The simple, basic, foundational fact we must understand to be successful in any creative (especially artistic) endeavor...Oleh Dale Biron

When we create stories about human nature, based upon observing traumatized humans, we get a picture that is both predictable and wrong. –Musings of a PoetOleh Dale Biron

A Post-Humanist world would be one that fully embraced a "more than human world..." This week's episode continues to explore this theme, and features a powerful and poetic quote by David Abram, who coined the phrase used in the title. Plus one of the most famous poems written by the brilliant poet, Robinson Jeffers.…

"...We must un-humanize our view of the world just a little, make being of service, as needed and as sacred as sunlight. Invite both head and heart, home, to a welcomed wholeness. Declare joy and having "enough" the newest kind of envy..." –Dale BironOleh Dale Biron

What if we are up to our collective axels in mud? What if our political and ecological ideas, beliefs, and actions are getting us nowhere? What if we've got to get lost (on purpose) to actually move forward. What if a condition for sane progress is to first arrange for our own disappearance? What if philosopher-poet, Bayo Akomolafe is right when he…

In these times of political, social, and ecological challenge and disruption, to what should we pay attention? Well certainly the ability to come back to our "center" is critical. In other words, having the ability to make our personal "optimal zone" a place where we spend more and more of our time. Solving your 37th problem is at the core of it al…

Let's reimagine both hope and despair. Truth is, hope and despair make uneasy friends. Our categorical, binary culture, insists on our choosing one or the other. But what if both despair and hope live deep in our hearts and minds at this time? What if to be skillful and resilient in our lives, we must acknowledge and embrace both?…

Forgiveness? It can become your super power. Start with others. Slowly. Pace yourself. It’s no cakewalk, but forgiving others can often be a tad easier. A way to get started. Eventually, as your powers increase you can do the really heavy lifting of forgiving yourself.Oleh Dale Biron

Real hope, meaning decent odds for passing through the coming political, social, and ecological bottlenecks we face throughout the world, will require a deep partnership between our minds and hearts. That is to say, our many civilization-threatening meta-crisis predicaments are too big, too mature, too complex for anything short of "artful" respons…

Of course, there's no algorithm or "set of rules" for writing (or for that matter, discovering) beautiful, stunning, memorable poems. But after working with thousands of people and the poems they fell in love with, I've discovered a simple set of characteristics that can help. Three essential qualities that can point us toward the poetry we are muc…

WANTED: HUMANS TO CREATE AND SPREAD NEW, HELPFUL STORIES... When it comes to the META-CRISIS we face, we not only have an old story, it's a bad story. The kind that's leading us off a very high cliff. Replacing our own story is the first step, and is more critical than ever.Oleh Dale Biron

"You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or you can have democracy. But you cannot have both." –U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (See what happens when artificial intelligence meets artful intelligence.)Oleh Dale Biron

Perhaps there's never been a time on this earth, when tiny moments of restful joy, and small islands of utter happiness were more needed. The recipe for moments of utter happiness is no mystery. It's one part Attention, one part Gratitude, mixed with a generous portion of "Let it Be-ism."Oleh Dale Biron

Listen, you can’t just read a poem. Not a good one. Not a poem that moves you. Not one that stops you in your tracks, has you look closely, walk inside it, have your own experience. Without you, the reader, the listener, the poem is nothing...Oleh Dale Biron

What if a New Year could talk? What would it say? Maybe it feels like we lean on "it" a little too hard, for the things we want, but constantly choose not to do for ourselves...Oleh Dale Biron

"Because poetry, if it takes fire, cracks people’s masks, and assaults arrogance, and sucks you beneath the surface of words towards why we use them...." –Brian DoyleOleh Dale Biron

Stay A Cheap Date… To up your gratefulness game, stay amazed by a cool glass of water, a summer tomato, a hug, a curious question asked by a loving friend, a simple walk in the forest, the sound of a guitar, a new poet you never heard before, (or many times before) that rocks your world.Oleh Dale Biron

