Stories. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by Salinger

If you don't know J.D. Salinger, listen to this story. It's a good way to start - it records a key moment in his life and to understand his work. If you already know him, and enjoy his literature, you'll love this story. It's lifelike - daily, undaily, warm and softly funny, very sweet, endlessly sad and tragic.

Check out the Talking People webpage dedicated to Salinger.

Poems. "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

Welcome to the Talking People Podcast, an experimental project of talkingpeople.net. We're reaching the 50 subscriptions so thanks for that! We're happy to be of use!

Listen to the second poem we wanted to read, "Wild Geese", by Mary Oliver, from her book "Dreawork". Hope you enjoy it!

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

If you love literature, you are welcome to visit the Literature section at Talking People.If you have comments on the audio quality of the TP episodes, please post under each episode. Thanks so much!

Useful Classroom Language 01

I put together some useful language for grammar teams. Send in your sentences, so that we can expand this list. I am going to read each sentence twice, so you can listen first and then join me saying the sentence!

You can listen here, and you can read the sentences in the audio here, at the TP website.