Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Book Club: My Top 7 Takeaways from Good Poems by Garrison Keillor

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

“Can you recommend a book for…?” “What are you reading right now?” “What are your favorite books?” I get asked those types of questions a lot and, as an avid reader and all-around bibliophile, I’m always happy to oblige. I also like to encourage people to read as much as possible because knowledge benefits you much like compound interest. The more you learn, the more you know; the more you know, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more opportunities you have to succeed. On the flip side, I also believe there’s little hope for people who aren’t perpetual learners. Life is overwhelmingly complex and chaotic, and it slowly suffocates and devours the lazy and ignorant. So, if you’re a bookworm on the lookout for good reads, or if you’d like to get into the habit of reading, this book club for you. The idea here is simple: Every month, I’ll share a book that I’ve particularly liked, why I liked it, and several of my key takeaways from it. I’ll also keep things short and sweet so you can quickly decide whether the book is likely to be up your alley or not. Alright, let’s get to the takeaways. --- Mentioned on The Show: Books by Mike Matthews: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/ The Simple System I Use to Find, Choose, Read, and Remember Great Books (Blog Post): https://legionathletics.com/the-simple-system-i-use-to-find-choose-read-and-remember-great-books/ The Simple System I Use to Find, Choose, Read, and Remember Great Books (Podcast): https://anchor.fm/muscleforlife/episodes/The-Simple-System-I-Use-to-Find--Choose--Read--and-Remember-Great-Books-eei5kr --- Want to be notified when my next book recommendation goes live? Hop on my email list and you’ll get each new installment delivered directly to your inbox. Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, it's another episode of Muscle for Life. Welcome, welcome. I am your host, Mike Matthews, and thank you for joining me today to learn about a book that I liked. Now, why am I doing an episode about books that I like? Well, I often get asked for book recommendation. Many people want to know what my favorite books are on various topics. They want to know what books I'm reading right now or what books I've read recently and which

ones I've liked, as well as my all-time favorite books, again, on various topics or in various genres. And as an avid reader and all-around bibliophile, I am always happy to oblige. I also like to encourage people to read as much as possible because knowledge benefits you much like compound interest because the more you learn, the more you know, the more you know, the more you can do, and the more you can do, the more opportunities you have to succeed. Now on the flip side, I really do believe that there is little hope for people who are not perpetual learners. Life is overwhelmingly complex and chaotic, and it slowly suffocates and devours the lazy and ignorant. So if you're a bookworm on the lookout for new good stuff to read, or if you would just like to get into the habit of

reading, then this episode is for you. And this series of episodes is for you. I post one every four to six weeks or so. And the idea behind the series is very simple. I share books that I have particularly liked. I explain why I liked them. And I share several of my key takeaways from the books. Usually it's five, sometimes it's three, as well as some of my own thoughts on those key takeaways. Also, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my health and fitness books, including the number one bestselling weightlifting books for men and women in the world, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, as well as the leading flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped

thousands of people build their best body ever. And you can find them on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in select Barnes & Noble stores. And I should also mention that you can get any of the audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account. And this is a great way to make those pockets of downtime like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning more interesting, entertaining, and productive. And so if you want to take Audible up on this offer, and if you want to get one of my audiobooks for free, just go to www.buylegion.com and sign up for your account. So again, if you appreciate my work, and if you want to see more of it, and if you want to learn time-proven and evidence-based strategies for losing fat, building muscle, and getting healthy, and strategies that work for anyone and everyone,

regardless of age or circumstances, please do consider picking up one of my best-selling books, Bigger Leaner Stronger for Men, Thinner Leaner Stronger for Women, and The Shredded Chef for my favorite fitness-friendly recipes. Okay, let's get to this episode's featured book, which is Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. And I haven't read much poetry since high school, and I didn't particularly dig on it then, but as a professional, and I'll put that in scare quotes, professional scribbler, I've come to appreciate verse. And I believe that reading it and copybooking it in particular, that's a big tip for any other writers out there. Copybooking works. And so anyway, I believe that reading and copybooking poetry has helped me improve my writing and my creative thinking. Specifically,

poetry can be aesthetically pleasing regardless of the message through its many potential patterns of rhythm and sound. And to get an idea of how intricate and how diverse these systems are, check out the book, The Book of Forms by Louis Putnam Turco, because skill in the use of such forms can greatly enhance the appeal of any writing. And what's particularly interesting is these forms work at a subconscious level. Words are just more interesting when they're structured in certain ways. Poetry also often involves describing a compelling story or idea in very few words, which really is the essence of good writing. At least half of effective editing, for example, is just trimming and clarifying your words. And that is doubly so with poetry, where every word has a job to do. Every

