ME READING STUFF

"He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby "I'm ready to take over the airwaves." ~Me, The Great Delusion LINKS +Josh Garvelink's SUBSTACK and INSTAGRA M +My SHOP +My WEBSITE +My INSTAGRAM +My SUBSTACK Thank you to anyone reading this. I so appreciate you. And I hope you're having a great day with good food that isn't hurting your stomach.

Thanking Mediocre Nurses, A Play by Robyn O'Neil ACT 1: Transparency about a failing enterprise ACT 2: Two questions and an answer ACT 3: Keep Dying, Keep Writing it Down ACT 4: Get Quiet LINKS +Buy C.K. Williams' Writers Writing Dying +Buy The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus +My SHOP +My WEBSITE +My INSTAGRAM +My SUBSTACK

“We are amazing beings. We are neighbors of fire.” - Anne Carson Continuing to reread from some of ME READING STUFF's top rated books/writers, we celebrate living legend Anne Carson and Autobiography of Red , yet again. This is the 20th episode dedicated to Anne Carson, and it certainly won't be the last. Other topics include: hot dogs, stuffers, vacuuming, and my "nine months in Colombia". With love, Robyn LINKS +Buy Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson +Watch Anne Carson's "Lecture on the History of Skywriting" +My SHOP +My WEBSITE +My INSTAGRAM +My SUBSTACK

This week, we return to everyone's favorite poetry book, Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion: The Poetry of Sportstalk by Pasha Malla and Jeff Parker. In Metta World Peace's poem, he discusses the difference between elbow and shell pasta. Anna Kournikova's poem talks about how many boyfriends she’s gonna kiss. And we end with an impromptu reading of the lyrics of superstar and friend to the show Cécile McLorin Salvant ❤️ Sending you all love this week! Robyn LINKS Buy Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion: The Poetry of Sportstalk My SHOP My WEBSITE My INSTAGRAM My SUBSTACK

🎙️ The 11th Anniversary of ME READING STUFF 🎂 Dear listener, Well, we've officially been kicking it for ELEVEN YEARS. Through vasectomies, divorce, mystery illnesses, breakdowns, fevers, estrangement, Covid, moves, near-death experiences, remarriage, Las Vegas hotel rooms, heart surgeries, parenthood, hauntings, and meetings with the ©️Kleenex company. Think of how much water we've drunk since 2015. I wonder how many books we threw across the room? Who remembers when Channing Tatum wrote us erotic poetry? And what the hell was "Robyn's Gate"? To celebrate this anniversary, I’m reading you the very same poem I read in the very first episode — Wallace Stevens’ “The Man on the Dump.” I also respond to your questions in "Answer Corner." Whether you’ve been listening since 2015 or this is your first time — I’m really glad you’re here. And honestly? I'm really glad I'm still here, too. Let's keep doing this. I'll see you next time. You doing more than enough. (But maybe make a dentist appointment. And organize your nightstand. And drink more water.) With so much love and appreciation, Robyn LINKS: Buy The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens My WEBSITE My INSTAGRAM My SHOP My Substack

This week marks the return to THROWING BOOKS ACROSS THE ROOM!!!! So exciting. Dionne Brand 's "Islands Vanish" really had me feeling all sorts of things. It was a pleasure to read it to you. I extend appreciation to her for "hunting for slave castles with a pencil for explosives." Not many hunt so rigorously. It's shattering. This episode also includes an impassioned Recommendation Corner, a Mini Question Corner , and I talk about a steakhouse for an awfully long time. I did it all for the caperberries. Thank you, as always, for listening. xoxo, Robyn LINKS Buy Dionne Brand's NOMENCLATURE Check out my Youtube My Instagram My Substack My Website My Shop The Finch App Rituals Incense Better Booch

This week, I read to you from a 1992 poetry anthology called The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, edited by Robert Bly, James Hillman and Michael Meade. Wendell Berry's poem "Ripening" leads to a discussion about death and altar-building. I also kick a few people out of the podcast 😲, and bemoan my exhaustion levels. Thank you for listening - I love you guys❣️ LINKS: Buy The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart Check out my new Website ! Follow me on Instagram!

