Best Martin Bidney Podcasts (2025)

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Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 60 - Goethe on Love and Travel 19:37

2M ago19:37

19:37

Episode 60 Goethe on Love and TravelIn episode 59 I told about Goethe’s thinking on breathing as the metaphor ofa lifegiving style of mental health attained in dialogue. Now it’s time to sample some dialogues I wrote with him when we con-versed in my dialogic translation of the German poet’s “Roman Elegies” and “Venetian Epigrams.” My verse replies…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 59 - Selving, Unselving, Breathing 17:30

2M ago17:30

17:30

Episode 59 Selving, Unselving, BreathingMy latest book, A Memoir-Essay on Literary Dialogue and Two VerseDialogues with Goethe’s Newly Translated Lyrics of Love and Travel, “RomanElegies” and “Venetian Epigrams,” has two parts.My translation of two verse-collections by Germany’s greatest poet will bePart Two. But first, in Part One, I want to show …

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Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 58 - Revitalizing Melody 22:08

4M ago22:08

22:08

The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 58:Revitalizing Melody I’m an experimenter in lyric verse, traveling through space and time to find poetic stanza patterns that start memorizing themselves in me. My attitude is playful: you don’t know what you will find. In this book, I use a form that Victorian poet Swinburne called a “ballad” stanza. I accompany ea…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 57 - Humor in the Byron Style 18:57

4M ago18:57

18:57

In stanzas 2 to 6 of my memoir in Byronic-style verse I introduce you to the poem by way of the topic “humor.” In the 336 stanzas of this journal I shift moods often, as Lord Byron did when writing about himself in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” Then I launch into a sample episode in the mood of comedy.Then, in stanzas 172-183 I’ve chosen an episode…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 56 - Religion & Passion: Year in a Monastery 15:16

7M ago15:16

15:16

The Be-Loving Imaginer: Episode 56Religion & Passion: Year in a Monastery The book Religion and Passion in Russia and France offers three psychologically pioneering story poems: Gabri-iliad by Alexander Pushkin (1821), Mythical Book by Alfred de Vigny (1858), and Year in a Monastery by Alexei Apukhtin (1883). In the Romanticist tradition of modern …

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 - Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsis 29:44

12M ago29:44

29:44

The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsisPub life in medieval Muslim Persia? But didn’t the Qur’an prohibit wine? Actually, the meaning of the relevant Quranic passages was long and widely debated. Result: Persian pub culture was intense and celebrated with distinguished verse. In this book I focus on a “divan,…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 54 - Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsis 26:14

12M ago26:14

26:14

The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsisPub life in medieval Muslim Persia? But didn’t the Qur’an prohibit wine? Actually, the meaning of the relevant Quranic passages was long and widely debated. Result: Persian pub culture was intense and celebrated with distinguished verse. In this book I focus on a “divan,…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 53 - Travel Wordsongs in Egypt, Greece, Turkey 21:22

1y ago21:22

21:22

Synopsis Episode #53 Egypt, Greece, TurkeyThree Historical Legacy ToursAt various times I’ve taken “antiquarian” tours of the countries named above, one tour per country, each of our journeys lasting two weeks. The sponsoring firm, “Travel with the Experts,” always offered both American and native-land lecturers on each nation’s history and culture…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 52 - Eighty Odes in Keats-like Modes 22:08

1+ y ago22:08

22:08

I celebrated my 80th birthday by writing 80 odes in reply to the 6 masterly ones by Keats and in response, quite often, to his other poetry as well, mainly sonnets. “46. Ode to My Neighborhood” is a kind of jubilant “happy birthday” response to the pleasures of a peaceful, friendly life; it’s in in the Mr. Rogers style. “Reply 37: ‘Ode on Autumn,’ …

1
Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 51- Hybridized Sonnets 18:55

1+ y ago18:55

18:55

The YouTube, like the book, has two parts, each with two subsections. 1a. Poems 12. Id and 22. Bulbous show how to hybridize a traditional sonnet with a new number of beats per line and a new kind of rhythm unit (e.g., three-syllable instead of two). 1b. Poems 13. Dividends and 25. Haste show how hybridized sonnets can be used to write “replies” to…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 50 - "When Two Friends Meet" 23:34