word must be weighed and every excess and every impurity must be eliminated. Now, if you scrutinize your writing in the same way, your drafts will improve. Poetry is also pure pathos, which is an appeal to emotion, which I believe is the toughest to learn, but also the most powerful of the three pillars of classical rhetoric, with the other two being ethos, authority, or credibility, and logos, facts, and logic. I know that the better I can stir my reader's emotions, the more effective my communication will be regardless of what I'm talking about. And poetry definitely hones that skill. Poetry can be challenging to read as well, almost like puzzle solving, which sharpens your mind. And it also exercises your ability to think laterally, which is a

crucial element of the creative process and something that any of us doing any sort of creative work can always use more of and get better at. And if you don't think that's in you, if you don't think you have a you, if you don't think you have a creative streak in you, I disagree. I think everybody does. And I think tapping into that is really just a matter of practice. I think that if you act like an idea person, you will eventually become one. And for me, reading poetry definitely inspires me to ideate, to just come up with ideas. And my last thought on the immediate value, to me at least, of poetry is it is a treasure trove of exotic and stimulating figures of speech, which can add brilliant colors to otherwise monochromatic prose. See what I did there? Well-turned metaphors and well-timed metaphors, as well as similes and analogies, are particularly powerful in this regard, and poetry is rich with them.

And all of that is why I include poetry in my simple system I use for finding, choosing, reading, and remembering books, which you can learn about over at legionathletics.com. Just search for reading books and an article will pop up. I think I recorded a podcast on that as well. So you can probably search for, let's see, simple system I use or remember great books. If you search either of those phrases, it should come up. Now, as for the book I am reviewing here in this episode, we have Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. And I really liked it because it contains a collection of this guy's favorite poems from the past and present from a multitude of poets. And there's really something here for everyone, including greenhorns like me.

Now, usually book club podcasts contain my key takeaways from the book as well as my thoughts on them. But in this case, I'm just going to share several of my favorite poems from the book and let you come to your own conclusions about them and about the book itself. If you don't like any of the poems that I share here, you actually may still like the book because we may just have a different taste in poems. There were plenty of poems in the book I didn't really like. I thought many were okay. I thought several were very good, and I thought quite a few were not so good. But regardless, there are many poems in this book. It is a rich and abundant lyrical buffet. So if you have any interest in poetry, I'm sure you're going to find some stuff in here to like. Okay, let's get to the

first poem, which is Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The shades of night were falling fast as through an alpine village passed. A youth who bore mid snow and ice, a banner with the strange device, Excelsior. His brow was sad, his eye beneath, flashed like a falchion from its sheath, and like a silver clarion rung the accents of that unknown tongue. Excelsior. In happy homes he saw the light of household fires gleam warm and bright. Above the spectral glaciers shone, and from his lips escaped a groan. Excelsior! Try not the past, the old man said. Dark lowers the tempest overhead. The roaring torrent is deep and wide, and loud that clarion voice replied. Excelsior! O stay, the maiden said, and rest thy weary head upon this breast. A tear stood in his bright blue eye, but still he answered with a sigh, Excelsior. Beware the pine tree's

withered branch, beware the awful avalanche. This was the peasant's last good night, a voice replied, far up the height, Excelsior. At break of day, as heavenward, the pious monks of St. Bernard uttered the oft-repeated prayer, a voice cried through the startled air, Excelsior. A traveler by the faithful hound, half buried in the snow, was found, still grasping in his hand of ice That banner with the strange device, Excelsior. There in the twilight, cold and gray, Lifeless but beautiful he lay. And from the sky, serene and far, A voice fell like a falling star, Excelsior. Okay, here is poem number two, which is Otherwise by Jane Kenyon.

I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birchwood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls and planned another day just like this day. But one day I know it will be otherwise. Okay, poem number three, which is a portion of a longer poem by Walt Whitman called Song of Myself. And this part comes from section 20. I know I am deathless. I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by the carpenter's

compass. I know I shall not pass like a child's carlicue cut with a burnt stick at night. I know I am august. I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood. I see that the elementary laws never apologize. I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by, after all. I exist as I am. That is enough. If no other in the world be aware, I sit content. And if each and all be aware, I sit content. One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself. And whether I come to my own today or in 10,000 or 10 million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait. And that's it for that one. Let's move on to number four, which is Egg by C.G. Hanslasek. I'm scrambling an egg for my daughter. Why are you always whistling, she asks.

