Recorded Poetry.

Poetry being one of the great literary art forms and me being an actor, I thought would go well together. I soon found out reading poetry is quite different from acting in films, plays or on TV.

The poems are chosen by my taste and that includes what I think the worth of the poem is in helping us to face today’s problems.

I’ll add more poets and their poems and give actor colleagues the opportunity to read them.

James Baldwin. 1924 – 1987

James Baldwin was an acclaimed writer and political activist who participated in the movement for African American rights, fought against the war in Vietnam and spoke out against the persecution of homosexuals.

He wrote books, essays and poetry. The Fire Next Time was the first essay in history to spend forty-one weeks among the top five of the N.Y. Times' Bestseller List and won the George Polk Memorial Award.

Giovanni’s Room, which is widely considered essential reading in the LGBTQ community, was a finalist for the National Book Awards' fiction category in 1957.

Bobby Sands. 1954 – 1981

Bobby Sands was an Irish republican fighter and member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on May 5, 1981, while leading a hunger strike in the Maze prison fighting for his right to be treated as a political prisoner.

Bobby Sands was a poet and songwriter having written hundreds of poems and songs.

He was elected to the UK Parliament as a Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone but died before he could take his seat. Over 100,000 people turned out for his funeral.

Chief Dan George. 1899 – 1981

Chief Dan George was one of Canada’s best-known and highly regarded actors and writers. Chief Dan George was born Geswanouth Slahoot in 1899 and was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band located on Burrard Inlet in Vancouver. 

Gifted with a distinctive voice - deep and sonorous, Chief Dan George had gravitas. He is best remembered for portraying Old Lodge Skins opposite Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man (1970) and for his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), as Lone Watie, opposite Clint Eastwood.

For his role in Little Big Man, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and became the first Indigenous actor to do so.

Robbie Burns. 1759 - 1796

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.

His nationalism, his internationalism and his radicalism never wavered. He believed constantly and passionately in Scotland, in the ‘brotherhood of man’ and in the rights of the ordinary man.

In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

Norma Jenckes. 1943 – 2022

A well-known professor, poet and playwright she was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Norma was a graduate of St. Francis Xavier Academy, Providence, where she went on to be an educator. She was a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she received her PhD. Norma was a former associate professor at Bryant University; professor emerita at the University of Cincinnati and professor of English at the University of Cincinnati until retiring in 2014.

Sharon Stevenson. 1946 – 1978

Sharon Stevenson was an emerging poet and a political activist who participated in the anti-Viet Nam war movement and for women’s rights. She struggled with metal health issues all her life and her poetry reflected that struggle. Sharon was my sister-in law and her poem is included here to help recognize her life’s work.

Bertolt Brecht. 1898 – 1956

Bertolt Brecht was a playwright and poet who wrote Mother Courage, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle. In 1933 the Nazis burnt his books and he left to the U.S. where he stayed until 1947. He then returned to Germany and founded the Berlin Ensemble theatre which he led until his death in 1956.

Taras Shevchenko. 1814 – 1861

Taras Shevchenko, the national bard of Ukraine, is a founder of modern Ukrainian literature and language. A champion of people’s freedom, with his poetry, he played a leading role in the formation of the Ukrainian national identity and consciousness. Political and revolutionary, his poems which speak to the struggles of all oppressed peoples have been translated into over 100 languages.