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© Copyright 2025 Robyn O'Neil
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Love letters to the people of the world. Sincerely, Robyn O'Neil
372 Episodes
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"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." - Vladimir Nabokov"I love ruled paper." - MeLINKS:Buy The Best American Essays of The CenturyBuy Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary BuilderLearn more about my drawing HELL See James Ensor in front of Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 as an old man.
Dear You,We last spoke in January and I've missed you; I've missed this. A lot has happened. A lot has not. Let's pick back up where we left off, but let's make it better and more loving this time. Let's not let the hoards of negatives overshadow the rest — the ever-present glimmerings of light. I simply can't anymore. I woke up different after that night. I even had pink cheeks for the first time in ages, according to some! "Such fun to wake up though!Such fun too if you don't!" - C.K. WilliamsAll my love,RobynLINKS:Buy C.K. Williams "Writers Writing Dying" at INDIEBOUND.Damien Jurado's INSTAGRAMMy INSTAGRAM Our MEAL TRAIN ❤️🌮❤️ if you're so inclined. Listen to every episode of ME READING STUFF on my YOUTUBE PAGE."Keep dying! Keep writing it down!"
"It is certainly true that the larger and older the living thing is, the harder it is to know how to care for it." - Lydia Davis"I barely know what a uterus is for God's sake." - MeLINKS:Buy "The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis" HERE.Become a Subscriber on My Substack!Become a Paid Subscriber and get a drawing! My Instagram My WebsiteMy Youtube
"Help! I'm David from Sesame Street, and they're trying to kill me!" - Northern Calloway "Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear." - Zora Neale Hurston LINKS:The Wikipedia article on Northern CallowayMy SubstackDamien Jurado's record label - Maraqopa
Praying for apathy, deciding towards easy. Love, RobynLINKS:Buy Joshua Rivkin's Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly Here is my SUBSTACK!Here is my website.The Cy Twombly Gallery Robert Rauschenberg Jasper JohnsHenry Darger
"The people who have made me feel the worst were always my best friends." -Detective Olivia Benson"I'll never sell 14 million like Hammer, I just wanna do a good Ice-T show." - Ice-TLINKS:Get your drawing! Subscribe to my SubstackWatch the Driver 23 / Atlas Moth TrailerWatch the Fitzcarraldo TrailerThe NBC article on Steve Zirnkilton Listen to the Steve Zirnkilton Law & Order SVU IntroBuy Nedra Glover Tawwab's Set Boundaries, Find Peace book.Damien Jurado's The Loneliest Place and Male Customer #1
Dear Boss, I am sick.Love, Robyn
A - ABLE-MINDEDB - BICUSPID C - CROSS-EXAMINATION K - Keeping You CompanyWith love, RobynLINKS:Well, I've never linked to Amazon for books, but that seems to be the only place I see Leonard Cohen's Book of Mercy, so head over there to buy it! There's also a set of several of his books on there that look really great, so maybe do that!My SubtackMY Shop
LINKS:My SubstackBuy my book HERE.Watch American Movie HERE.
"Lighting ranks as the most important factor in seeing." "Writing letters helps bring friends closer together.""Plans for lightning should provide the greatest possible light needed for any task." "Be sure than every statement you make is correct.""A bolt of lightning can kill a person or start a forest fire."-All quotes from 1964's World Book Encyclopedia - "L"LINKSMy SubstackSubterranean Thunder AKA Angela LaneMy WebsiteThe Lightning Field by Walter De Maria
"I must decline, for secret reasons." ~E.B. WhiteLINKS:My SubstackSee Letters of Note on InstagramME READING STUFF shirts at the bottom of THIS page.California Scrub JayStellar's Jay
"A trotting animal can restore red hearts to red." - Anne Carson (Short Talk on My Task)LINKS:Buy Anne Carson's Short TalksListen to Anne Carson's reading on "Shade" (it's at the 19 minute mark, but you should listen to the entire thing)Listen to me reading her writing on Shade from years ago.Buy my Book on my website.And if you're a pickle guy, like me, here are BRITT'S and BEST MAID!
