Where Poetry and Health & Wellness Meet ~ a Public Radio Interview at Rider University, on the Poetic Arts as a Nurturing Source for Our Well-Being

Your Poet & Poetorialist on air, being interviewed on the connection between poetry and health. At Rider University's Health Studies Institute; on their weekly Health411 program. 

Here's the link ~ or cut & paste the url below

https://open.spotify.com/episode/30yrWf94BxsKgF6OmMSITI?si=aBVhia5gR4yZ2W_tUU_S9g

We discuss the view, and my direct experience, that the poetic arts can serve as a nurturing source for our larger well being, for our emotional, mental and spiritual bodies; for achieving not just mindfulness, but as I call it, “wholefulness," integration vs dis-integration of self. 

Parts of ourselves that need their own tending, care and feeding, and exercising, of a kind, to stay healthy. That in turn supports and enhances our physical wellness; our full(er) aliveness. 

The show is in four 11-minute segments, with a minute announcement between each segment. 

Beyond the animated conversing, with interviewer (neuroscientist) Dr. Jonathan Karp, it includes me reading live some of my poems, and features several beautifully musically-scored ones taken from my poetorials Peace~ability for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Ultramarine for the America's Cup. 

Enjoy listening in, and musing on the conversation and stream of ideas. And freely sharing this post or links with others who may be interested in these words and thoughts ~ and poems. 

I'm available for other radio and podcast interviews on this and a range of topics, where poetry and other parts of our living and being intersect and offer us possibilities for greater aliveness, consciousness and inner and outer connection ...

~ C o l i n

Declaring Your Independence ~ a plein air poem on the Country's Independence Day ~ July 4th

Declaring Your Independence

                                     on the Country’s Independence Day

On this day when we mark

with fireworks and picnics

the Country becoming 

wholly self-governing,

maybe it’s a day, 

an opportunity

to affirm or assent, ascend to 

our own free-handedness,

our fullest independence ~

of thought, of action;

of way of living, being 

in the world. The right

to freely choose our own way,

to naturally express 

our own feelings

among our own people,

all people.

Without fanfare, or fear  

of their histrionics,

censorings or polemics.

Maybe declaring this 

Self-rule; giving up

beholdenness ~ to

anything or anyone that

keeps us from growing,

keeps us from rising.

Including allegiance

to old beliefs,  

unserving loyalties 

~ and giving ourselves

these vital, radial liberties,

takes equal braveness ~ 

and even greater 

precedence.

Colin Goedecke

Morristown, New Jersey

July 4th, 2018

Bring Yourself to This Day ~ a plein air poem for the Summer Solstice

Bring Yourself to This Day

                                     for the Summer Solstice
 

This Solstice Day,

re-generous day.

Of new Summering,

good Naturing.

The sun so greatly

lengthening. 

The trees

so freely dancing,

in ever deeper,

ever greener ecstasies.

The clouds caressing

the open skies, 

and dotting the eyes

of sailors

and mountaineers,

painters and

sonneteers. 

The waters of lakes

and rivers, firths

and fjords, bays

and sounds, clear 

and mirroring.

Bring yourself,

your whole nature,

bodifully, 

spiritly ~

as bountifully,

to this day

of balance and

beauty,

dalliance

and euphony

between

the boundless

heavens and the

re-turning earth; 

with a lightening

heart and long,

lengthening breath.


 

Colin Goedecke

Morristown, New Jersey

June 21st, 2018

Green Clouds ~ a plein air poem from the watery wilds of Alaska

Green Clouds

Green clouds

lie along the surface

of our coastal passage.

Clouds of conifers,

of Sitka spruce and cedar,

shore pine,

hemlock and alder;

that change shape by decades

instead of days;

by generations

of snow and light;

that share the shelter

of their deep-rooted solace

with the water,

the earth, the birds

and sometime-passing men.

Colin Goedecke

The Inside Passage, SE Alaska

July 2009

The Day to Spring - a plein air poem for the vernal equinox

The Day to Spring

                                          a poem for the spring equinox

It's The Day to Spring,

from winter's bare coil.

The Day for Self, 

and Nature,

to draw its longbowed

heart and sap back

and let fly,

freely,

swiftly,

vernally forth,

air to ground,

arrowing

with anticipation

into the marrow

of all newness,

all awakening,

all fullness.

Colin Goedecke

Central Park, New York

March 20, 2016

A Too-ra Loo-ra Day ~ a plein air poem for St. Patrick's Day

A Too-ra Loo-ra Day

There's a glossy, moss-hatted leprechaun

smiling Irishly on the subway platform,

waiting to travel underground

(as all leprechauns do) up to Fifth Avenue,

where the street is paved

with red-headed men

and freckle-faced maids

and a St. Patty's parade

is in full swing;

the City a wild shamrock,

lilting with Danny boys and

sweet Kathleens

and people dressed

in every shade of Spring.

Colin Goedecke

New York City

March 17, 1998