Natalie Merchant/ Leave Your Sleep: The Man In The Wilderness

Absolutely beautiful: The title of Natalie Merchant‘s new album Leave Your Sleep is taken from a Mother Goose rhyme: “Girls and boys, come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day; Leave your supper, and leave your sleep, and come with your playfellows into the street.” In the booklet that introduces the […]

Forgotten Language

http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/forgotten-language.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadForgotten Language by Shel Silverstein Once I spoke the language of the flowers, Once I understood each word the caterpillar said, Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings, And shared a conversation with the housefly in my bed. Once I heard and answered all the […]

Ogden Nash: To My Valentine

http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/valentine-2.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadTo My Valentine by Ogden Nash More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That’s how much I love you. I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love […]

W is for who

http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/whos.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download 2 little whos — ee cummings 2 little whos (he and she) under are this wonderful tree smiling stand (all realms of where and when beyond) now and here (far from a grown -up i&you- ful world of known) who and who (2 little ams and over them […]

T is for thee

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” is the beginning of possibly the most beautiful love poem ever written, of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. Pity that there is no “Du” in English. The intimacy of “thou, thee, thine”, the “du, dich, dein” we have lost in English, is one of the things that makes […]

M is for the movers and shakers

Movers and shakers are people who initiate change and influence events, now most often applied to the rich and powerful in politics and business. The public perception of the term began after the first performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s  choral work The Music Makers, in 1912. The work is a setting of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s 1874 […]

G is for good

Advent Calendar Day 7 – Keep your eyes peeled for dwarves, elves and other Christmas folk! Good fences make good neighbors. (Liebe deinen Nachbarn, aber reiß den Zaun nicht ein.) This 17th century proverb is very popular in America. It means “live and let live” and “respect the privacy of others”. The saying is so […]