Welcome to the Living Myth Podcast with Michael Mead.

This premium episode begins with a poetic response to the deadening language

that at times dominates the discussion about impeaching the president.

What begins as a critique of the speech being used to defend the politics of big lies

turns into a lament for the loss of language able to carry the truth of the human heart and soul.

A procession of poems and commentary ranges from Aime, Césaire, seeking to rediscover the secret of great communications and great combustions.

To D.H. Lawrence, warning us how big lies and damning mistakes have

repeatedly been sanctified in modern times. The surprise of this intricate

response to the lack of presence and imagination

and political life arrives through the ancient wisdom of Kabir, who reminds us

that truth resides in the surprising territory of awakening, where the deep

self and soul waits to be found. I woke up this morning,

I woke up this morning looking for a poem to read,

needing a poem to read partially in response to listening

to the discussion of the articles of impeachment that went

late into the night last night. What I woke up feeling was not so much my response to the articles of impeachment and the fate of the country in this ever-darkening moment.

I woke up in reaction to the poverty of language, to the paucity of ideas, and to the

lack of genuine imagination in the proceedings towards impeachment.

It's not only that the world seems to get turned upside down all the time now. It's not just that the politics continually

slips into the mud and it's not only in the United States Congress that this happens,

for yesterday in Britain, Boris Johnson, whose first name could be heard as

Boris was given a mandate not just to continue towards Brexit, but also to continue

...