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: Our elected officials need reminders about what money is actually used for. , Credit: Susan Cook
As our Elected Officials struggle with Debt Ceiling Reduction, perhaps some homework on how my 30 bucks can be better quality than their 2.4 trilli...

  • Added: Jul 26, 2011
  • Length: 03:12
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
I hope you’re in the mood for some numbers. Or at least I hope you’re not in the mood for a poem. In Maine, the daily poem we all could feast on fo...

  • Added: May 24, 2016
  • Length: 07:35
Caption: "I don't hate the press, none of them. As a matter of fact, I feel sorry for them.'', Credit: Szep, Boston Globe, July 18, 1974
Maine Public Broadcasting Network has made the perplexing decision to segregate music and poetry to a separate pay-to-hear HD radio service called ...

  • Added: Jun 04, 2016
  • Length: 07:16
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The lessons of D.L. Rosenhan's study of imposters pretending to have psychiatric illness on psychiatric units have not been lost on the world of me...

  • Added: Jun 22, 2016
  • Length: 07:32
Caption: "Breathing: American Sonnets" by Susan Cook, Credit: Bookshop.org to order or your local indie bookseller
We cherish this country and hope for compassion for all of us.

  • Added: Feb 28, 2021
  • Length: :57
Caption: No more Prairie Home Companion ponies to ride, Credit: Susan Cook
I watched the next-to-last Prairie Home Companion live broadcast on my laptop since the show and the 1 and ½ hour encore were live streamed on You-...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2016
  • Length: 05:09
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The real meaning of the Buddhist concept of karma is murky, but the Republican Presidential campaign has become an explanatory sponge for it- fully...

  • Added: Jun 29, 2016
  • Length: 04:49
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Speaking out about unjust events and atrocities that others passively accept segregates the outspoken, often. In their own time, they are often ...

  • Added: Jul 04, 2016
  • Length: 04:34
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
A musical tribute to "My Funny I.T. Guy" . Blackberry phones - like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had- used to be considered difficult...

  • Added: Jul 08, 2016
  • Length: 02:08
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The widespread permission in this country to be mean, to arm oneself to be as mean as possible is deeply alarming. The beginning of this permissio...

  • Added: Jul 19, 2016
  • Length: 07:01
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks "What's the Difference Between Politicians Who Refuse to Consider What Politicians in the Other Party say a...

  • Added: Jul 21, 2016
  • Length: 01:02
Caption: Polls don't decide the winner. Voters do. , Credit: Susan Cook
The American voting public has become as gullible about Election polls as they are about quick weight loss plans. In Maine, Election eve, 2010, t...

  • Added: Jul 23, 2016
  • Length: 08:01
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today’s sixty-second Moral Inquiry asks ‘What’s the difference between verbal abuse, which uses words to hold power over others by intimidating, th...

  • Added: Jul 26, 2016
  • Length: 01:09
Caption: "..annuls the power..." Poem 358 Emily Dickinson , Credit: Not known
As the battle wages on between the unarmed and the armed, the armed and the armed, the open carry armed and the concealed carry armed, the proble...

  • Added: Jul 30, 2016
  • Length: 05:19
Caption: ..knowing who you’ve left behind.., Credit: Susan Cook
In my state, a few years ago a bright, articulate local woman ran for the state House of Representatives. Her campaign slogan was ‘Fight Like A Gi...

  • Added: Aug 01, 2016
  • Length: 05:32
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
In Maine, recently, an internationally known annual road race was held . 6338 runners raced. One runner in the group of the first 183 spent a full...

  • Added: Aug 14, 2016
  • Length: 05:01
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
When Mitch McConnell and the Republicans snub a duly elected President and the American people who want a Supreme Court nominee to be vetted throug...

  • Added: Sep 02, 2016
  • Length: 07:13
Caption: Nothing says conspiracy theory like a girl..., Credit: Downeast Magazine
Today The River Is Wide introduces a new specialty item : the two and a half minute Conspiracy Theory. We don’t want to ramble. We’ll keep it brief...

  • Added: Sep 08, 2016
  • Length: 03:14
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
I went to a performance "designed to raise awareness surrounding gun violence and its victims" the program said. The Colorado-based modern dance c...

Bought by KSFR


  • Added: Sep 11, 2016
  • Length: 07:17
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
This US Presidential campaign has been characterized by a striking absence of empathy. No empathy between candidates and a Social Code that defines...

  • Added: Sep 13, 2016
  • Length: 07:05