Grant reads from a listener’s favorite poem by Lisel Mueller called “Why We Tell Stories.” It reads in part: “We sat by the fire in our caves,/ and because we were poor, we made up a tale/ about a treasure mountain/ that would open only for us.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Poem about Telling Stories”
Martha, you read a lovely poem by Pablo Neruda a few episodes ago.
Yeah, yeah, we got a lot of responses to that.
People have been looking for it, and we linked to it on our website, so you can find it there.
Stephanie Soros wrote with a favorite poem of hers.
It’s Why We Tell Stories by Liesl Mueller.
And there’s a bit in the middle that I particularly like, because it reminds me of books that I’ve read.
It goes,
We sat by the fire in our caves, and because we were poor,
We made up a tale about a treasure mountain that would open only for us.
And it makes me think of Aladdin or Aladdin and the 40 Thieves
And Open Sesame and the cave and all this classic story.
And the whole poem is evocative in that way.
I want to share this with our listeners.
We’ll put this online.
And if you have a poem that you’d like to share with us,
Send it to us an email, words@waywordradio.org,
Or give us a call 877-929-9673 and tell us about it.
