ME READING STUFF

🎙️ 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, RobynLINKS:Buy The Collected Poems of Wallace StevensMy WEBSITEMy INSTAGRAMMy SHOPMy 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, RobynLINKS 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 HeartCheck 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 EngleLINKS:Taschen's The Book of Symbols My WebsiteMy ShopMy SubstackMy 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" LINKSBuy 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'tI love to swim but I can'tI love to sit in the sun but I can't I love to smell the flowers but I can'tI love to play tennis but I can'tI love to water-ski but I can't"~Andy Warhol"Lime flavored sparkling waters taste like Fruity Pebbles." ~MeLINKS:Buy The Philosophy of Andy WarholCheck out my InstagramCheck out my SubstackCheck 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."" – MeLINKSPick up Mason Currey's Daily Ritual BooksFollow Mason Currey's SubstackFollow me on InstagramBuy my book 20 YEARS OF DRAWINGSFollow Anne J. Regan on InstagramThe 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?" ~MeLINKS:Listen/Watch Laurie Anderson's O SupermanMy new Substack PostMy newsletter signup at the bottom of MY WEBSITE.My FIRST COMIC!My INSTAGRAMThe 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 InstagramMy 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 InstagramMe 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 CelebrationLINKSVisit The Public Domain ReviewWatch The Bold and the Beautiful My InstagramMy SubstackJoin Grig's Poetry PartyListen/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, Robynp.s. can you believe I'm back for a 3rd week in a row? I can't!LINKSBuy Vasko Popa's Complete WorksMy InstagramMy 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, RobynLINKS: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 SubstackMe 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 SubstackMy Instagram

"My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines." - Agnes Martin"Oh really, bitch? I don't think so!" - My BodyLINKS:Learn more about artist Agnes Martin HERE.Buy "On Beauty" by Agnes Martin through PACE.Buy "Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words" on INDIEBOUND. 

"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." - Vladimir Nabokov"I love ruled paper." - MeLINKS:Buy The Best American Essays of The CenturyBuy Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary BuilderLearn more about my drawing HELL See James Ensor in front of Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 as an old man. 

Dear You,We last spoke in January and I've missed you; I've missed this. A lot has happened. A lot has not. Let's pick back up where we left off, but let's make it better and more loving this time. Let's not let the hoards of negatives overshadow the rest — the ever-present glimmerings of light. I simply can't anymore. I woke up different after that night. I even had pink cheeks for the first time in ages, according to some! "Such fun to wake up though!Such fun too if you don't!" - C.K. WilliamsAll my love,RobynLINKS:Buy C.K. Williams "Writers Writing Dying" at INDIEBOUND.Damien Jurado's INSTAGRAMMy INSTAGRAM Our MEAL TRAIN ❤️🌮❤️ if you're so inclined. Listen to every episode of ME READING STUFF on my YOUTUBE PAGE."Keep dying! Keep writing it down!"

"It is certainly true that the larger and older the living thing is, the harder it is to know how to care for it." - Lydia Davis"I barely know what a uterus is for God's sake." - MeLINKS:Buy "The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis" HERE.Become a Subscriber on My Substack!Become a Paid Subscriber and get a drawing! My Instagram My WebsiteMy Youtube

"Help! I'm David from Sesame Street, and they're trying to kill me!" - Northern Calloway "Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear." - Zora Neale Hurston LINKS:The Wikipedia article on Northern CallowayMy SubstackDamien Jurado's record label - Maraqopa

Praying for apathy, deciding towards easy. Love, RobynLINKS:Buy Joshua Rivkin's Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly Here is my SUBSTACK!Here is my website.The Cy Twombly Gallery Robert Rauschenberg Jasper JohnsHenry Darger

"The people who have made me feel the worst were always my best friends." -Detective Olivia Benson"I'll never sell 14 million like Hammer, I just wanna do a good Ice-T show." - Ice-TLINKS:Get your drawing! Subscribe to my SubstackWatch the Driver 23 / Atlas Moth TrailerWatch the Fitzcarraldo TrailerThe NBC article on Steve Zirnkilton Listen to the Steve Zirnkilton Law & Order SVU IntroBuy Nedra Glover Tawwab's Set Boundaries, Find Peace book.Damien Jurado's The Loneliest Place and Male Customer #1

Dear Boss, I am sick.Love, Robyn

A - ABLE-MINDEDB - BICUSPID C - CROSS-EXAMINATION K - Keeping You CompanyWith love, RobynLINKS:Well, I've never linked to Amazon for books, but that seems to be the only place I see Leonard Cohen's Book of Mercy, so head over there to buy it! There's also a set of several of his books on there that look really great, so maybe do that!My SubtackMY Shop

LINKS:My SubstackBuy my book HERE.Watch American Movie HERE. 

