Set In Sound Archives - M. Leona Godin

To Stravinsky, a poem in memory of my guide dog Igor

November 13 is the birthday of Igor, my last guide dog. It is a day to celebrate his short life as well as the diligent and loving lives of guide dogs everywhere. Please consider a donation to the fund I set up at the Animal Medical Center in honor of him and my first guide dog, Millennium. To Stravinsky I… Read more

Resonating With the Visible, genesis of a Poem

I was sewing–I hand-sew, as you can read about in Sewing Blind–and listening to the series of interviews Bill Moyers had with Joseph Campbell in the last year of his life (1987), collectively called The Power of Myth, when I heard Moyers preface his next question with this: “We talked about the effect of the hunting plain on mythology, this… Read more

Nietzsche and His Pain Named Dog, #52essays2017

“I have given a name to my pain and call it “dog.” It is just as faithful, just as obtrusive and shameless, just as entertaining, just as clever as any other dog–and I can scold it and vent my bad mood on it, as others do with their dogs, servants, and wives.” -Nietzsche, The Gay Science. I first heard this… Read more

Apostrophe, an anti-suicide suicide song for accordion

To sleep perchance to dream I hope. Can I will myself to survive I wish. Last wish. Last dying wish to live. I took the anti-step Just now Nothing to live for so long You see. And nothing to die for either I fear. On this long Long long Way down. When I hit the bottom My body… Read more

FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE, for accordion and volcano

[“Fire Fire Fire Fire” was first published at Quail Bell Magazine] Met you yesterday, but it doesn’t matter That the world looks flat from a bird’s eye view Cause I felt the climb, and I feel the height, Even though I’m surrounded by a thousand plateaus. Met you yesterday, but it doesn’t matter We fell for each other out… Read more

From Homer to Me

This album of poetry, lovingly set in sound, will take you on a sonic literary journey from one of Homer’s most messed up passages, Hanging the Handmaids, to I will never be sorry, one of my most personal poems of love and loss. Between the alpha and the omega you’ll hear covers of such disparate works as renaissance love poetry,… Read more