Because I'm happy, and it's true. Though it stuns me to say it aloud, there was a time when I wouldn't have seen it as my future. It's partly a matter of who is there to eat the egg. The self fallen out of love with itself through the tedium of familiarity. Or this little self, so curious, so hungry, who emerged from the woman I love. A woman who loves me in a way I've come to think I deserve, now that it arrives from outside me. Everything changes, we're told, and now the changes are everywhere. The house with its morning light that fills me like a revelation. The yard with its trees that cast a bit more shade each summer.

The love of a woman that both is and isn't confounding. And the love of this clamor of questions at my waist. Clamor of questions, you clamor of answers. Here's your egg. Moving on to poem number five, Leisure, by William Henry Davies. What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see when woods we pass where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see in broad daylight streams full of stars

like skies at night. No time to turn at beauty's glance and watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this is, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my health and fitness books, including the number one best-selling weightlifting books for men and women in the world, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, as well as the leading flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Poem number six is In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day by X.J. Kennedy. In a prominent bar in Secaucus one day, Rose a lady in skunk with a top-heavy sway,

Raised a knobby red finger, all turned from their beer, While with eyes bright as snow-crust, she sang high and clear. Now who of you'd think from an eye-load of me, That once I was a lady as proud as could be? Oh, I'd never sit down by a tumble-down drunk, If it wasn't, my dears, for the high cost of junk. All the gents used to swear that the white of my calf Beat the down of the swan by a length and a half. In the kerchief of linen I caught to my nose.

Ah, there never fell snot, but a little gold rose. I had seven gold teeth and a toothpick of gold. My Virginia cheroot was a leaf of it rolled. And I'd light it each time with a thousand in cash. Why, the bums used to fight if I flicked them in ash. Once the toast of the Biltmore, the bell of the Taft. I would drink bottle beer at the Drake, never draft. And dine at the Astor on Salisbury Steak with a clean tablecloth for each bite I did take. In a car like the Roxy, I'd roll to the track,

a steel guitar trio, a bar in the back, and the wheels made no noise, they turned ever so fast. Still, it took you ten minutes to see me go past. When the horses bowed down to me that I might choose, I bet on them all, for I hated to lose. Now I'm saddled each night for my butter and eggs, and the broken threads race down the back of my legs. Let you hold in mind, girls, that your beauty must pass, like a lovely white clover that rusts with its grass. Keep your bottoms off barstools and marry you young, or be left an old barrel with many a bung. For when time takes you out for a spin in his car, you'll be hard-pressed to stop him from going too far, and be left by the roadside for all your good deeds, two toadstools for tits and a face full of weeds. All the house

raised a cheer, but the man at the bar made a phone call and up pulled a red patrol car. And she blew us a kiss as they copped her away from that prominent bar in Secaucus NJ. Okay, the seventh and final poem I want to share with you, which is Birthday Card to My Mother by Philip Appelman. The toughness indoor people have, the will to brave confusion in mohair sofas, crocheted doilies, challenging in every tidy corner some bit of the outdoor drift and sag, the tenacity in 40 quarts of cherries up for winter, gallon churns of sorbet at family reunions, fifty thousand suppers cleared away, the tempering of rentmen at the front door, hanging on, light bills overdue, sons off to war or buried, daughters taking on the names of

strangers. You have to come through the years of wheelchairs, loneliness, a generation of pain, knotting the joints like ancient apple trees. You always knew this was no world to be weak in, where best friends wither to old phone numbers in far-off towns, where the sting of children is always sharper than serpent's teeth, where love itself goes shifting and slipping away to shadows. You have survived it all, come through wreckage and triumph hard at the center, but spreading gentleness around you, spreading. Gentleness around you. Nowhere by your bright hearth has the dust of bitterness lain unswept. Today, thinking back, thinking ahead, to other birthdays, I lean upon your courage and sign this card, as always, with love. All right, friends, that's it for this episode. I hope you liked it. And if you're into

poetry and you have some recommendations for me, shoot me an email, mikeatmuscleforlife.com, and let me know what you think I should check out. Also, make sure to tune in next week because I have some great episodes in store for you. I have a Motivation Monday episode on grit, how to have more grit. I have an episode coming on how much exercise we should be doing to optimize our health. I have another installment of the best of muscle for life coming as well as an interview I did with Pat Flynn on the idea, the controversial idea that everyone is fundamentally equal and therefore deserves to be materially equal and deserves to be equal in other ways as well. All right, well, that's it for today's episode. I

hope you found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, could you please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes or wherever you are listening from? Because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show, they also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and whatever app you're using to listen, and you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that I

have coming. And last, if you didn't like something about the show then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscle for life.com and share your thoughts let me know how you think i could do this better i read every email myself and i'm always looking for constructive feedback all right thanks again for listening to this episode and i hope to hear from you soon