Most of my creative journeys begin with an essay — a space where I explore ideas, questions, and emotions. From there, the words often grow into podcast episodes, songs, and videos, each medium adding its own voice to the story. It’s a process of transformation, where a single spark of thought can unfold into a rich, multi-layered experience.
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My latest thoughts
- The Still, Sad Music: Wordsworth, King Charles III and the Search for HarmonyIn this second contribution to my Musical Poetry series linking public domain poetry with King Charles III’s concept of Harmony, I turn to one of the great poems of English literature: William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” Written in 1798, Wordsworth’s poem is about nature, memory,… Read more: The Still, Sad Music: Wordsworth, King Charles III and the Search for Harmony
- Each and All – Emerson’s Song of HarmonyWhat does harmony really mean? Not harmony only as a musical idea, but harmony as a way of seeing life: the hidden connection between people, nature, memory, beauty, and the world around us. This new episode of Musical Poetry begins a series on harmony, inspired in part by the documentary… Read more: Each and All – Emerson’s Song of Harmony
- The Song of the Shirt — A Labour Day Reflection on Work, Dignity, and the FutureThis Labour Day, I found myself returning to a poem written more than 180 years ago. The Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood was first published in 1843. It tells the story of a woman sewing shirts in poverty, her life worn down not by a single dramatic event,… Read more: The Song of the Shirt — A Labour Day Reflection on Work, Dignity, and the Future
- She Walks in Beauty (A Musical Interpretation of Byron)A quiet kind of love. In this episode of Musical Poetry, Michael Appelt brings Lord Byron’s timeless poem “She Walks in Beauty” into a new space, a reflective, 90s-inspired ballad shaped by restraint, warmth, and emotional honesty. Written in 1814, when Byron was just 26, the poem captures a fleeting… Read more: She Walks in Beauty (A Musical Interpretation of Byron)
- Spring Song by Paul Laurence DunbarA light returns. In this episode of Musical Poetry, we bring Spring Song by Paul Laurence Dunbar into a new space—carried by a warm jazz big band arrangement that lets the poem breathe, swing, and gently unfold. Written in the early years of Dunbar’s career in the 1890s, Spring Song… Read more: Spring Song by Paul Laurence Dunbar
- We Didn’t … you loved anyway.Before anything was written, there was a voice that stayed. Not above. With. Breath given. A world without distance. And one instruction simple enough to lose: love. Love what made you. Love what stands next to you. We didn’t. We chose what shines. We chose what wins. We chose ourselves.… Read more: We Didn’t … you loved anyway.
- End of the Road (But Not Quite)A few moments before my 60th birthday in February, I wrote something. Not really a poem. Not quite an essay. Something in between. It was shaped by what I was seeing, especially events unfolding in the United States. And if I’m honest, not much has changed for the better since.… Read more: End of the Road (But Not Quite)
- One poem. One dawn. Many languages | A multilingual Haiku on the Middle EastA haiku. Three lines. One moment. In this episode of Musical Poetry, the same poem is spoken across multiple languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Persian. The journey moves toward the Middle East, ending in a quiet Persian stanza where only one word remains: Sahar –… Read more: One poem. One dawn. Many languages | A multilingual Haiku on the Middle East
- on the Nile, before the lockIn this episode of Musical Poetry, Michael Appelt reflects on one of the most powerful travel experiences of his life: one unforgettable week in Egypt. From the Pyramids of Giza and the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), to the monumental temples of Abu Simbel near Aswan, relocated in a… Read more: on the Nile, before the lock
- Nothing beside remainsWhen power grows impatient with restraint, poetry remembers. This episode of Musical Poetry brings together three voices from three centuries in a single musical conversation: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in the shadow of Napoleon’s fall, reflecting on power after history has passed judgment. The Second Coming by W.… Read more: Nothing beside remains
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Michael Appelt 