"Lighting ranks as the most important factor in seeing." "Writing letters helps bring friends closer together.""Plans for lightning should provide the greatest possible light needed for any task." "Be sure than every statement you make is correct.""A bolt of lightning can kill a person or start a forest fire."-All quotes from 1964's World Book Encyclopedia - "L"LINKSMy SubstackSubterranean Thunder AKA Angela LaneMy WebsiteThe Lightning Field by Walter De Maria

"I must decline, for secret reasons." ~E.B. WhiteLINKS:My SubstackSee Letters of Note on InstagramME READING STUFF shirts at the bottom of THIS page.California Scrub JayStellar's Jay

"A trotting animal can restore red hearts to red." - Anne Carson (Short Talk on My Task)LINKS:Buy Anne Carson's Short TalksListen to Anne Carson's reading on "Shade" (it's at the 19 minute mark, but you should listen to the entire thing)Listen to me reading her writing on Shade from years ago.Buy my Book on my website.And if you're a pickle guy, like me, here are BRITT'S and BEST MAID!

"In the end I would rather wonder than know." -Mary RuefleLINKS:Follow me on Substack: https://robynoneil.substack.com/Buy "Madness, Rack, and Honey""Red" read by Mary Ruefle herself! Buy "I Am: The Selected Poetry of John Clare"

D'Agata writes in the introduction to The Making of the American Essay: "The world provides non-fiction, and humans provide the rest." My own work has been dealing endlessly with the problems humans incessantly seem to provide. In desperation, I now pray that for the rest of my days, my eyes can shift their focus to the innumerable glories & ongoing wisdom humans also deliver.LINKS:My new Substack!Buy John D'Agata's "The Making of the American Essay" HERE. Learn more about John D'Agata.Read from A New History of the Essay.Listen to Michael Silverblatt's interview with D'Agata on Bookworm.

"'I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it." - Werner Herzog "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they're doing." - Dale Carnegie "People rarely have fun in what they're doing unless they succeed." - Me"….ENJOY your mothafuckin' YOUTH....while you GOT IT.Whatever the fuck you trynna do in yo DREAMS and shit…….DO IT RIGHTTHE FUCKNOW....while yo body is still witchu….cause the rest of us would tell you this gettin old shit isFO THE BIRDS!That shit DO NOT not let off...Once it’s on yo ass, THAT’S IT!!!" - Katt Williams LINKS:Buy "The Lost Writings" by Franz Kafka (From New Directions aka Nude Erections)Enjoy Your Youth by Katt Williams (a clip)French Fry Hustlin' by Katt Williams The Henry Miller Memorial Library XOXO, RO

Tonight, I give you a reading from New Directions' Love Poems of Catullus and a reiteration of my preference for the CH Sissen translation of Catullus 85.Art event or not, put it all on a Carr's Table Water Cracker. And if you have an interest in words, take 2 minutes to try this podcast out: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day.Thank you guys for listening, loving, hating. Always. xo, Robyn

An After Dark Episode! Tonight I read from Emily Dickinson's Final Harvest: https://bookshop.org/p/books/final-harvest-poems-emily-dickinson/110106?ean=9780316184151I explain how this book by Alex Soojung Kim Pang both solved my life & ignited a nervous breakdown the size of Pangaea: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alex-soojung-kim-pang/rest/9781541617162/?lens=basic-booksOther things: John Green's new(ish) book of essays, Sap Moss, Dr. Jackie from Married to Medicine, The Virgin Spring, Leaving Las Vegas, The Elephant Man, and Au Hazard Balthazar.So good to talk with you guys again.Much love and apologies forever,Robyn

"Go inside a stone.That would be my way.Let somebody else become a dove."-Charles SimicBuy absolutely anything by Charles Simic.Buy "The Language of Letting Go" Daily Meditations by Melody Beattie.And thank you for being with me today. I've missed you guys. Love, Robyn

With love, RobynLINKS:The De Palma trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97XoMjwoZ5wIndiebound for buying absolute any of the books I mention, always: https://www.indiebound.org/Cowboy Tommy // Cowboy Teddy Bear // Electric Fireplace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSqVnHN3q9E

THE ROBYN'S GATE PODCAST on PATREON!

🌁 THE ROBYN'S GATE PODCAST 🌁patreon.com/ROBYNSGATE

"See God, it ain't me.They 'bout to start a world war,I'm just tryna practice peace." - Leikeli47"How the hell you walk outta Heaven?" - Leikeli 47"LEARN A TRADE" - Me"I. CHOOSE. LIFE!" - Ricci OprahTo anyone reading, I've missed you. If anyone out there is struggling with, well anything, I hope you can find the resources that are best, most comfortable and affordable to you. I always recommend Al-Anon, as many of my listeners have heard before. I've yet to...

“There is a charming quality, is there not,” he said to me, “in this silence; for hearts that are wounded, as mine is , a novelist whom you will read in time to come, claims that there is no remedy but silence and shadow.  And see you this, my boy, there comes in all lives a time, towards which you still have far to go, when the weary eyes can endure but one kind of light; the light which a fine evening like this prepares for us in the stillroom of darkness, when the ears can listen to no music save wh...

