Halloween: Visions and Visitors  10/22/08

Tune into my podcast where I read the poem “Visions and Visitors” about lying in bed as a child and hearing the field mice scratch in my walls in October, and what it has to do  with Halloween, the yearly ritual of fear. halloween.mp3

9/5/08

I dedicate this podcast to the memory of my mother Dorothy Knoblauch Blomquist Jorgenson who died 8/08/08. I read the poem “Sea Glass” and discuss grief and loss. mothers death.mp3

Now that the primaries are over, I hope we can talk about real issues between the parties. Listen to my podcast where I read my poem, Please Use These Words For Children. Now is the time to change the direction this country is heading. Enjoy this beautiful month of June, and come see me at the White Pine Festival in Stillwater, MN from June 17-23. Cynthia For_Obama_Clinton_and_McCain.mp3

8/03/08 Sweet Corn

Tune into my new podcast and hear me read my poem “Corn Silk,” and talk about sweet corn and August and FSA’s and ethanol. Corn isn’t so simple any more, but it still tastes yummy on the cob right from the farm or garden. Cynthia cornsilk.mp3

Filling Sandbags   6/14/08

Check out my new podcast where I read the poem “Prisoner” about filling sandbags along with a prisoner in the 1965 flood. Hope all of you are safe from the floods of this year.Filling_Sandbags_for_the_flood.mp3

Forgive My Trespassing  5/14/08

I will be at the White Pine Arts Festival in Stillwater, MN June 17 - 22. It is a fabulous festival of poetry and music in the gorgeous setting of the St. Croix Valley. I have written a book full of poems since I was there last year, and I will be reading them at Belwin Nature Center on Sunday June 22nd at 11am. The poem I read on this podcast is the title poem from that collection. It relates how I used to walk that land until it became a private nature center, and now sometimes I sneak in, and love it even more. The doors will be open that day for you to hear poetry and then to take a nature walk afterwards. Hope to see you there. Click here for the podcast reading of Forgive My Trespassing. White_Pine_arts_Festival.mp3

April 09, 2008

I have written a poem in anger over the ELCA’s refusal to accept GLBTQ people as full partners in humanity. Their recent statement is nothing new and is just another way to keep people in the church who threaten to leave over this issue. If the Lutheran Church does not make a mature statement about this issue they will be losing many other people who have given up on waiting for them to act as Jesus would have acted. Tune in to my podcast and listen to “The Poem That Needs to be Written.” Cynthia ELCA_Response_poem.mp3

I Don’t Write Love Poems 2/6/08

This is my third valentines day podcast. But there is always something new to say about love. Click here for the podcast:

New Year 1/09/08

Click here to listen to my podcast about changes for the new year, and listen to the poem “Frozen Ground.” You will also find a poetry prompt in this podcast.Frozen_Ground_podcast.mp3

Quiet Christmas 12/4/2007

Do you control your holiday, or does it completely take over, and get out of control? Tune in to my podcast, called Quiet Christmas, and hear a poem about my childhood Christmas, and a discussion about how to bring the holidays under control again. Have a wonderful holiday, Cynthia click: Quiet_Christmas.mp3

Thanksgiving and Food 10/14/07

Listen to the podcast to hear a discussion about comfort foods, and the use and misuse of food at holidays. What are your comfort foods? Do you control your intake of them, or do they overpower you? What are you thankful for? Do you believe the phrase, “moderation in all things”? Click here:Thanksgiving_and_food.mp3

Loss, 10/3/07

In this podcast I read a poem called Loss, and discuss what loss means to us in our culture, and how we are expected to “get over it.” Tune in:loss_podcast.mp3

Body Image 9/12/07

What do you think about your own body? Too fat? Too thin? Satisfied? What is healthy for you? Do you have an eating disorder? Listen to my podcast where I read my poem “Image,” from my book Re-Versing the Numbers: A Poetry Workbook for Eating Disorders, and discuss the ramifications of body image.Body_Image_podcast.mp3

At the Beach August 22,2007

Have you been to the beach this summer? Listen to my podcast and hear my poem called Walking On Sand, and a discussion about people walking on the beach, and how observant they are. Do you see what is going on in the part of the world which is separate from you? Do you care? Do you feel as though you are Top Dog when it comes to all the creatures of this earth? What does that mean, and how can we see the world differently as only one of many of God’s creatures? Click here:At_the_Beach.mp3

Going Home Again

Listen in to my podcast about driving home to Minnesota in July to be a poet in the White Pine Festival in Stillwater, MN, my home town. How did the home you grew up in form the way you translate your experience? I read my poem, “Prism,” in this podcast.prism_podcast.mp3

Glorious June

Tune into my podcast about the wonders of the month of June, and hear me read my new poem, Tiger Lily. Do the lilies really “neither toil nor spin”? Find out about worrying. Is it harmful or helpful?tiger_lily_podcast.mp3

Tomatoes In Cages: April and War

I read the poem Tomatoes In Cages, from my book Con-Versing With God, on this podcast and discuss the relationship between spring planting and pruning, and the insanity and influence of war. Click here to listen:tomatoes_in_cages_pod

Valentine 1/31/07

A special poem for valentine’s day, and a reminder of what it means to love one another. Listen in:valentine.mp3

Psalm 36, Love and Justice

Hope your holidays were wonderful. I have a new CD out for 2007 called When Love Is Real available at CDBaby.com. On it I sing several of my favorite songs including When Love Is Real which I wrote for my husband when he was in the hospital after an almost fatal car crash. Another song on the CD is Your Love Reaches to Heaven, based on Psalm 36. Listen to a discussion about these songs on my podcast.