"In the end I would rather wonder than know." -Mary RuefleLINKS:Follow me on Substack: https://robynoneil.substack.com/Buy "Madness, Rack, and Honey""Red" read by Mary Ruefle herself! Buy "I Am: The Selected Poetry of John Clare"
D'Agata writes in the introduction to The Making of the American Essay: "The world provides non-fiction, and humans provide the rest." My own work has been dealing endlessly with the problems humans incessantly seem to provide. In desperation, I now pray that for the rest of my days, my eyes can shift their focus to the innumerable glories & ongoing wisdom humans also deliver.LINKS:My new Substack!Buy John D'Agata's "The Making of the American Essay" HERE. Learn more about John D'Agata.Read from A New History of the Essay.Listen to Michael Silverblatt's interview with D'Agata on Bookworm.
"'I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it." - Werner Herzog "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they're doing." - Dale Carnegie "People rarely have fun in what they're doing unless they succeed." - Me"….ENJOY your mothafuckin' YOUTH....while you GOT IT.Whatever the fuck you trynna do in yo DREAMS and shit…….DO IT RIGHTTHE FUCKNOW....while yo body is still witchu….cause the rest of us would tell you this gettin old shit isFO THE BIRDS!That shit DO NOT not let off...Once it’s on yo ass, THAT’S IT!!!" - Katt Williams LINKS:Buy "The Lost Writings" by Franz Kafka (From New Directions aka Nude Erections)Enjoy Your Youth by Katt Williams (a clip)French Fry Hustlin' by Katt Williams The Henry Miller Memorial Library XOXO, RO
Tonight, I give you a reading from New Directions' Love Poems of Catullus and a reiteration of my preference for the CH Sissen translation of Catullus 85.Art event or not, put it all on a Carr's Table Water Cracker. And if you have an interest in words, take 2 minutes to try this podcast out: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day.Thank you guys for listening, loving, hating. Always. xo, Robyn
An After Dark Episode! Tonight I read from Emily Dickinson's Final Harvest: https://bookshop.org/p/books/final-harvest-poems-emily-dickinson/110106?ean=9780316184151I explain how this book by Alex Soojung Kim Pang both solved my life & ignited a nervous breakdown the size of Pangaea: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alex-soojung-kim-pang/rest/9781541617162/?lens=basic-booksOther things: John Green's new(ish) book of essays, Sap Moss, Dr. Jackie from Married to Medicine, The Virgin Spring, Leaving Las Vegas, The Elephant Man, and Au Hazard Balthazar.So good to talk with you guys again.Much love and apologies forever,Robyn
"Go inside a stone.That would be my way.Let somebody else become a dove."-Charles SimicBuy absolutely anything by Charles Simic.Buy "The Language of Letting Go" Daily Meditations by Melody Beattie.And thank you for being with me today. I've missed you guys. Love, Robyn
"We're animals, Amy. And some animals like to party. For me, God is a beer on the beach. Maybe that's fucked up, but at least it's honest." - Levi, Enlightened "Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships." - Charles Simic "Today wasn't anything spectacular and that's what I loved about it." Me, January 2, 2023LINKS:Watch "Enlightened" on HBO HERE.Charles Simic's Obituary.My website: www.robynoneil.comMY SHOP
"Modern natural philosophers have found God in the folds of the skin of the rhinoceros." - Voltaire"I found the saltiest, greasiest corn chip at the bottom of this Juanita's bag this morning. It totally blew my mind." - MeLINKS:Buy the book here: https://www.ndbooks.com/book/an-elemental-thing/See what you think about these Daniel Ladinsky "HAFIZ" books: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/6/14/fake-hafez-how-a-supreme-persian-poet-of-love-was-erasedAnd please meet Rajiv Surendra AKA Kevin Gnapoor!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uo2nomf4I0
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Absolutely with you, on your "15 minute rant." As a musician with a chronic illness, your rant really spoke to me. Thank you.