For all those who are hurting, upset, and dismayed after the election...Af Dale Biron

A Paradox After the Election It is 7:27 PM, Wednesday, November 6th, and I am tired, even of hope. Or maybe it is hope, that’s grown old, and now helplessly tired of me. I long for a place of equanimity, where nothing can easily attach itself to what feels like permanently me. Choosing “now,” is likely all there is. And suspecting that at least hal…

Could it be we do not trust some things that we should, and do trust other things that we should not?

To scapegoat. To play fast and loose with the truth and especially with blame. To add insult to injury. To ignore any and all logical and systemic connections between cause and effect. To refuse any chance for deep, just, and real solutions. These are the dangerous moves of the demagogue...Af Dale Biron

To "know about" something is largely an intelectual endevor. It's helpful, but incomplete. To actually "know" something deep in our bones, we must "feel" it more fully, which invites both the head and the heart to the party. This merging of our intellect with our emotions provides the possibility of wisdom. Poetry can help.…

The world is made of stories. You are a story. Everyone you know and love is a story. Let's not accept stories about ourselves, others, or the world that are old, tattered, and no longer work...Af Dale Biron

Does Mother Earth need a restraining order? This is one of several questions we tackle in this edition of the Dale Biron On Poetry Podcast. We also want to know the relationship between probability and possibility? Hint, living in possibility is pretty important...Af Dale Biron

Once you've extracted as much learning as you can from your past mishaps, mistakes, and misfortunes, it’s best to simply let it all go…Af Dale Biron

Courage is to "know" our heart, and to "follow" it. In times of great turmoil and difficulty, it becomes even more important to do so. As in these times...Af Dale Biron

Once we are part of this mysterious, unfathomable, undefinable, condition we call life, we are in (and within) the universal club of kindness.Af Dale Biron

Can a poem explain the power of anger? Yes, the right poem, and the right kind of anger... Righteous anger.Af Dale Biron

There will be times when you can place your body into the natural world, to walk, see, feel, hear and touch. And there will be times when you can’t. But you can still seek healing solace.Af Dale Biron

Might there be a poem equal to a cat video? Can a critter help cure our sadness, even our subtle but irreversible sadness?Af Dale Biron

Here's how to read poems for optimum inspiration, joy, and impact. (Relax. Renew. Repeat...)Af Dale Biron

War is necessary, needed, and natural… Wait, is this actually so? Powerful poems can help us push up against our cultural beliefs and expectations, especially the ones that are no longer serving us. This is one of my favorites mind and heart decolonization tools. A poem by Pablo Neruda, that says let’s just be quiet for a time...…

Our worst grudge is the one we hold, often unwittingly, against ourselves. It's the one that does the greatest damage. Time for forgiveness...Af Dale Biron

Sometimes increasing our peace of mind becomes our highest priority. This poem may help...Af Dale Biron

How might a poem help us with difficult decisions in these dark times?Af Dale Biron

A simple poem about a beautiful, flawed, and precious thing...Af Dale Biron

New stories, powerful metaphors, and compelling images, are arriving now daily. And not a moment too soon, because the old narratives have lost virtually all of their credibility, and certainly all of their magic. It's new cultural "pickle juice" we need, now more than ever...Af Dale Biron

We are social beings. We make, consume and live by the stories we share with others. Stories that help us see and feel, think and navigate the world and our place in it. Stories that eventually define what passes for what we call our common sense....Af Dale Biron

As the extraordinary teacher and public intellectual, Bayo Akomolafe once put it, “The times are urgent: Let’s slow down...” In this episode we contemplate what it would be like to start again, to start fresh, to start small and go slow...Af Dale Biron

If we really want to have greater "agency" in this world (and at the same time, joy) we're going to need our dear friends by our side. In this episode we'll look at poetry that celebrates those we call our friends.Af Dale Biron

Resistance, Resilience, Renewal: Poetry’s Power in Turbulent Times... In this course, we’ll take a journey through the tumultuous landscapes of contemporary society, guided by the bright beacon of poetry. Through readings, discussions, and provocative inquiries, we will uncover the ways in which poetry serves as a practical and potent force for res…

"Look. The poppies they are at it again exploding on the hills with their deep yellow flames and / supple hearts..." Excerpt from "Sun Trail" by Dale BironAf Dale Biron

If you actually love poetry, it’s not because you chose to do so in any traditional sense. We choose poetry because something mysterious and deep in our body chooses for us.Af Dale Biron

Some mornings, despite the catastrophes, we wake up shining...Af Dale Biron

If you want to simultaneous enjoy your life, have better relationships, and get more things done, then you'll need to spend more time in your personal optimal zone. That includes having more fun. This week is all about that...Af Dale Biron

We all want to fulfill the "why" of our lives. Therefore, how we "pickle" ourselves matters. Or said another way, the "context" we create for ourselves and others will determine how successful we are at creating the vision and world that is most important to us.Af Dale Biron

The simple, basic, foundational fact we must understand to be successful in any creative (especially artistic) endeavor...Af 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 PoetAf 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 BironAf 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.Af 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.Af 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.)Af 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."Af 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...Af 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...Af 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 DoyleAf 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.Af 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...Af 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?Af 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…