1+ y ago23:34

23:34

Synopsis for Episode #50 "WhenTwo Friends Meet"When Two Friends Meet – it was my friend Shahid Alam who suggested the title of our book. Our story, told in poetry and calligraphic art, is that of the mutual friendship we’ve enjoyed for over thirteen years. What has steadily deepened our friendship is the collaboration, the working-together, in whic…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 49 - K.D. Balmont "Sonnets of Sun, Honey, & Moon" 16:59

1+ y ago16:59

16:59

Here I “interview” a poet I’ve been reading and researching for decades. Poet K. D. Balmont, a guiding light and major force in the Russian Symbolist movement, offered an encyclopedic view of his intercultural, nature-mystical development in a climactic book of 255 lyrical treasures: Sonnets of Sun, Honey, and Moon: A Song of Worlds (1917). I’ve tr…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 48 – Passover Seder Hymn 6:23

2y ago6:23

6:23

Episode 48 – Passover Seder Hymn My favorite thing about the JewishPassover ceremony, or seder, is the After-Dinner Hymns. And my favorite one tosing is “Ki Lo Ya-eh.” I’ll translate the first verse: TO HIM IT IS FITTING, TO HIM IT IS DUE, Mighty, supreme in His majesty. Legions may rightfully sing to You, Sovran alone will You ever be. TO HIM IT I…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer - Episode 47 – Wordsongs for Music 14:32

2y ago14:32

14:32

Episode 47 – Wordsongs for MusicCelebrating my 80th birthday (April 21, 1923) with this book, I couldn’t wait to share wordsongs with you, and I put the first one right on the back cover. It’s called “March 1, 2022.” I’ll give you a few more samples of my 100 singable poems. They’re in all sorts of rhythms and rhyme schemes and stanza patterns.(1) …

1
MartinBidney - The Beloving Imaginer - Episode 46 Poe in Russia, “The Bells” 11:39

2y ago11:39

11:39

The Beloving Imaginer Episode 46 Poe in Russia, “The Bells” You’ve heard, maybe too often, about what may be “lost in translation,” but my reading tonight is designed to show that translation may also offer huge dividends, windfall profits. That’s what happened when Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont made a Russian version of Edgar Allan Poe’s experime…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer - Episode 45 Samples from Three Books 16:53

2y ago16:53

16:53

The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 45 Samples from Three Books It’s a joy to offer samples from three of my recent books of poems. From More Four! Four Beats Four Lines, Four Stanzas: 330 Four Wordsongs I offer 4 samples: (18) Jeer, (26) Nose, (103) Psalming, and (201) Sheheḥyananu (You Who Have Kept Us Alive). They contribute to the theme of being a J…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 44 - A Song for Sappho 10:40

2+ y ago10:40

10:40

The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 44 - A Song for Sappho Sappho (ca. 610 BCE to 570 BCE) is the earliest woman poet we know of in Western literature. [Moses’ sister Miriam, called a “prophet” (“neviah”), leads the liberated Jews in a song of triumph in Exodus, but the two verses that she recites cannot be proved to be her own compositions; they may ha…

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Episode 43 - Shakespeare Beat is Back – Rhyme Royal 25:32

2+ y ago25:32

25:32

Playful Warm-ups (173) It’s time (174) Continued (175) Conclamant (176) From Chaucer to Me (177) Hispanic (178) Chaucer Varied Applications (234) Early Memory (235) Capriccio in Rhyme Royal (236) Psalm 150 in Rhyme Royal (237) What Never Wasn’t There (238) Cup of Kindness (245) In and Out, Give and Take (246) Enigmatic Solitude (247) Quarantine (26…

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Episode 42 - The Shakespeare Beat Is Back – Keatsian Odes 21:22

2+ y ago21:22

21:22

In this second episode from my latest book High Five! The William Shakespeare Beat is Back I’ll offer examples of what can happen when you revive the 5-beat line (and ONE, and TWO, and THREE, and FOUR, and FIVE) that the world’s greatest verse writer used in all his plays. Reviving Shakespeare, you also revive Keats, whose six great odes are mostly…

1
Episode 41 - The Shakespeare Beat Is Back – Spanish Folk Songs 18:57

2+ y ago18:57

18:57

Of special interest in this collection of 400 original poems in iambic pentameter is a group of 70 dialogues with Spanish folk singers. I selected them to represent the main category groupings in Love and Hate: Spanish Folk Songs (1911), translated into Russian by K. D. Balmont from the collection (1882) by Francisco Rodríguez Marín, Cantos popular…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 40 - Book of the Heaven Eleven (2) 20:40