Of course, social media includes a daily diet of vitriol and shrillness. And there are perverse structural algorithms that reinforce the fomenting of anger, division, and fear as a way to capture human attention and ultimately make money. And yes, I also know there are deep human intentions to help and serve, evident on every social media platform …

Who could blame us for wanting to place the tray table of our fears, concerns, and at times despair, in its full upright and locked position? That is to say, we need a break from having our hearts continually shocked, upended, and broken...Oleh Dale Biron

A cash crop poem is one that helps and inspires us in so many ways. We go back to them time and time again. But why and how do they work?Oleh Dale Biron

Your heart seeks its own reflected images. After reading and speaking at least a million lines of poetry, here are some of my favorite ones, and the poets who wrote them. I think you'll discover that when your heart finds those just right few written lines that speak your feelings, better than you’ve been able to speak them, you'll be smitten. Of c…

Could recognizing more fully our relationships and context change everything, particularly when it comes to our ecological meta-crisis? And might an absence of this awareness keep us stuck for a very long while? Stay tuned for the poem-story,Oleh Dale Biron

How deeply ironic that the perspectives, beliefs and stories we now most need to help us heal the earth and avert an even greater catastrophe, were once scorned as bad, primitive, naive and yes... pagan. I beg to differ!Oleh Dale Biron

Maybe a better strategic plan is not what we need right now. Maybe we need to get lost on purpose, to break away from the ironclad certainty of "doom" on one end and the "business as usual" denial on the other. Einstein said we couldn't solve problems at the same level of thinking that created them. And because we know it's true but won't admit it,…

Our modern culture can no longer resolve the predicaments it's creating. The difficulties and tensions are playing out socially, economically, politically, and especially ecologically. And yet, there are sources of wisdom available to us. One source is the poetic tradition, which implores us to slow down, honor our intellects, yes, but also honor a…

There are many things we want to change, make different, make better. From personal changes, to massive political and ecological transformations. The first skillful and effective step is ending our battle with reality.Oleh Dale Biron

So here is the thing about being human. We are story-based animals. We become ourselves through stories. It’s the narrative pickle juice in which we marinate. We might not have direct effect on the juice of our big old social pickling project. But we can control our own little pickle jar. It’s juice. And if we practice, we can get a little more cal…

Let's talk about about a different kind of faith. The faith needed for the challenges and predicaments ahead, both personal and collective. A faith not requiring supernatural beliefs. Let's also talk about a kindred type of grounded hope as well.Oleh Dale Biron

An amazing poet, who through her art, provides a master class on the traits we need to skillfully face the predicaments and challenges of our wild and fierce modern lives. And one more trait I'll add to the list for Wislawa Szymborską... stunningly wise.Oleh Dale Biron

OK, just get comfortable wherever you’re seated. It will help if your back is straight. If you can and it’s comfortable, close your eyes and take a few deep, cleansing breaths to center yourself. Allow your body and mind to relax, releasing as best you can, any tension or stress. Let’s start by simply hearing this brief poem in full. Then we'll pas…

You will never be alone, you hear so deep / a sound when autumn comes... (One of the most uplifting poems ever.)Oleh Dale Biron

How can a poem be both simple and unfathomable at the same time? Truth is, really good poems lift off the page, taking us to those new frontier places in ourselves. Places where words and language perform a kind of magic.Oleh Dale Biron

Our current economy is at war with the earth. Here's a story and vision, disguised as a poem to help us stay real, centered, and effective in these opportunity-laden, tragic, and yes, beautiful times. An era when our human agency is deeply required. (This episode is dedicated to the work of Lisi Krall, Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland.)…

ENJOY THIS QUICK POETIC TAKE... Here's a poem describing the greatest challenge most of us will ever face in our closest relationships. Using simple images and delicious metaphors, this poem is hard to forget and cuts right to the heart of the matter.Oleh Dale Biron