Psalm_36_Your_Love_Reaches_to_Heaven.mp3

Christmas Poem 12/8/06

Here is a poem I wrote last Christmas about the color red and babies and fresh starts. Hope you enjoy it. Cynthia

 christmas_poem_podcast.mp3

Stress Management
11/10/06

Is your life dominated by unwelcomed stress? Are you exercising, eating right, sleeping well, prioritizing your to-do list? Still too much stress?

Listen to my poem “Stress Management” and relax.

stress_management_podcast.mp3

Breast Cancer Awareness Month poem
10/05/06
Tune into my October podcast and hear me read my poem called “Double Helix Twisting,” dedicated to my mother Dorothy Jorgenson and my sister Roxanne Bieber, both breast cancer survivors.

It is a long poem about my experience with doctors and waiting and fear of breast cancer. Hope all of you out there check yourselves often for lumps. This is a mostly curable disease if you catch it early.

Take care. Cynthia

breast_cancer_poem1.mp3

Dialysis
9/19/06

It is September and the time of year when we enjoy gorgeous leaves, but the joy is oftened lessened because of the thought of the coming winter.

This time of year especially reminds us of the cycle of life. I have related that cycle to the death of the leaves, and the waiting of the trees for the nourishment of spring, and the rebirth of life.

Hear Dialysis read and talked about on my podcast.

Dialysis.mp3 

August 4, 2006

August Tomatoes

Here is a podcast of me reading two very different poems I have written about tomatoes (Both from Con-Versing With God: Poetry for Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Direction.)

One celebrates the sweet taste of tomatoes and gifts from the garden, and the other talks about tomatoes in cages, and living in a time of war. Enjoy your August tomatoes.

August_tomatoes.mp3 

Think Globally, Act Locally 7/11/06

In this podcast I discuss Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and read a poem from my book Con-Versing With God. The poem is a tongue in cheek commentary on our use of lawn chemicals, but it addresses our current situation on this globe we call our mother. Think Globally Act Locally

June 14, 2006

Abuse and Neglect

My husband, pediatrician Dr. Ed Gustavson, has worked in the field of child abuse and neglect for years. I have heard the worst horror stories anyone could imagine. As a therapist, I, too, have heard those stories, and they never fail to knock the air out of me. In my children’s book, “Fe-Vers”, as well as in the “Fe-Vers” book for teens I have a chapter with poems designed to enable children to talk or write about abuse and neglect issues. People ask why there is such an epidemic of this horrendous condition, and I say it has something to do with our isolation. We used to live in extended family groups, or at least in villages. Now we live autonomously in large cities where we don’t know our neighbors. There is no one to help us in the middle of the night, and no one who will not judge our behavior. Our family members live 1000 miles away and we think a telephone is adequate to keep in touch with. Isolation. We need to work to develop families in the cities we live in, supportive “families” to call on for help, because we all need help sometimes. In this blog I read a poem from the two “Fe-Vers” books called “Night Secret.”

May 8, 2006

Fibromyalgia

In my new podcast I talk a little about fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic pain, and read a poem from my poetry therapy book Re-Versing Your Pain, a poem called Dangling. It’s fishing season and this poem is about the worm on the hook.

fibromyalgia_podcast.mp3

April 28, 2006

Sudoku

Check out my newest podcast about the latest craze of sudoku, and my poem about it. Enjoy, Cynthia

Sudoku

April 6, 2006

April Love 

Check out the new podcast with the poem I wrote for my daughter’s wedding

april love

February 21, 2006

Children and Strangers

My second podcast is available. It is dedicated to two little girls, Ella Childs, budding radio emcee, and Ella Karmanos, my grand niece. Their generation are being taught to fear strangers. This podcast talks about the difficulties that creates, and ends with my poem, “The Ballad of the Rag Man” from my book Fe-Vers, Feeling Verses for Children. Tune in and be a child once more.

podcast 2, ballad of the ragman

February 13, 2006

What You Need To Know

Friends, Please join me for my first podcast. It is the day between Lincoln’s birthday and Valentines Day and a good day to reflect on what we need to know before we hitch up with someone, whether in marriage or a long term relationship. I am a psychotherapist, but my modis operandi is poetry. Click, listen in and find out:

what you need to know