3y ago20:40

20:40

Episode #40 Book of the Heaven Eleven (2) As episode #39 offered samples of my 50 catullics, so episode #40 will present examples of my 50 sapphics, another Greco-Roman poetic form that centers on the repeated use of eleven-syllable pentameters. I’ll read a melodious poem describing changes in light and shadow in a room, and then present a metaphor…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 39 - Book of the Heaven Eleven (1) 19:09

3y ago19:09

19:09

Episode #39: Book of the Heaven Eleven (1) Roman poet Catullus and Greek poet Sappho both use eleven-syllable lines in their poetic stanzas. In this first part of my Intro I’ll read my translation of a Catullus poem (with my commentary verse employing his rhythm) and a half-dozen examples of what I call “catullics.” I’ll remark on certain reference…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 38 - The Heart of Giordano Bruno 21:21

3y ago21:21

21:21

Episode 38: The Heart of Giordano Bruno Bruno, burned at the stake in 1600 by the Inquisition in Rome for alleged heretical teachings (e.g. the multiplicity of worlds), wrote a book of love sonnets as did his contemporary Shakespeare. In modern sonnets and “replies” in the same verse form to the highlights of Bruno’s The Heroic Enthusiasms, I hope …

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 37 - Modern Psalms in Ancient Rhythm (2) 22:23

3y ago22:23

22:23

Episode 37: Modern Psalms in Ancient Rhythm (2) As the Biblical psalms often elaborate scripture stories, I want to do that, too. Tonight’s reading will feature Abraham, with a couple of short episodes about Jacob, as well – again I’ll read a total of 7 psalms. Distinctive about the scripture narratives in my interpretations will be the use of the …

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 36 - Modern Psalms in Ancient Rhythm (1) 17:05

3y ago17:05

17:05

Synopsis Episode 36: Modern Psalms in Ancient Rhythm (1) I introduce the reader, first, to ancient psalmodic rhythm by reading (and “conducting”) the opening passages of Psalm 92 (“A Psalm, A Song for the Sabbath Day”) in Hebrew, dramatizing their melodic wordsong achievement. Then, picking up the theme of sabbath, I recite 7 of my modern psalms, a…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 35 - Interviewing Sufi Poets 1:46:27

3+ y ago1:46:27

1:46:27

Synopsis Episode 35: Interviewing Sufi Poets We’ll read sample interviews with 15 Sufi poets 1050- 1650. Each “interview” includes a lyric, a focused verse “reply” by me, and a contextual “blogatelle.” I Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) Love the things of this world: wine Pages 41-43 wine II Anvari (1126-1189) Satire and moral teaching Pages 79-80 satiric-…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 34 - Pushkin’s Hero, Tatyana Larina 1:50:09

3+ y ago1:50:09

1:50:09

Podcast 34: Pushkin’s Hero, Tatyana Larina In this program, my aim is to introduce the hearer to the hero (now rapidly becoming a gender-neutral term) of Alexander Pushkin’s world-famed novel in verse, Eugene Onegin. In many ways, she earns the laudatory title I’m giving her, and my presentation will help you get acquainted with her background, her…

1
Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 33 - Speaking with the Chinese 1:37:08

3+ y ago1:37:08

1:37:08

PODCAST # 33 Speaking with the Chinese Theme: interior conversation. Friedrich Rückert completes in 1833 his 325 “adaptations” of the poems in the earliest collection of Chinese verse that we have, an anonymous work composed by pre-Confucian poets from the 11 th to the 7 th centuries BCE. Rückert, though he learned 44 languages, didn’t know any mor…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 32 - Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet, A. Tolstoy 1:13:04

3+ y ago1:13:04

1:13:04

Podcast Synopsis: The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 32: Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet, A. Tolstoy This video podcast presentation for Binghamton University Lyceum, via Zoom, focuses on my new genre of poetry writing, the “Verse Interview Book.” From the section called “Russian Loves” in my book Six Dialogic Poetry Chapbooks, available from Amazon, I’ve sele…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 31 - THREE PARABLES ABOUT JESUS 18:45

3+ y ago18:45

18:45

PODCAST #31: THREE PARABLES ABOUT JESUS My latest book, Persian Poetic Renaissance: 15 Sufi Poets in “Verse Interviews” contains 3 parables about Jesus that are delightful, highly original poetic masterworks. The poets are Nizami (on Jesus and the Dead Dog), Goethe (on Jesus, Peter, and the Horseshoe), and Attar (on Jesus and the Soup Pot). For con…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 30 - Owed to Omar 38:24