"I know how furiously your heart is beating." ~Wallace Stevens, The Gray Room "The tense American nerve relaxed. I lived with a gray quietness that let the mind grow inward like a root." ~Paul Engle LINKS: Taschen's The Book of Symbols My Website My Shop My Substack My Instagram

On today's episode, I read from a MASSIVE birthday gift, A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker (1925 – 2025), Edited by Kevin Young. The readings are: Charles Simic's "This Morning" Anne Carson's "Epithalamium NYC" LINKS Buy A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker MY NEW WEBSITE Check out my friend Jack's website! My Instagram My Substack “If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.” ~Charles Simic

"I love to walk but I can't I love to swim but I can't I love to sit in the sun but I can't I love to smell the flowers but I can't I love to play tennis but I can't I love to water-ski but I can't" ~Andy Warhol "Lime flavored sparkling waters taste like Fruity Pebbles." ~Me LINKS: Buy The Philosophy of Andy Warhol Check out my Instagram Check out my Substack Check out my Website (FINALLY updating MAY 15TH!) I love you guys! Thanks for listening. xoxo, Robyn

"I enjoy people best if I can be alone much of the time." – Octavia Butler "Talk is a privilege and one must deny oneself that privilege." – Martha Graham "I love saying "refrigerator."" – Me LINKS Pick up Mason Currey's Daily Ritual Books Follow Mason Currey's Substack Follow me on Instagram Buy my book 20 YEARS OF DRAWINGS Follow Anne J. Regan on Instagram The BIG Eastfork Mug I bought myself.

"Besides all those whaling details, Moby Dick is about someone who's looking for something so huge, something they've wanted all their life, yet they know when they find it, it will kill them." ~Laurie Anderson "Do you clean yourself well?" ~Me LINKS: Listen/Watch Laurie Anderson's O Superman My new Substack Post My newsletter signup at the bottom of MY WEBSITE. My FIRST COMIC ! My INSTAGRAM The trailer for Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine.

Today's anonymous poem was found in my library book about Medieval Art and was dated Feb 7, 1958 ! How exciting is that?!? I also answer some listener questions & ask you some of my own in everyone's favorite segment - Question Corner. I wish you well, I hope you can gain acceptance of disappointment, and we shall find peace. With love, Robby LINKS: My Instagram My Youtube

Today, I explain how I use my fists to understand the days in a month. I regret (again) not learning Greek or its myths. We read Fuyue Anzai, Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg. We celebrate taking walks, aggressively. And something about Doritos. LINKS: Buy The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem HERE. Buy Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass HERE. Check out BLURRING BOOKS! Watch the Walt Whitman scene in Now, Voyager HERE.

"I am one who does not think that the Earth was made for us. I think that we are first to last strangers on it, and that it takes us a good first half of our lives just to get used to gravity. That it's not easy." -Michael Silverblatt LINKS: Visit the Bookworm ARCHIVES . Buy David Markson books on INDIEBOUND . Watch Michael Silverblatt at Cornell HERE . Listen to David Markson on Bookworm .

"I think mostly about clothes, sex, food, and seasonal variations. I have done so much to be ordinary and made a record of this: first I was born, next I was a child, then I learned things and did things and loved and had those who loved me and often felt alone. My body was sometimes well, then sometimes unwell. I got nearer to death, as did you." -Anne Boyer, Garments Against Women "I think mostly about my health, food, the past, and sweatpants. Although I complain often and suffer from depression, my general demeanor is actually quite positive. I wish I liked hot tea and stillness more than I do." -Me LINKS: Buy Anne Boyer's Garments Against Women Me on Instagram Me on Substack

"Twisting it in the right hand - I love another." via The Public Domain Review "Donna Logan felt badly for her younger sister, Katie, ,who was suffering from acne." via The Bold and the Beautiful: 10th Anniversary Celebration LINKS Visit The Public Domain Review Watch The Bold and the Beautiful My Instagram My Substack Join Grig's Poetry Party Listen/Watch to Anne Carson's Lecture on Corners.

Tonight, we have a Recommendation Corner (it's been a while!), a return to Vasko Popa, praise for Valentine's Day whether you like it or not, and some new sound clips 🖤 And I'll miss you forever, Billy. I'm devestated. Love, Robyn p.s. can you believe I'm back for a 3rd week in a row? I can't! LINKS Buy Vasko Popa's Complete Works My Instagram My Substack My Website

If you grew up in the 70s and 80s like me, you certainly know Geri Jewell. If you don't know the full breadth of her career, you will for sure know "Cousin Geri", Blair Warner's comedian cousin with cerebral palsy from The Facts of Life. I have adored her from the first moment I saw her on TV, and recently read her 2011 autobiography I'm Walking as Straight as I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond . In this episode, I read to you a small excerpt from a story she wrote involving a nun, some urine, and a car wash. ENJOY! xoxo, Robyn LINKS: Buy Geri Jewell's book I'm Walking as Straight as I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond ! See Geri on Sesame Street HERE and HERE (with an appearance by Northern Calloway, who I told you about on THIS episode of ME READING STUFF). (and there are many more if you just search Youtube) Geri's character dancing on Deadwood . Geri Jewell's website . Me on Substack Me on Instagram www.robynoneil.com

Today, we head back to Encyclopedia Corner, exploring the letter "A". Also discussed: The Prinzhorn Collection, Jean Dubuffet, Hypergraphia, Emma Hauck, Ants, Animals, The San Fernando Valley, Cardiology, and Cockroaches, Nudity, and Adoption. LINKS: My Substack My Instagram