Poems, Guitar and Meditations

Words and Music, November 2020

It's Wednesday and it's looking like we might know some things about the next four years.

Two days from the election...or will it be the beginning of the limbo of unknown results?

Sleep is necessary. Without it, we are off-balance and foggy.

No words needed this time.

Thoughts on dealing with our amygdalas, parenting and our views of others.

Thoughts while waiting in a line of cars to redeem nine months worth of aluminum cans (mostly sparkling water).

An audio version of a recent Medium post on the NBA Playoffs and the Boston Celtics

Vocals and guitar.

Casio and voice and 3 year-old accompaniment with ukelele.

School without a school. Digging for gratitude.

Same as title.

How long until November? A few weeks? A year? It's all relative with time these days. And more guitar.

Thanks, Luke!

Three new melodies. One feels like it might turn into a song given more attention.

More breathing.

An audio version of a short meditation on reality and the self, titled "Gone" followed by three short musical tracks.

Playing a new steel drum, called a tongue drum. Calming.

Space Oddity, the first two parts.

Audio versions of poems from the last month.

A walking meditation on the impossibility of finding balance during these days.

A slowed down version of Guns n Roses' "Patience" and Wilco's "My Darling"

Also available with more songs as an album. jonahhall.bandcamp.com. These poems and instrumental piano pieces were written and recorded between March and May, 2020. Sometimes we need words to keep us going. I do.

"Another Week" "Whose Turn" "Lemons" and " Trying"

A song that came out of RH's encounter with a bee, and more guitar instrumentals.

Piano and an audio poem about how we arrived here.

One day at a time.

Piano and synth.

With all this sheltering-in-place and anxiety in the air, quieting your mind becomes even more necessary.

Meditating on staying balanced in an unbalanced tilt-a-whirl world.

Maybe words will be added later. Maybe not.

Instrumentals with a sustain pedal for times when you might notice the walls a bit too often.

Short guitar instrumentals for relaxation or sleep.

Fun with Kalimba

Thinking about breathing, attention, phones, reading, politics, and driving. Also, breathing.

NBA fans and general citizens of the world call in to discuss their memories .

Please enjoy this first episode of what might become a 10-epislde journey into the experience of one hobbled British man in California at a silent retreat. Please share it with anyone who has even a mild senae of humor.

Elderly hoops aficionado Saul J Morgenstern discusses the Clippers and Sixers and the winter slog portion of the NBA season.

Piano repetitions and improvisations.

Elderly hoops aficionado Saul j Morgenstern discusses the trends of the NBA season and responds to callers from around the globe.

This was a recently publishee short essay, but ai enjoyed the Text-to-Speech audio voice Peter on www.naturalreaders.com, which I showed in class tonight, so I thought I'd have Peter read this essay for your audio pleasure.

This epispde of Hoops Talk with Saul! gets an assist from Boston‐based voice artist Andy Robichaud.

Elderly Hoops aficionado Saul Morgenstern talks about the upcoming NBA season with his elderly cousin, his nephew and a stranger from Orlando named Rico.

Elderly NBA aficionado Saul J Morgenstern reminisces about his fantasy hoops history, dating back to 1955.

Elderly hoops aficionado Saul J. Morgenstern takes calls from NBA fans!

Four instrumental tracks.

Thoughts on the difference a year makes. Parenting a 2 yr old compared with parenting a 1 yr old. Also, after the rain.

Driving south toward San Diego, trying not to lose our minds.

On dropping RH at new preschool and accepting and improvising.

An audio version of a short essay I wrote for Splice Today about friendship, illness and baseball.

A brief meditation on clearing the wilderness and appreciating the smell of roses.

Thanks to Luke for edits on My Darling.

Walk uphill with one lazy dog, one older dog, and a 2 yr old.

Why not take something you've written and make a Scottish male robot voice say it out loud? Here are your Top 20 2019 NBA Free-Agents and their destinations.

She's been in love with buses for about 6 months now. About time we boarded one and headed to the park.

99 Degrees. Plants in danger. Stay inside. Celebrate air conditioning.

Daily life changes with a stomach flu that lasts for 10 days.

Two recent poems. Driving in the rain, protesting midday naps, preparing for near future, jobs, preschool, coping with time.

