Audio books of poetry are certainly not impossible to find. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who already knows the importance of hearing poetry as opposed to reading it; poetry is also meant to be heard. And it has never been uncommon for poets to recite their works before others. Edgar Allan Poe is said to have done the same; in fact, he attracted many a lady in the process! Poets had groupies, too. There is also a recording of T.S. Eliot reciting his own works—it’s in the Voice of the Poet audio book series—and it is one of the oldest known audio recordings of a poet. For anybody who loves poetry, it must be exciting to look for all the audio books available in regards to poetry—there are so many.

Here are some poetry collections that will undoubtedly benefit from being heard. Let the reader take note that the following list contains titles by only American poets.

1. The Maya Angelou Poetry Collection. This is a set consisting of two compact discs with over a hundred of her poems–a critically-acclaimed set by one of America’s (and Oprah’s) favorite contemporary poets. Even longtime fans of Angelou’s poems say that finally hearing her recite her poetry in her own voice makes all the difference in the world. Among the poems in the recording are “Times Square Shoe Shine” and “To a Freedom Fighter”.

2. Classic American Poetry. This is also a two-disc set and it contains about 65 poems by some well-known American poets such as Poe, Dickinson, Cummings, and Frost, among others, as well as some lesser-known poets. There are about six different performers on this recording. What’s interesting is that The Star-Spangled Banner is included in the collection, yet it’s read in a more poetical style.

3. The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. As was the case with Maya Angelou’s, this collection is also read by its author—and the result is equally impressive. Giovanni’s poetry can tend towards the political at times, though she does provide commentary alongside her poems. Those interested in African-American history may want to check out this title considering that much of her poetry (she’s been writing for some 30 years) came out of the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1960’s.

Even if you don’t particularly care for the collections just mentioned, but you like poetry, there are many others, including classic British poetry recordings, available. Whatever your tastes in poetry, it’s often the case that when readers take poetry they’ve enjoyed many times before, and then listen to it on audio book format, new meanings are interpreted that weren’t noticed before.

Rent these audio books at http://www.jiggerbug.com

Source: High Quality Article Database – 365Articles.com

Just like a disorganized closet crammed to the gills with sporting goods, prom dresses, old furniture, and who knows what else, our psyches are crammed with old tapes, worries and anxieties, negative voices. We’re more tuned in to the messages from our past and our negative self talk than we are to our real selves. Heck, we can’t even find our authentic selves in all the mess.

Meanwhile, our days are crammed with too many commitments, a lack of clear goals and priorities, uncompleted projects. We spend each day running as hard as we can just to stay in place. Nothing ever feels done.

Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. Millions of people are in the same boat.

OLD TAPES. We carry a lot of old emotional baggage around with us. It’s as if we have a constant film loop running in our heads that replays everything that ever went wrong in the past (but omits all the good stuff). That spat we had with our college roommate, the guilt from a careless comment we made to a friend, the hurt from not having a date for the Senior Prom. things like this clutter up our thoughts and distract us from more immediate and important issues.

WORRIES: Another source of mental and emotional clutter is worry, plain and simple. We lie awake at night, what if-ing ourselves into a tizzy. We construct dire and improbable possibilities, then treat them as if they were real. We create scenarios which paralyze us with fear. When we worry, we are projecting ourselves into the unknown future, instead of taking care of business in the here and now.

GREMLINS: Let’s not forget all those little voices in our heads. Call them Gremlins or call them negative self-talk, those negative messages we send ourselves repeatedly clutter our self-confidence, our will to go on, our courage to change. Those voices are the ones that tell us we can’t, we shouldn’t, we’re not smart enough, hard working enough, brave enough. They clutter our lives as surely as those piles of paper hiding our desk tops from view.

COMMITMENTS: We also contribute to this unnecessary mental confusion with our attempts to have it all and have it all right now! Our To Do lists are so full that there is no way we’ll get to a tenth of all those tasks. We’ve cluttered our schedules with so many events, we don’t really care about that there’s no time left for the things that really matter, such as ourselves, our loved ones, or chocolate.

