Rappers are not the only freestyling poets.  Here is an example of one poem I freestyled in December 2017 while the SpiritHouse Quartet played at a Como Cottage Salon.   Later with slight editing, I prepared the poem for publication.

This episode is my telling of a Metis tale, Little Man with Hair All Over. I used to tell a version of this tale to my son when he was a boy.  This version is a recording from my telling to The Fifth Direction Men's Elder Circle.

In 2019 Dalyce and I produced an after-dinner program for her sister and friends  at the Crave restaurant. We put together a program of poetry, music, and storytelling for their enjoyment and relaxation. 

Here are six poems prompted by pictures of horses painted in the Caves of Lascaux.  The first three I read for the Elder Circle of the mythopoetic group, The Fifth Direction, on October 2, 2025.  The final three are read from the book...

This episode is a recording of a poetry reading at the 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference at Camp Lake Hubert in Nisswa, MN.  John Lang and I were introduced  by Todd Davis.  Roy McBride and Thomas R. Smith also read that evening an...

This is my version of the creation story with Raven comes from the Pacific Northwest. This telling specifically is from the Haida people, as provided by the transcription by the poet and writer Robert Bringhurst.  I told this tale to the A...

Timothy Young with SpiritHouse Quartet December 9, 2017. Here is some extracted poetry with music, performed at the 80th Como Cottage Salon.Gary Waryan tablas, Dalyce Elliott Young, violin, Michelle Kinney, cello, Jeff Waryan, guitar, Ti...

The 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference was especially potent. The headliners were Robert Bly, James Hillman, Robert Moore, and Etheridge Knight. Bly's presentations focused on the deep meanings in William Blake's poetry.  I was one of the org...

Since 2020 Walton Stanley and I have told and discussed important folktales and read important poetry with the Australian-based international mythopoetic community, The Fifth Direction. Our monthly sessions have been deliciously profound and we...

n 1986 my wife, Carol Ringer, and I produced a television documentary on the history of St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood through the support of the Frogtown History Project, the Frogtown Community Assoiciation, and The Compass Community Arts Fu...

In 1993 this poem was recorded at the Minnesota Men's Conference on Lake Hubert, in north central Minnesota.  This version was read straight, without the usual musical accompaniment or hyperbolic enthusiasm.  I love this version, too....

Thanks to Ted King and Tom Cassidy with Tributary Reading Series for inviting me to read.  The original poem is usually a half-hour reading time, so I had to cut a few verses.  But you get the feel.

For over 40 years this Coyote tale from the Pacific Coast has intrigued me. In May 2025 I was able to tell it to the Elder Circle of the Internation Fifth Direction Mythopoetic Community based in Australia.

On March 16, 2019 Hardy Coleman was one of several poets who read at the Seeing Them Home: A Reading for the Ancestors hosted by Maureen Skelly. Hardy joined the ancestors himself on March 26, 2024.

On July 30, 2025 four poets were invited to read their work on the effects of war on the soul. Three were veterans, Frank Gioa, George Colburn, and Jessi Marie. I am not a veteran and represented those who share the suffering brought on by the ...

While preparing for the 2025 Minnesota Men's Conference I spoke with poets, Jonathan Stensland and Jesse Dermody, about the value of poetry at our conferences, and at the personal level.  It was a delightful conversation.

The Swan of Tuonela is a story of a hero initiated into the maturity of living as a man, and his relationships to the powerful feminine.

On March 16, 2019 the poet, Maureen Skelly, hosted a Celebration of Ancestors at the Walker Church in South Minneapolis. Numerous musicians and poets and a quilter celebrated family and ancestors. These are four of the readers, Maureen, Rebecca...

Often I am lucky to recite poems with the accompaniment of the SpiritHouse Quartet. Their unique music is the perfect container for poems. This song with two poems, one by the Persian saint, Attar, and one of my own was recorded at the Como Cot...

The Midstream Reading Series has been a favorite series for Minnesota poets ever since David Shove began the series in 2013. After his passing in 2019 a number of other hosts picked up the load to continue this series.  I have been fortuna...

I am lucky I get to recite poems with the accompaniment of the SpiritHouse Quartet. Their unique music is the perfect container for poems. This song, Freida, with two poems, my own The Glass Brick and my version of the 11th century Andalusian p...

For a couple weeks in 2008, thanks to the storyteller Martin Shaw, I traveled to the United Kingdom's West Country with a "brigand band of poets and musicians". We appeared at a festival, on the radio, in coffeehouses, schools, in the wilds, an...

Shortly after the second election of an artless president, the Como Cottage hosted a salon of poetry, a scrum honoring the deeper art of grace and humor with words. This scrum featured Thomas R. Smith, Michael Moos, Scott Vetsch, and Timothy Yo...

Many of my poems are reactions to or inspired by music and musicians. This section from my book, Herds of Bears Surround Us, is titled Blue Music from the Star Cafe.   The Star Cafe was a small cafe and bar in Stockholm, Wisconsin, along t...

Many of my poems are reactions to or inspired by music and musicians. This section from my book, Herds of Bears Surround Us, is titled Blue Music from the Star Cafe.   The Star Cafe was a small cafe and bar in Stockholm, Wisconsin, along t...