The American poet, Jack Gilbert

Better Days #194
Refusing Heaven
The Poems of Jack Gilbert

Thursday, December 1st, 2005
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific time
CFRO 102.7 fm

webcast at www.coopradio.org

As we enter December 2005, Better Days nears its 200th show.
What an inspiration and honour it is to be able to provide for
you, our listeners around the world, a radio program which
balances good music with stories and poems that call to a deeper
heart. The times we live in present unique challenges, two of
which are the finding of meaning and the rebuilding of spirit.
As Scottish songwriter, Karine Polwart, sings, "You have to
find joy where you can."

Another writer who speaks of the refusal to abandon the search
for - and experience of - joy is the unique American poet, Jack
Gilbert. He is anything but prolific, having released just four
books of poems -- Views Of Jeopardy, Monolithos, The Great
Fires and, recently, Refusing Heaven -- since 1963. In episode
#194 of Better Days, the music selections will dovetail with
selected poems from these four enriching volumes of Gilbert's
poetry. Gilbert has lived many years in Europe, Japan, and on t
he Greek islands of Paros and Santorini. For a number of years
he also lived in San Francisco. Jack Gilbert presently resides in
western Massachusetts.

As well as offering you a taste from a few new releases from
songwriters such as Kirsty McGee (Two Birds) and James
McMurtry (Childish Things), and getting around to a short
feature on Neil Young's strong new one, Prairie Wind, I'll
include new entries from the jazz world by the veteran bassist-
composer-bandleader, Charlie Haden, whose longstanding
Liberation Music Orchestra has a new recording called
Not In Our Name, and from New Orleans, the street energy
of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, whose new one is called
Funeral For A Friend.

Lots more, but those are a few things you'll hear when you
tune in to this week's edition of Better Days, on the air from
10pm to midnight Pacific time (GMT -8) Thursday night
on CFRO 102.7 fm around the corner, and live on the
web at www.coopradio.org around the world.

Look forward to having you join me.

DL