NO CLEAR GOALS: Our plans are just as cluttered. We’re too busy to set clear goals and determine priorities. We put stuff off because we are so busy, until suddenly it’s been put off so long that it’s become an emergency. We waste our energy putting out fires instead of preventing them. We don’t know where we’re going, or why, because we don’t have the time to stop and figure it out.

UNFINISHED PROJECTS: We have too many things going at once to see any of them through to completion. We leapfrog from one project to another. We start in on one thing and work on it until something else comes along. So we drop the first one and start the second, only to drop that one when yet another one seems more interesting. Soon our uncompleted projects clutter our minds and our storage space.
So what’s a person to do?

BE AWARE: The first step in dealing with anything is simply to become aware of the problem. Start paying attention to the mental and emotional clutter that fills your head. Tune into your self-talk, your old tapes, your worries. The more you notice them, the easier it is to change them – or just get rid of them.

LIVE IN THE NOW: Look at those negative emotions and old tapes you’re carrying around from the past, and let them go. That was then, and this is now. You have grown, and the times and situations are different. And notice what you’re worrying about. How likely is that to happen – really? Instead of wasting your time and energy worrying about the future, start planning for it. Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

IGNORE: Those little voices in your head (Gremlins) are going to be with you the rest of your life. If you engage in an argument with them, you will usually lose. Instead notice them, then simply ignore what they are saying. Banish them to another room. Take a walk to clear your head and focus on now.

SET GOALS: If you have well thought out, clearly written goals for your week/year/life, you’ll have a much easier time knowing what to do each day. You’ll stay focused and on purpose. It will also be easier to . . .

CHOOSE: Start to make conscious choices about what you put on that To Do list, about the projects you start, the commitments you make. Learn to say “No,” not just to others, but also to yourself. If you’re not passionate about something, or if it won’t serve your goals and your purpose, don’t let it in your life.

ELIMINATE: Finally, what can you let go of? What are you doing/thinking/feeling that isn’t serving you? Pare your life and your commitments down to manageable levels. I’m not suggesting you quit your job, get a divorce, and move to Tahiti. But do you really need to be on two committees, the HOA board, and the softball team? Do you really need to volunteer for overtime at work? The world won’t stop if you let a few things slide.

If you follow those six life changing steps, you’ll eliminate 85% of the internal clutter in your life. (A life without some clutter simply isn’t possible. We’re human.) You’ll be more focused and less hurried, more confident and less worried. You’ll have more time and energy. Just imagine how great your life will be then!

NOTE: You are welcome to use this article online in electronic newsletters and e-zines as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info). If use of this article is desired in print, you must first contact Lynn Cutts at Lynn@ManageYourMuse.com.

Copyright 2005 Lynn Cutts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In life we get what we ask for. Everything starts with a thought. A thought is an energy. Energy wants to manifest itself. A lot of thoughts in the same direction will, that’s for sure, manifest in the real world. This is the process of creation. Start thinking positive thoughts. Think only thoughts you wish to see happen in real life. Think only what you want to become true.

In life we get what we ask for.

Now you surely say that it isn’t true. You say you ask for freedom and happiness and all you got was feeling imprisoned and bad.

Let’s have a closer look to how creation works and how our subconscious mind works. Because it’s the same.

Everything that exists is created in someone’s mind. Everything starts with a thought. A thought is an energy. Energy wants to manifest itself. A lot of thoughts in the same direction will, that’s for sure, manifest in the real world.

This is the process of creation. We are created by the same process. We use this process of creation all the time, without knowing it.

When we are not conscious, then we are like most people and use this power to create a negative life. We have negative thoughts and get negative results. Once we learn how to think positive thoughts, we will get positive results in our life.

