Cook & Crank: The Cosmic Poetry Podcast

The official podcast of Cosmic Poet Simon Pole. Hear a different poem performed each week in the Cosmic Poet's own authentic, expressive voice, with a short commentary for added enjoyment.

Simon Pole is the author of six volumes of poetry, including the seven-poem epic cycle The Saga of Terminal City. Known for a distinctive brand of writing called Cosmic Poetry, which scales from the everyday to the spiritual heights beyond, Pole is a graduate of Harvard University, and a descendant of early Canadian poet Susie Drury.

He lives in Kingsville, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie.

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Cook & Crank: The Cosmic Poetry Podcast

The Married Life

April 22, 2026 • Simon Pole • Season 1 • Episode 61

0:00 | 4:04

Every family is unhappy in its own way, and the same could be said about marriages. A poem about The Married Life read by Cosmic Poet Simon Pole. From the Poems For Ocean collection.

Website: https://simonpole.ca/

Audio Credits: https://simonpole.ca/pages/audio-credits

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to Cook and Crank, the Cosmic Poetry Podcast. I'm your host, Simon Pole, the Cosmic Poet. The Married Life, that is the title of today's poem. Now not all marriages are happy, some are in fact decidedly oppressive. We will hear the give and take of such a union as overheard by the poet next door. What lesson does our unmarried bachelor take from such a contratomps? This we shall discover after the break. The Married Life I have lived and I have lied where the marginal abide, those that we with spite cast down to the wretched part of town. In a room where ceilings drip, and the paper peals in strips, from the walls which vibrate thin, neighbors I heard holler in. Two they were a man and wife at the denouement of life, arguing with forceful voices, mistakes made in their choices. I rue that I married wrong, muses see, though joyful song and wine and happy face, filled with hope that day of grace. Then he, happy too, I stood, with my kinfolk plain and good, at the altar, blessed stone, and asked for help with our home. Sometimes the Lord does not hear, and even if he is near, says she cannot change the hearts of those at odds from the start. No loyal son gave we birth, or daughter of homely mirth, says he, always the quicker, shy love trade for a bicker. So it was a barren shed we built for our marriage bed, a harvest of bitter fruit, with poverty as their suit. So I listened as it rained, chewing on the wisdom gained, at my desk with pen and sheet, in a room above the street, such wedded bliss sought not I, with in laws to cast an eye on everything that I did, no matter how ablely hid. Let my life be these pages, children left to the ages, though poor I be outwardly, riches blossom inside me. I'm your cosmic poet and host Simon Pohl. Visit the website SimonPole.ca for more cosmic poetry, including the book we've just read from. We'll be back soon on the Cook and Crank Podcast with more recordings from the Poems for Ocean Collection. Until then, remember, poetry is the water of life, though whiskey might be too. Goodbye.