A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 20: “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a lyrical and persuasive Romantic poem that argues—quite charmingly—that love is not just a personal desire but a natural law of the universe. Shelley reminds us that everything in nature seeks union: rivers mingle with oceans, winds meet in the sky, and mountains lean toward each other. If the cosmos is built on connection, why should two people be any different?

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• how Shelley uses natural imagery as rhetorical persuasion,

• why the Romantics saw nature as a reflection of human emotion,

• and how the poem’s final question distills its flirtation into a single, memorable moment.

Originally published: 1819

Approx. runtime: 6 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod

A classic radio Western from the golden age — plus bonus commentary and trivia after the show.

Have Gun, Will Travel – “Three Bells to Perdido” (1958)

Step back into the golden age of radio with Have Gun, Will Travel, the philosophical Western centered on Paladin—a gun-for-hire whose work is governed as much by moral code as by skill with a weapon. In this 1958 episode, “Three Bells to Perdido,” timing and inevitability shape a tense situation, as choices narrow and the moment for action draws closer.

After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including the episode’s use of inevitability as moral tension, how Have Gun, Will Travel distinguished itself from traditional Westerns, and why the series worked especially well in radio form.

Originally aired: 1958
Approx. runtime: 28 minutes

A daily love poem for February — with gentle commentary after each reading.

February Love Poem Series – Day 19: “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong

Welcome to The Porcupine Presents and our month-long celebration of love in all its forms.
Each day of February, we bring you a new poem — romantic, bittersweet, playful, or aching — followed by a brief reflection to deepen your listening experience.

Today’s poem is “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong, a raw, intimate piece written as a letter from a future self to a younger, hurting one. It explores trauma, identity, self-forgiveness, and the long journey toward learning to inhabit your own name — and your own body — with tenderness.

After the poem, stay tuned for a short commentary discussing

• why Vuong writes to himself in the second person,

• how the poem’s fragmented structure mirrors the experience of trauma and healing,

• and what it means to promise oneself a future where self-love is finally possible.

Originally published: 2015

Approx. runtime: 6:30 minutes

Music: “A Very Brady Special” by Kevin MacLeod