How come? Our subconscious mind is like the earth. It does not interfere with what we sow. Earth does not say :

”Nja I have enough of these carottes, it’s every time the same thing, I will make potatoes of it!” Earth does not say : “Bah I don’t like red flowers, I will turn the red into blue for these roses!” Earth does not interfere. Earth is patient, works in silence and gives us exactly what we put in it. And we KNOW that! We know we will get exactly what we put in the earth. When we put yellow flowers in it, we don’t expect them to be red when they blossom. When we sow roses in the garden we don’t expect onions to come out in spring!And yet that’s how we react in real life. We sow onions and expect roses. We sow negative thoughts in our mind (onions) and expect good things (roses) to come out! We fool ourselves! And we blame others. We look for who can possibly be the fault of that (usually we blame the parents or the husband/wife for what goes wrong in our life). And then we cry and say we don’t have any luck in our lives. We look at the neighbour and think he’s lucky because he has roses in his garden, and we wonder what we did to the world to deserve only onions in our garden!When the mainstream of your thoughts is negative, let’s say for 85 %, than the outcome will be negative for 85%. Your thoughts fall into your subconscious mind, which executes exactly what you put in it. It is like the earth. It is like a computer. When you type in your computer : “I am stupid, I am fat, I am ugly, nobody loves me”, are you angry with your printer when the paper comes out that says “I am stupid, I am fat, I am ugly, nobody loves me”? Do you throw a shoe at your computer and do you yell at him that he is the fault of everything that’s going wrong? No, because you know you put that information in it and your computer does not interfere. The output matches exactly the input.

So works our subconscious mind. If you don’t like the output, change the input. You get exactly what you ask for = what you think of the whole day. Don’t be angry with your life. You are not angry with the onions, are you? You are not angry with your computer, are you? Instead of being angry, learn how it works and learn to get positive results in your life. Start thinking positive thoughts. Think only thoughts you wish to see happen in real life. Think only what you want to become true. And wait for a while, be patient. One day you will harvest what you sew, like you know earth will give you back what you put in it. It is never lost. Just wait and see.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The typical hardcover or paperback book is not going anywhere. The format shows no signs of ever dying off, even after considering the many technological advances made in recent years. It would, however, be foolish to deny the obvious and not so obvious benefits of listening to audio books. Here are some ways audio books could be put to use:

1. Do you like reading poetry? Then experience it in the way it was meant to be experienced: with your ears! Back in the good old days, it was not uncommon for poets to recite their works before a swooning audience. The great Irish poet and playwright, W.B. Yeats, was said to have written poetry in such a manner that, when vocalized, it would have a certain effect on the ears of its hearers. If you like the writings of T.S. Eliot, there is actually available a recording, on compact disc, of Mr. Eliot himself reading his own poetry. It’s obviously a fascinating investment for fans of Eliot. It’s only one in a series called The Voice of the Poet.

2. Fight road rage while listening to audio books—seriously. Statistics show that violent crime resulting from what is commonly known as “road rage” has increased tremendously over the past couple of years. If you happen to be one of those individuals with a bit of a mean-streak when behind the wheel, then don’t take to the boulevard without Waitley’s Optimal Stress Reduction in your passenger seat—or simply check out a few of the innumerable audio book titles available from an audio book rental club or in your local book store in the self-help section

3. Revisit the “Golden Age of Radio”. It is now possible to find a vast array of classic radio dramas on compact disc. Fans of The Shadow radio program have known this, and are undoubtedly pleased. Also, if you happen to like The Twilight Zone television series, then try to get your hands on a copy of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas—Lou Diamond Phillips and Adam West are among the talent contributing to these programs.

4. Struggling in child-rearing? Audio books just might be part of the solution. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a hit with the kids (just as every other Harry Potter book has been); and an obvious choice might be an audio book from the Lord of the Rings series—these classic Tolkien works are available in abridged and unabridged editions.

5. Learn another language… in your sleep. When you fall asleep your brain doesn’t just turn off. On the contrary, research has shown that the sleeping brain does receive, process and perhaps even store information. So why not use your good nights sleep effectively by listening to one of the many foreign language audio books. And while this technique may not be the only means of mastering a second or third language, it will make things a little bit easier.

If these uses don’t seem practical to you, they might put you in the mindset to think of your own ways to utilize audio books. And although some may say that listening to audio books is no substitute for reading, the growing popularity of audio book rental services such as Jiggerbug.com ( http://www.jiggerbug.com ) may eradicate paper books completely or at least come close!

Source: High Quality Article Database – 365Articles.com