After long winter, giving each other nothing, we collide with blossoms in our hands. by Chiyo Chiyo (1703-1775) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period, a Buddhist nun, and widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of haiku (then called hokku). After Long Winter is one of the best haiku ever written. Period. Translated by David Ray. This piece ori…

The Playlist: Thanks Gratefulness puts the pedal to the metal and crashes into the void in W.S. Merwin's poem Thanks. Once Once I was in love with my future. It was lit like a Japanese city. My life was charmed. I got into fistfights. I turned on a dime. I was fiercely optimistic. I was the luckiest man alive. Self Portrait It doesn't interest Davi…

Kindness is the second single from my upcoming podcast episode, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, and an amazing poem by Naomi Shihab Nye. The Transcript can be found hereBy Scott Taylor

Once is the first single from my podcast episode, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Once Once I was in love with my future. It was lit like a Japanese city. My life was charmed. I got into fistfights I turned on a dime. I was fiercely optimistic. I was the luckiest man alive. Once, I was shot out of a cannon, I landed on the moon, I killed sev…

Excerpted from Separation Energy It is also included in my upcoming book, October. October 20th The temperature has dropped, the constructs have vanished, and the woman the lab assistant’s been seeing will not return his calls. He shakes his head, saying, The tensile strength of the bridge cables will not hold if the vibration continues at these un…

This is excerpted from Episode 4: Separation Energy Sweet Darkness by David Whyte When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone, no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your home tonight. T…

This is excerpted from Episode 4: Separation Energy When Death Comes By Mary Oliver When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step thr…

Lines to a Poet by Josephine Jacobsen Be careful what you say to us now. The street-lamp is smashed, the window is jagged, There is a man dead in his blood by the base of the fountain. If you speak, You cannot be delicate or sad or clever. Some other hour, in a moist April, We will consider similes for the budding larches. You can teach our wits an…

A performance of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's great poem I am Waiting—excerpted from episode 4: Separation Energy. Music and performance by Scott Taylor ©2020. Listen to the whole show here: Separation EnergyBy Scott Taylor

Stories, poems, and monologues with music for that special sheltering-at-home time of your life. 1. Messages (Taylor): A woman sends messengers into the afterworld 2. Sweet Darkness (David Whyte): Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. 3. Cosmodemonic (Taylor): If you w…

An excerpt from Episode3: Matter The Race is On (after George Jones, with inspiration from Tom Durkin and Larry Collmus) ...Now on the back stretch, Happily Married is leading along the rail followed by Is This All There Is Stuck in the Middle with You is three lengths back it’s still Happily Married, Is This All There Is, and here comes Late Night…

An excerpt from Episode 1: Past Tense The Past Comes Calling The past is the pitcher who does not bother backing you off the plate with high heat but simply throws at your unhelmeted head. The past is the catcher who kicks you in the nuts while you’re sprawled out on the ground. The past is the umpire who laughs, and calls you out. Words and music …

Imagine yourself in the middle of a world-destroying catastrophe. Now imagine that we have a short quiz for you. It won’t take but a minute. The world is a dusty, dark chaos, and the trap our unreliable narrator finds himself in, gets more dire as the story goes on. Agents Angstrom and Kinski find themselves in a different kind of trap—and due to a…

A chance meeting at the airport, a serious case of misplaced empathy, and an obsession that destroys everything. This show is actually Episode 0. It was originally recorded in November 2018, and released on my YouTube channel. Because of the feedback I received—and the fact that I had a great time making it—I decided to change gears and develop No …

A psychic finds a strange piece of metal with a map brought back from her dreams. Scott draws some questionable conclusions about the present, based on serial misreadings of his own past. A town reacts to long-awaited infernal signs. The Past is your permanent crazy ex who knows all your passwords—and secrets—by heart. From the radio desk, Scott su…