The River Is Wide

Series produced by Susan J. Cook

Caption: It is so hard to write you this sonnet/because I long for you in another way/ I want to make it like ''Shall I compare thee to a summer day?:"But then there was that summer day..., Credit: Susan Cook "Prologue to "Breathing: American Sonnets"
Image by: Susan Cook "Prologue to "Breathing: American Sonnets" 
It is so hard to write you this sonnet/because I long for you in another way/ I want to make it like ''Shall I compare thee to a summer day?:"But then there was that summer day... 

The River Is Wide is one listener's complement to public radio as media that has always made room for thoughtful discourse about human decency and prevention of harm. Written by a psychologist and political activist, The River Is Wide presents Citizen's Guides, The Dept of Poetic Justice (with lyrics for the Great American Wrongbook", The Indifference Diaries, 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 can be a muse and PRX has become the pen and paper, yes, for many letter-to-the-editor writers, including this one.The series began after a local editor refused to publish a letter he called "uncivil" which criticized a political candidate for a failure to acknowledge human rights violations by the Chinese in his appeal to bring Chinese business to Maine. At a public forum, the Candidate for Governor was asked why he ignored this Chinese indifference to human rights. He replied, "What? Bring it on," he sneered. The censorship of "The humble Farmer" by Maine Public broadcasting for speaking against the Iraq War also influenced the creation of this series. We hope there will never come a day when the public conscience (and mine) ignore a flagrant omission of concern for human rights. Speaking truth to power about those omissions is the task of The River Is Wide series.

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". When the former Candidate for Governor (who in 2022 was convicted as a child pornographer) at a public forum was asked why he ignored the human rights violations, he replied, "What? Bring it on," he sneered. Another inspiration has been the censorship of "The humble Farmer" by Maine Public broadcasting for speaking against the Iraq War. Citizen's Guides, The Indifference Diaries, sonnets and odes In the Department of Poetic Justice, and Sixty Second Moral Inquiries speak to issues that the public conscience (and mine) won't let us ignore and speak truth to power (everyone else's) especially surrounding freedom of speech in the media, injustice and harm. Hide full description

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". When the former Candidate for Governor (who in 2022 was convicted as a child pornographer) at a public forum was asked why he ignored the human rights violations, he replied, "What? Bring it on," he sneered. Another inspiration has been the censorship of "The humble Farmer" by Maine Public broadcasting for speaking against the Iraq War. Citizen's Guides, The Indifference Diaries, sonnets and odes In the Department of Poetic Justice, and Sixty Second Moral Inquiries speak to issues that the public conscience (and mine) won't let us ignore and speak truth to power (everyone else's)... Show full description


323 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: It is so hard to write you this sonnet/because I long for you in another way/ I want to make it like ''Shall I compare thee to a summer day?:"But then there was that summer day..., Credit: Susan Cook "Prologue to "Breathing: American Sonnets"
As Gwen Ifill is honored, as the Holocaust murders of the ancestors of Terry Gross are revealed, in the aftermath of the harassing effort to intim...

  • Added: Jan 31, 2020
  • Length: 01:02
Caption: My 220,000 mile transmission, Credit: Susan Cook
In honor of the Iowa Caucus App Developers, lyrics for The Great American Wrongbook in The Dept. of Poetic Justice (and Reckoning). Hey, it ...

  • Added: Feb 04, 2020
  • Length: 04:34
Caption: Nice work if you can get it..., Credit: Susan Cook
Now that Mainers have said "NO!" to CMP and Avengrid destroying the North Woods, a lyrical tribute from the Great American Wrongbook!

  • Added: Mar 06, 2020
  • Length: 02:19
Caption: ...all doing their part, Credit: Susan Cook
The pandemic has brought much repurposing for good. As the current President comes to Maine for Public Relations at a factory churning out 1 milli...

  • Added: Jun 05, 2020
  • Length: 07:32
Caption: Most golfers don't need the Fly Swatter!, Credit: Susan Cook
No False Equivalence here! The Pandemic. Trillions of Dollars of National Debt! And You Know Who's Extra Golf Strokes! Counting Every One!

  • Added: Aug 21, 2020
  • Length: 07:10
Caption: ...Down on Santa Claus Lane..., Credit: Susan Cook
A lyrical tribute from one Special Viewer observing the Republican National Convention and a certain Pardon being given by You Know Who!

  • Added: Nov 28, 2020
  • Length: 05:00
Caption: Adolescents, the life cycle's truthtellers, any paleobiologist, or historian knows truth matters..., Credit: Susan Cook
In 2007, after the Iraq War began, Truth was traded freely for access to Power. The consequence of today's hemorrhaging of Truth requires more than...

  • Added: Aug 04, 2020
  • Length: 09:02
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
Caption: What I Actually 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: 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: ,,,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: 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: "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: 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

  • Added: Jan 19, 2021
  • Length: 01:42
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: ...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: It is so hard to write you this sonnet/because I long for you in another way/ I want to make it like ''Shall I compare thee to a summer day?:"But then there was that summer day..., Credit: Susan Cook "Prologue to "Breathing: American Sonnets"
Poetry Month and Einstein creating E=mc squared

  • Added: Jan 05, 2024
  • Length: :55
Caption: It is so hard to write you this sonnet/because I long for you in another way/ I want to make it like ''Shall I compare thee to a summer day?:"But then there was that summer day..., Credit: Susan Cook "Prologue to "Breathing: American Sonnets"
Thomas Edison and what his light did- understood through an American Sonnet.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2021
  • Length: :55
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