Blackberry-Picking
by Seamus Heaney
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
27 Jul 2026
The Smoke House
written and read
by
Thomas Woodrow
For Benjamin Woodrow-Fisch
Who wanted a scary story with a monster
8 Jul 2026
The Evening News, E05
Look out for yourselves.
Don't eat too much cheese.
And be kind to people you don't know, because you never know...
...who they really are.
6 Jul 2026
The Evening News, E04
Look out for yourselves.
Don't eat too much cheese.
And be kind to people you don't know, cos you never know...
...who they really are.
4 Jul 2026
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
by Wallace Stevens
1 Jul 2026
"Jabberwocky"
"Jabberwocky"
by Lewis Carroll
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
30 Jun 2026
"Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks"
"Anecdote of the Prince of Peacocks"
By Wallace Stevens
In the moonlight
I met Berserk,
In the moonlight
On the bushy plain.
Oh, sharp he was
As the sleepless!
And, “Why are you red
In this milky blue?”
I said.
“Why sun-colored,
As if awake
In the midst of sleep?”
“You that wander,”
So he said,
“On the bushy plain,
Forget so soon.
But I set my traps
In the midst of dreams.”
I knew from this
That the blue ground
Was full of blocks
And blocking steel.
I knew the dread
Of the bushy plain,
And the beauty
Of the moonlight
Falling there,
Falling
As sleep falls
In the innocent air.
30 Jun 2026
The Clash of the Superheroes
"The Clash of the Superheroes"
by
Benjamin Woodrow-Fisch
and
Thomas Woodrow
Two superheroes, each attempting to rescue a cat from destruction by an exploding ball of yarn, clash over who should save the day. Mayhem — and life lessons — follow.
30 Jun 2026
The Evening News, E03
Look out for yourselves.
Don't eat too much cheese.
And be kind to people you don't know.
Because you never know who they really are.
29 Jun 2026
The Evening News, E01
Look out for yourselves
Don't eat too much cheese.
And be kind to people you don't know, because you never know who they really are.
29 Jun 2026
The Evening News, E02
Look out for yourselves
Don't eat too much cheese.
And be kind to people you don't know, because you never know who they really are.
5 Jun 2026
"After Apple Picking" by Robert Frost
A reading of Frost's poem.
5 Jun 2026
THE OTHER CITY: "Big Red Button"
I created this as a little test for the episodic audio drama I'm working on, THE OTHER CITY. I wrote the lyrics and collaborated heavily on the music. It's basically the "I Want" musical theater standard, sung by the lead at the very beginning. The rest of the story is a test of his listening skills. :)
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