Poetry Reading #5 Waldend; or, Life in the Anthropocene Woods.
102 views · Published 1 August 2018 · 1:13 · Indexed 21 September 2026
Channel: Larry Richardson · 2018 · Education
What would Henry David Thoreau — the mid-19th century author of the American literary classic "Walden; or, Life in the Woods.” — think if he were alive today? If you recall, Thoreau is the Harvard-educated, free-thinker who built a simple one room cabin on the shore of Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts, and lived there for two years to see how living simply and close to Nature would affect him. In "Walden," he recounts the many ways he found living without the trappings of civilization and observing Nature at his doorstep more spiritually fulfilling than living in town and communing with men and women who were focused, in his opinion, on trivialities instead of searching for truth in themselves and the world around them. He also worried that the Industrial Revolution was a destructive force for Mankind and Nature. Lawrence Stanley Richardson, Jr., a modern day journalist, writer and poet, pondered that question when he wrote "Waldend; or, Life in the Anthropocene Woods" -- a collection of 70 poems and original photographs now available in Kindle e-book format or in print on Amazon.com. This video is part of a series of eight featuring Richardson reading his poems to original videos. The readings are intended to give you an idea of what you'll find if you purchase "Waldend." This edition features the poems "Virtual Death," "Nivana Desire" and "Eternal Monuments." As you can probably tell, Richardson, who has tent camped and hiked from coast-to-coast for decades, has reached the conclusion that we're witnessing the end game of problems Thoreau identified way back in his day, mainly humankind's decline due to our self-imposed separation from Nature and rapid industrialization that has pressed Mother Nature's back to the wall. Will our species survive? Not if we don't change our ways -- and fast.