"I am like the she-wolf. I travel alone and I laugh at the flock." - Alfonsina Storni"My biggest thrill this week was seeing that basket full of mini chips in the salon window." - MeLINKS:Buy Alfonsina Storni's Selected Poems HERE.Check out Western Exhibitions' Drawing Biennial!Watch F. Murray Abraham destroy all artists HERE.Mark Laita's excellent documentary youtube page THE SOFT WHITE UNDERBELLY. *I can't recommend this channel enough. He's doing some serious service here. 

"We're animals, Amy. And some animals like to party. For me, God is a beer on the beach. Maybe that's fucked up, but at least it's honest." - Levi, Enlightened "Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships." - Charles Simic "Today wasn't anything spectacular and that's what I loved about it." Me, January 2, 2023LINKS:Watch "Enlightened" on HBO HERE.Charles Simic's Obituary.My website: www.robynoneil.comMY SHOP

"Modern natural philosophers have found God in the folds of the skin of the rhinoceros." - Voltaire"I found the saltiest, greasiest corn chip at the bottom of this Juanita's bag this morning. It totally blew my mind." - MeLINKS:Buy the book here: https://www.ndbooks.com/book/an-elemental-thing/See what you think about these Daniel Ladinsky "HAFIZ" books: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/6/14/fake-hafez-how-a-supreme-persian-poet-of-love-was-erasedAnd please meet Rajiv Surendra AKA Kevin Gnapoor!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uo2nomf4I0

Checking in after a long illness. Can't wait to start talking with you guys again! LINKS:Send your questions/comments/concerns to: [email protected] website: www.robynoneil.comMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robyn_oneil/?hl=en

"We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries." - Dire Straits "I love turkey sandwiches." - MeLINKS:Check out the Dire Straits video for "Money For Nothing" HERE!See Damien Jurado's website for tickets to his upcoming 25th anniversary show.My #1 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1d1eobg9QYMy #2 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-SEQrHvd2oMy #3 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kGUJOnuY4My #4 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNHTmqAny3UMy #5 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcqTZ7P_IKQMy #6 Favorite Damien live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pegmYlozISend your questions to: [email protected] website: www.robynoneil.comMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robyn_oneil/?hl=en

"It is always tricky, the question whether to read an author’s work in light of his life or not." -Anne Carson"If you can drink a beer, you can smell patchouli." - MeLINKS:Check out "The Albertine Workout" by Anne Carson HERE and buy it at your nearest independent bookseller.Listen to Anne Carson reading from "The Albertine Workout" HERE. SMELL LINKS:Zum Laundry SoapZum Bar SoapPacha SoapMr. Coffee Mug WarmerAveda Sắp MossLUSH KarmaThe Smell of the Water Turning Tom Ford's Tobacco VanilleAesop Resurrection Aesop Reverence __________________________________See my drawings in "HELL and the Paradisal" HERE.Watch the videos about my work HERE.Get free shipping on all books in my SHOP! (use Coupon Code "BOOK")And here's my WEBSITE. Thank you so much for listening. 

"I was most happy when pen and paper were taken from me and I was forbidden from doing anything. I had no anxiety about doing nothing by my own fault, my conscience was clear, and I was happy. This was when I was in prison." - Daniil Kharms "I'm exhausted." - MeLINKS:Buy "Today I Wrote Nothing" HERE (or wherever you buy books except Amazon).Buy a ME READING STUFF slut shirt or hoodie HERE! See my drawings in "HELL and the Paradisal" HERE.Watch the videos about my work HERE.Get free shipping on all books in my SHOP! (use Coupon Code "BOOK")And here's my WEBSITE. Thank you so much for listening. 

“I think I want, but what is it that I want?Do I want something? I don’t know." - Patrizia Cavalli "Kids tend to think of my violence as funny." - MeLINKS:Buy Patrizia Cavalli's "My Poems Won't Change the World" HERE.Check out my American Movie podcast HERE. Buy a "ME READING STUFF" shirt or sweatshirt HERE. See my drawings in "HELL and the Paradisal" HERE.Get free shipping on all books in my SHOP! (use Coupon Code "BOOK")And here's my WEBSITE. Thank you so much for listening. 

"You hear so much talk about risk-taking in poetry. Lying is a form of risk-taking, but no one talks about that." - Mary Ruefle"The End." - Me______________________________________________LINKS:Buy Madness, Rack, and Honey at WAVE BOOKS.Buy a "ME READING STUFF" shirt or sweatshirt HERE. See my drawings in "HELL and the Paradisal" HERE.Get free shipping on all books in my SHOP! (use Coupon Code "BOOK")And here's my WEBSITE. Thank you so much for listening. 

"We all have reasons for moving. I move to keep things whole." - Mark Strand"Have you guys seen the new squeezable sauerkraut?!?" - MeLINKS:Purchase Mark Strand's "Selected Poems" HERE.Check out my Artforum review!Buy a "ME READING STUFF" shirt or sweatshirt HERE. See my drawings in "HELL and the Paradisal" HERE.Get free shipping on all books in my SHOP! (use Coupon Code "BOOK")Check out Easton's Books in Mount Vernon, Washington HERE.Learn more about The Trevor Project!And here's my WEBSITE.