In this episode we consider the desire to be one of the crowd at the expense of your real identity. Would you deny your parents and your background so that you could 'fit in'? Or is that idea outdated in 2026, are we ready to proclaim who we really are?

We explore these ideas via 'Dance Class' by Hannah Lowe, and 'In A White Town' by Daljit Nagra.

You can find the poems on these links -

https://proletarianpoetry.com/2015/02/23/dance-class-by-hannah-lowe/

https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-19357_IN-A-WHITE-TOWN

The interview I refer to with Daljit Nagra is here - https://aestheticamagazine.com/daljit-nagra/

Ep 14. Recorded on Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday, this episode treads an ecological path. We explore 'The Flower-Fed Buffaloes' by Vachel Lindsay, and 'Report To Wordsworth' by Boey Kim Cheng. Both poems raise the matter of how human activity impacts the environment - and at the end of our skim across those poetic waters, I offer my poem in honour of Sir David.

To read the poems go here - https://allpoetry.com/The-Flower-Fed-Buffaloes⁠https://big-slate.com/study/en/c/85e7bbea/report-to-wordsworth-boey-kim-cheng

To hear Vachel Lindsay read the poem go here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-GyPsFcnLQ

Leaving home ain’t easyOn the one you're leaving home (Brian May) In this episode we explore the inevitable sense of love and loss that has to happen when children become independent and move beyond the orbit of their parents. Our exploration of this theme is built around the poems 'Walking Away' by C.Day Lewis, and 'To A Daughter Leaving Home' by Linda Pastan; two poems we hold up to the light and admire.

Does the parent feel the dread of starting school more than the child? And how can riding a bicycle be a metaphor for growing up? We discover in this episode - oh, and we reference a couple of songs by Queen that also deal with the process of leaving.

The poems can be found here -

C. Day Lewis -

⁠https://holytrinity.academy/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Walking-Away-Worksheet-1.pdf⁠

Linda Pastan -

⁠https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-075/to-a-daughter-leaving-home/⁠