3+ y ago38:24

38:24

For years I’ve loved to recite Omar Khayyam (1048-113 as translated by the master Victorian wordsong writer Edward FitzGerald. “Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent / Doctor and sage…” I owe the Persian poet two things: (1) a gently melancholy but likeable skepticism which at the same time says ‘Enjoy the moment!” and (2) a beautiful verse form…

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 29 - Three Bisexual Imaginers 42:19

3+ y ago42:19

42:19

The three bisexually oriented books I’ll recite from today are landmark achievements in world culture, and I’ve written books in “interview” style to con-verse with them. Virgil (70-19 BCE) wrote Eclogues, ten one-act verse plays about Roman country life. All his shepherd-farmers are startlingly cultured people, poets and musicians who speak often …

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Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 28 - Shi-Jing, or Book of Songss 22:49

3+ y ago22:49

22:49

Shi-Jing, or Book of Songs – China’s earliest verse anthology, 11th to 7th centuries BCE, with all poets anonymous, was translated into Latin by an 18th century French Jesuit priest, a prose text lost, then rediscovered, reprinted in Germany in 1830. It became the source text for an 1833 version by German’s greatest translator-poet, Friedrich Rücke…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 27 Peaceful - “Marseillaise” 7:22

4y ago7:22

7:22

Here I sing for you a new national anthem I’ve written for the French people, and to help everyone celebrate Bastille Day in a tranquil and loving mood. A member of the French parliament, some decades back, called for an anthem that would be less bloody and vengeful than the “Marseillaise” by Rouget de Lisle, and I promptly wrote such a hymn of pea…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 26 - Interfaith Wordsongs 48:02

4y ago48:02

48:02

Interfaith Wordsongs: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Poems [$12.50] Wednesday, June16: 12-1 (Rain Date: Thursday, June 17), Lyceum. Location: Cutler Gardens, 840 Upper Front St, Binghamton, NY. Presenter: Poet Martin Bidney, Professor Emeritus, English, BU. “Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider Abraham the founder of their One God religions. …

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 25 - Supplement Poems for "Onegin" 31:15

4y ago31:15

31:15

PODCAST #25 SUPPLEMENT POEMS FOR “ONEGIN” In Podcast #24 I recited the first few dialogic exchanges of sonnets between Pushkin’s verse novel “Eugene Onegin,” and me, the translator and collocutor. Here I’d like to supplement our book-long con-verse-ation or interview with additional lyrics, mainly by Pushkin, which I added to clarify crucial moment…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 24 - Pushkin's Onegin with Replies 23:47

4y ago23:47

23:47

Synopsis for Podcast 22 Pushkin's Onegin with Replies Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) is Russia’s most beloved poet. Eugene Onegin, called by Pushkin a “novel in verse,” is Russia’s favorite narrative poem and her most influential novel. The narrative – about what was widely called a “superfluous man” – sets a context for the works by Turgenev, Dosto…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 23 - The Joys of Poetic Meter, Part 2 1:25:03

4y ago1:25:03

1:25:03

The Joys of Poetic Meter, Part 2: Martin Bidney, a poet, translator, scholar, and critic who has published 33 volumes of verse, here offers on a zoom YouTube the first presentation in a two-part mini-course, "The Joys of Poetic Meter." The course, as a whole, explores the rhythmic forms of lines and stanzas from poems of the last 3000 years, includ…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 22 - The Joys of Poetic Meter, Part I 1:39:57

4y ago1:39:57

1:39:57

The Joys of Poetic Meter, Part I: Martin Bidney, a poet, translator, scholar, and critic who has published 33 volumes of verse, here offers on a zoom YouTube the first presentation in a two-part mini-course, "The Joys of Poetic Meter." The course, as a whole, explores the rhythmic forms of lines and stanzas from poems of the last 3000 years, includ…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 21 - Valentine's Special 5:23

4+ y ago5:23

5:23

PODCAST #21: VALENTINE’S SPECIAL Originally planned as video collage 9.4, this presentation became Episode #21 of “Martin Bidney, The Be-loving Imaginer” for two compelling reasons. (1) The Valentine’s Day presentation is the most joyous love song I have written. (2) “Love” is pre-eminently the mood of my “Be-loving Imaginer” offerings. Here is a p…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 20 - WORDSONGS OF JEWISH TRADITION 34:26

