Spoken word poetry

Brainpicker #2

talk

A recording created as part of the Golden Record carried into space by the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. Story here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/10/murmurs-of-earth-sagan-golden-record/

FULL STORY

The Sounds of Earth (The Golden Record)

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Neil Hilborn - OCD

This is a new concept I'm trying out; A poem within a poem. I think it offers an interesting dynamic. Hope you like it. 
Instrumental: "We're All Leaving" -Arcade Fire (From the "Her" Soundtrack)
Lyrics: 
In my dreams i lose the concept of time, its something that i don't really mind because its gonna take me a while to find out everything about you that i can, from the gentle touch of your hands to your toes in the sand of this beach devoid of reality, these brief moments that you've given me have brought me to the brink of insanity, but i simply don't care; your hair swaying with the wind, our beating hearts making up the only sound in between whispers that carry secrets too heavy to be heard aloud. 

You see, in my dreams every touch is gentle and warm, every kiss is filled with bliss, and every word that you say plays back in my head like the most beautiful song; and i struggle to hold on to the memories of the days where we laughed and played under the soft white bed sheets, the sweet smell of your perfume as you entered the room, those times where we would lay beside each other and smile as we stared at the moon, wondering if it was looking back at us and smiling too. 
In my dreams, forever never seems quite long enough. 
So if this is all the time we have, just don't wake me up. 
But in case you truly cant stay, ill leave you with a final poem:

"find me beneath the porcelain stars, amongst fragments of memories that define who we are,
touch me like a snowflake grazes a cheek, feel me like warm sand sinking under your feet,
And like lights that adorn the edges of streets, we touch the hearts of others as they pass through;
People will come in to our lives and eventually they'll leave, but what always remains...is how they changed you."
- Written and performed by Igor Oro

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/0a33ff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

"In My Dreams" - A Spoken Word Poem

Neil Hilborn performing "Future Tense", from his album, Northbound: http://bit.ly/Northbound

Northbound

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Neil Hilborn - "Future Tense" (from album Northbound)

The redwood trees of the northern California coastline depend on fog as a seasonal water source.

The Fog and the Redwood

Homo sapiens worldwide may have descended from a single migration event out of Africa more than 50,00 years ago.

Ancient Migrations, Summer Sea Ice, and Archaeological Algorithms

A new look at mortality suggests that even as average lifespan increases, there is still a hard cap on how long we can live.

A Limit to Lifespan, Genetic Preference for Flavors, and the Power of Hurricane Matthew

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04/03/working-together-david-whyte/
Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/sets/david-whyte-the-conversational

Photograph by Nicol Ragland

POEM TEXT / CONTEXT

David Whyte reads "Working Together"

Full context and poem text: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04/27/janna-levin-reads-planetarium-by-adrienne-rich/

Recorded at "The Universe in Verse," April 24, 2017.

Photograph of Janna Levin by Molly Walsh / Academy of American Poets

Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads "Planetarium" by Adrienne Rich

A French-born Tibetan Buddhist monk and a central figure in the Dalai Lama's dialogue with scientists, Matthieu Ricard was dubbed "The Happiest Man in the World" after his brain was imaged. But he resists this label. In his writing and in his life, he explores happiness not as a pleasurable feeling but as a way of being that gives you the resources to deal with the ups and downs of life and that encompasses many emotional states, including sadness. We take in Matthieu Ricard's practical teachings for cultivating inner strength, joy, and direction.

On Being with Krista Tippett

Matthieu Ricard  — Happiness as Human Flourishing

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/02/04/janna-levin-w-h-auden-the-more-loving-one/

Recorded at the Academy of American Poets' 16th annual "Poetry & the Creative Mind."

Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads "The More Loving One" by W.H. Auden

I grew up very angry, and had difficulty understanding where those feelings came from. 

Some instances were easier to decipher than others; parental abandonment factored into my life heavily, and gave the people around me an easy button to push. 

Other moments were subtler, and took a tremendous amount of searching to find the root cause. 

The piece is called How I Learned To Smile and it really is about the process of understanding where my anger  came from.

David Whyte reads "Working Together"

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