Claim OwnershipME READING STUFF
Subscribed: 79Played: 1,974
Subscribe
© Copyright 2026 Robyn O'Neil
Description
Love letters to the people of the world. Sincerely, Robyn O'Neil
381 Episodes
Reverse
Today's anonymous poem was found in my library book about Medieval Art and was dated Feb 7, 1958! How exciting is that?!? I also answer some listener questions & ask you some of my own in everyone's favorite segment - Question Corner. I wish you well, I hope you can gain acceptance of disappointment, and we shall find peace.With love, Robby LINKS:My InstagramMy Youtube
Today, I explain how I use my fists to understand the days in a month. I regret (again) not learning Greek or its myths. We read Fuyue Anzai, Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg. We celebrate taking walks, aggressively. And something about Doritos. LINKS:Buy The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem HERE.Buy Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass HERE.Check out BLURRING BOOKS! Watch the Walt Whitman scene in Now, Voyager HERE.
"I am one who does not think that the Earth was made for us. I think that we are first to last strangers on it, and that it takes us a good first half of our lives just to get used to gravity. That it's not easy." -Michael Silverblatt LINKS:Visit the Bookworm ARCHIVES.Buy David Markson books on INDIEBOUND.Watch Michael Silverblatt at Cornell HERE. Listen to David Markson on Bookworm.
"I think mostly about clothes, sex, food, and seasonal variations. I have done so much to be ordinary and made a record of this: first I was born, next I was a child, then I learned things and did things and loved and had those who loved me and often felt alone. My body was sometimes well, then sometimes unwell. I got nearer to death, as did you." -Anne Boyer, Garments Against Women"I think mostly about my health, food, the past, and sweatpants. Although I complain often and suffer from depression, my general demeanor is actually quite positive. I wish I liked hot tea and stillness more than I do." -Me LINKS:Buy Anne Boyer's Garments Against Women Me on InstagramMe on Substack
"Twisting it in the right hand - I love another." via The Public Domain Review"Donna Logan felt badly for her younger sister, Katie, ,who was suffering from acne." via The Bold and the Beautiful: 10th Anniversary CelebrationLINKSVisit The Public Domain ReviewWatch The Bold and the Beautiful My InstagramMy SubstackJoin Grig's Poetry PartyListen/Watch to Anne Carson's Lecture on Corners.
Tonight, we have a Recommendation Corner (it's been a while!), a return to Vasko Popa, praise for Valentine's Day whether you like it or not, and some new sound clips 🖤And I'll miss you forever, Billy. I'm devestated.Love, Robynp.s. can you believe I'm back for a 3rd week in a row? I can't!LINKSBuy Vasko Popa's Complete WorksMy InstagramMy Substack My Website
If you grew up in the 70s and 80s like me, you certainly know Geri Jewell. If you don't know the full breadth of her career, you will for sure know "Cousin Geri", Blair Warner's comedian cousin with cerebral palsy from The Facts of Life. I have adored her from the first moment I saw her on TV, and recently read her 2011 autobiography I'm Walking as Straight as I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond. In this episode, I read to you a small excerpt from a story she wrote involving a nun, some urine, and a car wash. ENJOY! xoxo, RobynLINKS:Buy Geri Jewell's book I'm Walking as Straight as I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond!See Geri on Sesame Street HERE and HERE (with an appearance by Northern Calloway, who I told you about on THIS episode of ME READING STUFF). (and there are many more if you just search Youtube)Geri's character dancing on Deadwood.Geri Jewell's website.Me on SubstackMe on Instagram www.robynoneil.com
Today, we head back to Encyclopedia Corner, exploring the letter "A". Also discussed: The Prinzhorn Collection, Jean Dubuffet, Hypergraphia, Emma Hauck, Ants, Animals, The San Fernando Valley, Cardiology, and Cockroaches, Nudity, and Adoption. LINKS:My SubstackMy Instagram
"My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They're just horizontal lines." - Agnes Martin"Oh really, bitch? I don't think so!" - My BodyLINKS:Learn more about artist Agnes Martin HERE.Buy "On Beauty" by Agnes Martin through PACE.Buy "Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words" on INDIEBOUND.
"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
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States
Absolutely with you, on your "15 minute rant." As a musician with a chronic illness, your rant really spoke to me. Thank you.