The strangest thing happened last night, while teaching.

This is a collection of more experimental recordings. The last one is from a friend who took a poem I recorded and reimagined it with a vocoder. Thanks, Luke!

A brief reflection on dealing with the anxiety of others and then a chime, and some toddler and guitar sounds.

Guitar lines.

Meditations with Jonah, Ep 23 (Animal Sounds and Strums)

Some days are not so smooth or wonderful...this Tuesday was one of those.

Piano wanderings with reverb. 

Solo piano wanderings.

This episode begins with an audio version of "Alexa is Killing Us" a story I wrote recently for Splice Today, about humans, technology, politics and psychology. It continues with a reflection on my birthday and parenting and pre-school futures. It concludes with two instrumental guitar tracks. Enjoy.

Everyone is going through something. This week, we're dealing with atmospheric inundation, molar pain, and sleep-deprivation. And we've made it to Friday. Happy weekend.

Young Old Man, Winter Walk. Days, Rain Drive.

Guitar and falsetto: Jonah. Backing vocals: Rebelle Harmony

Two poems on the abstraction of time.

Ep 19: The Self and The Weeds.

This episode is a compilation of 9 previously published episodes, and several musical interludes. If you enjoy this, please consider my book of collected poems: The Spirit In: Poems from the First Year of Fatherhood. $4 e-book, $10 paperback. http://www.blurb.com/b/8760343-the-spirit-in-poems-from-the-first-year-of-fatherh In addition, you can support the podcast via Anchor (as low as $1 per month)  or one-time only directly via PayPal. Thanks for listening. Keep breathing.

Sometimes all your ears need is rain.

Backing vocals by RH

Tapping on doors and ovens.

This is a three chord sequence I played a lot when I was teaching myself the basics. Funny how it puts me right back in 2002.

New Year, Vacation Cold

4 minutes of Early Morning Breathing with Toddler.

Breathing deliberately keeps us calm, but sometimes the air ia filled with harmful particles from horrific fires.

Sometimes the ball is lost for ten minutes, sometimes the ball is lost forever.

Sometimes, you just make it through to Friday.

5 minutes on spending 10 minutes meditation. Meta-meditation.

5 minutes in the car.

5 minutes of bliss with panting dogs.

5 minutes of early morning bliss with toddler.

5-minutes of bliss while you sit in gridlock.

Enjoy a 5-minute meditation in the bathtub.

A 5-minute meditation to cleanse your mind from all pollutants.

Jazz chords with toddler background flourishes.

The sun wanders.

Playing with Reverb.

Piano, looped with reverb.

Thursday morning rain nap (piano)

Jazz Guitar chord experiments

"Stretch"

hamonics • hamonics • harmonics

BabaJaba Sounds

"Solitude's Glory"

"Moment of Light" • "Moment of Light" (no background track)

"January's End"

"Cascading (with RH)"

"Bluster" \u2022 "88th Percentile" \u2022 "Observer in the Cart" \u2022 "High Chair" \u2022 "At the Ready" \u2022 "Independence Night"

"Required Imaginings" (What If?) • "Floating Fur" • "Patience" • "Uncle Mark" (Two Coasts) • "Overtaken" • "Midday Protest"

"Wobble" • "Hoop Women" • "Truth, In Pure Form" • "Floods, Fire & Chaos: A Love Poem"

"Tiny Dresses" • "Between" • "Miles Beneath" • "New Hands"

"Provisions" • "A Day's Plans" • "Clear Signals" • "Chapter's End"

"Baseball Bath" • "Carried In, Carried Out" • "Therapist Not Available"

"Futureyear" • "No Poem Number One" • "Monday" • "Sleeping Alone" (Eight Weeks)

"Boumie at Middle Age" • "August" (Seven Weeks) • "Unlocked" • "The Spirit In" (An Open Audience)

"Fog Drive" • "The Battle" (Three Types of Tears) • "Part Universe" (Six Weeks)

"It Becomes Real" (Four Weeks) • "Beginning of Tears" (Five Weeks) • "Ride Home With the Girls"

Introducing: The Spirit In, "One Week In" • "Learning How to Sleep" (Two Weeks) • "Visitation" (Three Weeks)