The River Is Wide

Series produced by Susan J. Cook

Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Image by: Susan Cook 
...wide river as ever... 

The River Is Wide is one listener's complement to public radio as media that has always made room for thoughtful, humane human discourse. These essays and poems are commentaries written by a political activist, psychologist and play therapist about the many provocative events in our state, country and world that remind us that the river is wide and each and everyone one of us is needed to cross it. We have much to lose- all of us- when our ideas and actions are premised on the belief that we never need any help getting across. Public radio that stirs the public conscience- free of personal influence peddling- that values thoughtful voice and speaks truth above partisan rhetoric - helps us all get across. The River Is Wide presents a series of Citizen's Guides, the occasional Congressional Guide when necessary, sonnets when no other format seems appropriate, an ode here and there In the Department of Poetic Justice, Sixty-second Moral Inquiries and brief commentaries . Public radio is a muse and PRX has become the pen and paper, yes, for many former and current letter-to-the-editor writers, including this one.

The series began rowing when a local editor refused to publish a letter criticizing a political candidate for a failure to acknowledge human rights violations by the Chinese government calling it "uncivil". Another inspiration has been the censorship of "The humble Farmer" from Maine Public Broadcasting (see freethehumblefarmer.com). The commentaries and entries in the Citizen's Guide, sonnets and odes In the Department of Poetic Justice, Sixty Second Moral Inquiries and the 'new' Two and One Half Minute Conspiracy Theory section speak to issues that stir the public conscience (and mine) and speak truth to power (everyone else's) especially surrounding freedom of speech in the media, injustice and harm.


327 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Getting vaccinated and wearing a mask may be all there is to making someone happy in Covid-19 times.

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  • Added: Nov 26, 2021
  • Length: 03:52
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The Supreme Court decision to ignore the inhumane aspects of the Texas Abortion law reminds us to look to the places where human connection is val...

  • Added: Sep 03, 2021
  • Length: 08:17
Caption: There's a quote from the Bible I've taken to lately..., Credit: Edgar Cook
There are many many examples of malice these days. And then there are the opportunities to do good.

  • Added: Aug 22, 2021
  • Length: 03:28
Caption: Breathing; American Sonnets, Credit: Susan Cook (Finishing Line, 2020))
In the large, large universe, the mind's eye still sees what it will.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :57
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Thomas Edison and what his light did- understood through an American Sonnet.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :55
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
In National Poetry Month, a poem to explain how the Higgs boson really works.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :49
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Poetry Month and Einstein creating E=mc squared

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :55
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Poetry makes everything accessible, even the Special Theory of Relativity.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :51
Caption: ...your business in life, to do good and to do good for evil..., Credit: Susan Cook
My father often said his mother always told him, "Do good for evil." It's drawn from the Bible "This is your calling, your business in life- to do...

  • Added: Mar 27, 2021
  • Length: 01:07
Caption: "...they are taking justice out in the backyard..., Credit: In "Breathing: American Sonnets" by Susan Cook
A sonnet about justice when it is buried and forgotten.

  • Added: Mar 06, 2021
  • Length: 01:34
Caption: More poems in the tradition: Breathng: American Sonnets, Credit: Susan Cook
On her birthday, a Sonnet Sequence "The Rage of the World" .

  • Added: Feb 21, 2021
  • Length: 02:24

  • Added: Jan 19, 2021
  • Length: 01:42
Caption: He didn't do it alone., Credit: Susan Cook
In the Department of Poetic Justice, the ode to 2020 and caucasian, male, non-mask wearing arrogant reality - like that of the now closed Institute...

  • Added: Jan 01, 2021
  • Length: 03:50
Caption: "If you can loot businesses, burn down buildings, engage in protest- you can also go to a Christmas party.' Dec 2, 2020 White House Press Secretary, Credit: Susan Cook
As the Nation enters the Christmas (and Hannukah) Season with parties (ahem..) on hold, In the Department of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning), a lyr...

  • Added: Dec 05, 2020
  • Length: 03:15
Caption: We all miss the wild buffalo. Not so much You Know Who., Credit: Susan Cook
Election Day has come and gone! Remember the poll that really counts most always is the vote you cast. To the tune from "It's Beginning to Look A ...

  • Added: Oct 30, 2020
  • Length: 04:18
Caption: ,,,The streets where gold  Is used for toilets Mostly down  In Manhattan..The IRS tries to stay on it hence....why you devised Audit Defense!, Credit: Susan Cook
Lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook! Depreciation. Commuting miles. My Old and Trusty Mileage Log. Tax Experts Waiting to Answer! And much much...

  • Added: Oct 02, 2020
  • Length: 03:58
Caption: The 1918 Truth: Wear a mask., Credit: The Topsham Crier/Charles Crosby
The revelations of Woodward's "Rage" are understood best through Sun Tze, the ancient Chinese text also known as The Art of War and the historical ...

  • Added: Sep 26, 2020
  • Length: 09:14
Caption: Ruth Bader Ginsburg         March 15, 1933 - September 18, 2020, Credit: Susan Cook
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at age 87. " When the spark had finally stopped, ending finally, the luscious waterfall, (the opulent deceit, the ple...

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  • Added: Sep 19, 2020
  • Length: 01:15
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The Facts: What I Said, Credit: Susan Cook
The protesters in Ukraine are showing us on a very public stage that criticism free from harassment and ridicule of the actions of public elected ...

  • Added: Feb 21, 2014
  • Length: 06:47
Caption: Red Pines on the cemetary edge in a Ted Cruz-kind-of-Christian town, Credit: Susan Cook/ Google Earth
I’ve been asking for about 9 years now why Red Pines that have thrived for hundreds of years would die. Not that I knew 9 years ago they would die....

  • Added: Sep 02, 2017
  • Length: 03:45