4+ y ago34:26

34:26

PODCAST #20: WORDSONGS OF JEWISH TRADITION In this interview book I converse with the commentator (and at times with the original author) who together produced a new, 3-volume version of the Tanya, an 18th century spiritual handbook, so that the modern reader can place the mystical thinking in a wide context of Hasidic anecdotes and legends. Schneu…

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 19 - VIRGIL’S ECLOGUES WITH VERSE REPLIES 17:13

4+ y ago17:13

17:13

PODCAST #19: VIRGIL’S ECLOGUES WITH VERSE REPLIES On the back cover I write, summing up the global importance of this ancient Roman work: “One of the major bisexual imaginings in world literature, the Eclogues of Virgil are ancient Roman musical masterworks, rivaling the Sonnets of Shakespeare. Every wordsong in the group of ten is a one-act play, …

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Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 18 - INDIAN, PERSIAN, ARABIAN POEMS 31:59

4+ y ago31:59

31:59

PODCAST #17: INDIAN, PERSIAN, ARABIAN POEMS I have an astonishing opportunity to acquaint you with Indian, Persian, and Arabian poems in perfectly crafted versions, thanks to the mid-19th-century German translator, scholar, and poet Friedrich Rückert, who learned 44 languages, including Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabian. In talk-show interview style, …

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PODCAST #16, A MUSIC LOVER’S ART 39:11

5+ y ago39:11

39:11

PODCAST #16, A MUSIC LOVER’S ART This book is filled with poems about classical and folk music I love. Let’s begin with Mozart, a composer everyone loves because his music is so packed with great tunes, and his personality is youthfully impulsive. Try “The ‘trumpet concerto’” (312). Beethoven equals him in popularity, and I join in, translating Nik…

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FREESTYLE CHAT 2020 EPISODE 1: “RICH BEING” 29:15

5+ y ago29:15

29:15

Today’s freestyle chat has 4 parts, all stemming from Roger Brooks’ book The Power of Being Rich: 10 Essential Principles to Manifest What You Already Have. As dialogic interpreter, my bold beginning is to suggest that Roger’s admirable volume might equally well be titled The Power of Rich Being. Roger wants to show people how to conceive and advan…

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ANGELUS, GUIDE TO GOD WITHIN | EPISODE 15 27:51

5+ y ago27:51

27:51

PODCAST #15: ANGELUS, GUIDE TO GOD WITHIN by Martin Bidney Angelus Silesius, the Silesian Angel, was the name Johannes Scheffler took when he converted from the Lutheran to the Catholic Church. But as witty mystic poet, he aims to bring his imagining Heart to oneness with ULTIMATE BEING, THE GOD BEHIND THE NAMES and formulations. His poetry book, “…

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Interviewing Sufi Poet Rumi | Episode 14 48:41

5+ y ago48:41

48:41

PODCAST #14: INTERVIEWING SUFI POET RUMI by Martin Bidney Intro: Rumi = Pre-eminent Sufi Mystic Poet, thirteenth century. I translate him from Tholuck’s German, and I interview him, offering verse replies. Dialogue 49 = Inclusion: all religions are one. Dialogue 46 = Inclusion: all spirits are one. I Rumi teaches through Surprise. Dialogue 53. The …

1
Sufi Lyrics in the Egyptian Desert | Episode 13 34:39

5+ y ago34:39

34:39

PODCAST #13: SUFI LYRICS IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT by Martin Bidney My month-long spiritual pilgrimage at the Sekem desert farming settlement in 2011 was guided by Sufi mentors in the Religion of Love. I Poet Omar as my Sufi mentor. Medieval Sufi Omar’s most famous quatrain, from his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Victorian interpreter Edwa…

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Russian Loves | Episode 12 37:41

5+ y ago37:41

37:41

PODCAST #12: RUSSIAN LOVES by Martin Bidney Wordsong is like music generally – it transforms whatever it touches. When I select a poetic mentor to teach me word music, I reshape what I’ve heard, and then my reshaped self replies with a new music – always new because engendered by what I’ve just heard. Nineteenth-century poets Alexander Pushkin, Mic…

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Taxi Drivers | Episode 11 28:30

5+ y ago28:30

28:30

PODCAST #11, TAXI DRIVERS by Martin Bidney Taxi Drivers – a topic made from an eye problem – and a way of making friends for the be-loving imaginer. Art is at the heart of startle. I like to consider each of my taxi driver interview lyrics a mini-drama with an outcome of startling power, occasioned by either a sudden change of perspective toward th…

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