never knew about, who flies a single-engine plane onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes into town, and inquires at every door until he finds you asleep midafternoon as you so often are during the unmerciful hours of your despair. It comes to the monk in his cell. It comes to the woman sweeping the street with a birch broom, to the child whose mother has passed out from drink. It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker, and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots in the night. It even comes to the boulder in the perpetual shade of pine barrens, to rain falling on the open sea, to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
 
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Enlighten Radio Presents
The Last Stop Cafe: Three Women
Hello Dolly!
 
 
Broadcast Wednesdays, 6 PM eastern time, player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: KarenValentine, James Boyd John Case, Erik Janus , JB, Sara Thomsen
The Cafe celebrates three larger than life Women who passed away in the past week. Dolly Parton, Gloria Steinem and Cassandra Wilson
This Episode Recorded 9/9/2026 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com
 

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Lay Down the Hammer -- Grab a Partner
 
 
Naomi Shihab Nye, Dorianne Laux, Philip Levine, Carol Lynn White, Sandra McPherson
Broadcast Wednesdays, 10 AM on player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded 9/8/2026
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Many Asked Me Not to Forget Them
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Where do you keep all these people? The shoemaker with his rumpled cough. The man who twisted straws into brooms. My teacher, oh my teacher. I will always cry when I think of my teacher. The olive farmer who lost every inch of ground, every tree, who sat with head in his hands in his son's living room for years after. I tucked them into my drawer with cuff links and bow ties. Touched them each evening before I slept. Wished them happiness and peace. Peace in the heart. No wonder we all got heart trouble. But justice never smiled on us. Why didn't it? I tried to get Americans to think of them. But they were too involved with their own affairs to imagine ours. And you can't blame them, really. How much do I think of Africa? I always did feel sad in the back of my mind for places I didn't have enough energy to worry about.
 
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questions, comments: jcase4218@gmail.com