Noel and Jake discuss the concept of beauty as a powerful, inescapable force that ‘hunts everyone.’ Noel introduces the poetry of Andrea Gibson and Jake speaks of beauty as an ‘apparition of God.’ They share their personal experiences of encountering beauty and its place, constancy and necessity for our lives.

Podcast Editor - Ger Kellett

Show notes -

Acceptance Speech After Setting the World Record in Goosebumps by Andrea Gibson

‘…Of course beauty hunted me.

It hunts everyone…

There is no escaping the magic now.

Beauty caught me and never let me go…’

Write to us:

Can you think of a time when you were struck by beauty?

thehingepodcast@gmail.com

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Noel and Jake discuss the many faces of gratitude. Noel reads a poem "A grateful heart” emphasizing spontaneous thanks for life, the importance of context beyond negative events, and the connection between gratitude and grace. They explore the place of gratitude amidst and even for difficult experiences, including loss and addiction.

Podcast Editor - Ger Kellett

Show notes -

A Grateful Heart by Noel O’Driscoll

Upon waking

Immediate prayer

A simple thanks

From my lips

For the breath in my body

For life, longing and love

For every birth and death

For you

My Beloved

I bow

With a grateful heart

Alanis Morisette - Thank U

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Jake and Noel explore the theme of tenderness through poetry, personal anecdotes, and conversations about ordinariness and care, beginning with Raymond Carver's poem "Still looking out for number one". They discuss how tenderness is found in the economy of words and the beauty of the ordinary.

Podcast Editor - Ger Kellett

Show notes -

Looking out for number one, by Raymond Carver

FOOTWASHING, by Jake Esman

she had loved her father

like any daughter

valued his advice

his kindness, his company

yet she wouldn’t say

they were close

then, in his mid-eighties

his memory went

and with it

his personality — partly

he needed her care

and she gave it

willingly

they were intimate months

when nothing is private

and all physical needs

require assistance

and that’s just

how it goes

she was not the first

to experience that great sense of closeness

of tender mutuality

those days when she washed his feet

and clipped his toenails

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