If you have ever shared your home and life with a critter you loved, this episode is for you. What words might we choose to honor the animal beings that have given us so much happiness and joy? And, of course, grief at their passing. The cat, dog, horse, goat, cow, or creature of your choice that has become kindred spirits with those of us lucky en…

What if an established norm in society, a hidebound institution, a way of thinking, or a whole economic system is simply wrong? (For example, the vastly ineffective way we are dealing with our climate and earth overshoot predicament.) Can Art (and poetry in particular) help set it right? Even "nudge" it a little bit forward and toward wholeness....…

In a world where we are besieged by exaggeration, hype, and nearly nonstop puffery, might there be a legitimate, simple and realistic way to tap into greater skillfulness, satisfaction, and yes, happiness?Oleh Dale Biron

Forget the flashy courage of heroes. The poet calls courage an act of knowing, speaking, and following the deeper directions of the heart. It is the wisdom of enough. It is the wisdom of no separation. A simple and honest courage, that even we, the flawed, vulnerable, and ordinary ones, may actually be able to render, in this, our rocky, grieving, …

When does a poem become "your" perfect poem? Most importantly, the poem must be relatable. It must not be closed-off and insultingly clear. The poem can make points, but not tip over into propaganda. It must tell a meaningful story using images, metaphors, big language. Perfect poems help us integrate head and heart, re-center, re-member who we are…

Courage is needed to skillfully face our ecological meta-crisis. But the question is, what kind of courage? The wrong kind will not work, and may actually make things worse. In this episode we feature a poem that provides some wise counsel regarding this issue of courage...Oleh Dale Biron

We know what to do in traditional emergencies. But what of the confusion, fear, and often excruciating pain that defines the necessary emergence into a new ecological and planetary era? What moves will you make and what stories will you tell to help yourself and others stay calm and centered? What relationship and facility will you have with despai…

In this episode we consider a world where activism has ceased to work, or work in the ways we wish and imagine. So what then? Are we ready? Of course not. Strategic plans may be contraindicated... Poet, Philosopher, Bayo Akomolafe (featured in this episode) describes Postactivism this way. "Postactivism, the concept that informs my notion of making…

The words we use can be our best friend (or) worst enemy. What happens when the enemy in our language shows up, but we urgently need an ally and friend? Here's a way forward, a way to befriend our words again...Oleh Dale Biron

Could it be that doing and feeling better in the world, requires us to think smaller not bigger? Might this is the way forward, tip-toeing toward small but significant acts of redemption?Oleh Dale Biron

As a poet-story teller, I'm keenly interested in the role of each of us that hears and tells stories (and poems) in a time of ecological crisis? This, of course includes you and me and everyone living on this earth...Oleh Dale Biron

If we love the world fully, we can't help but do the right things. Conversely, without a deep love and reverence for the world, nothing we do will work. In this episode we will protest our current ecological predicaments and praise the world with equal fervor.Oleh Dale Biron

Can the same poem trade in both heartbreak and healing? Can the story of the poem help us witness a difficult and sometimes terrifying reality while also laying down footsteps, even faint ones to follow on a path toward healing?Oleh Dale Biron

How do you handle not knowing? Is it disorienting? Do you rush to a resolution? A rush to feel, anything other than uncertainty? What if we could allow a little more "not knowing" in our lives? So when we do get a glimpse of insight, it's even more impactful and yes, pleasurable?Oleh Dale Biron

Mostly, we don't even realize it. That we're perpetually waiting for some other "thing" to happen or "condition" to be true, before we allow ourselves to be happy. What do we want? A perfect world, that lines up with our desires. We want better thoughts and emotions. We want the goal to be accomplished, the dream achieved, and to have the just-righ…

Why do so many of us love the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke? It's simple. He helps us see, understand, and experience the world through fresh, creative, more imaginative eyes. Rilke's poetry is accessible, sensual, and rich with meaning. Enjoy...Oleh Dale Biron