Latest / Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast / Your Word Unlocks

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Your Word Unlocks · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: You are listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Please visit online at backwardmutters.substack.com.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: There you can subscribe via your favorite podcast player and read the newsletter.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Randy Edmonds.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Today I have a special guest reader, my father-in-law, Ed Pilkington.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Ed is a retired theater and speech professor whose love for the theater and for
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: speaking the language of Shakespeare and the stage is infectious.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Today is Ed's birthday, and I'd like to wish him a happy birthday.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: I would also like to thank him for his love for the spoken word which he's imparted
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: to me and to so many others.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Ed, you bless our socks off.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Today's poem comes from a series of poems inspired by Psalm 119 and particularly verses 129 to 144.
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  SPEAKER_02: Though I borrow lines from other verses,
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  SPEAKER_02: the theme verse for the sonnet is verse 130,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: which reads,
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  SPEAKER_02: The unfolding of your words gives light.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: It imparts understanding to the simple.
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  SPEAKER_02: The poem is titled, Your Word Unlocks.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your word unlocks, runs straight, is just and right.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It cuts to the heart and pierces the night.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Strong and stable firmness to rest upon is your word.
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  SPEAKER_00: The promise I depend on.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm small and despised.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: My enemy knows I am but a breath and can be felled with blows.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: A roll of the eye sigh fuels the shame of my thirst for the drafts of praise and fame.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But you redeem the fear of failure's slave.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Steel sends sting in the victory of the grave.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your light beckons, draws me into the day, sets me to walk in the steps of your way.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder, is that word too good?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can it be?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: The word then cries, it is finished.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Bids, follow me.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to the Backward Mudders Poetry Podcast.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Randy Edwards.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.