In this episode of Verse & Tales, we step onto the shores of myth and memory to explore the haunting legend of the Selkie — beings caught between land and sea, love and freedom.

Through this tale, we are asked a timeless question:
 can love ever truly exist where there is captivity?

Tonight’s story is an exclusive excerpt from a novel currently being penned by Sarah Turpin, who not only offers us a glimpse into her world, but lends her own voice to guide us through it.

Her work captures the quiet sorrow and enduring pull of the sea — a reminder that what we try to hold too tightly may one day slip beyond our grasp.

You can find more of Sarah’s work here:
 Instagram: @sarahturpinillustrator

So come, draw closer to the fire…

and listen carefully — for the tide is always calling.”

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

In every age, mankind finds something new to fear, something new to believe in — dragons in the dark, madness in the moonlight, or the quiet anxieties of the modern world. The superstition changes… but the instinct does not.

Tonight, I step aside and welcome a new voice to the hearth.

All of tonight’s works have been written and performed by Simon Satori of Hi-Reciprocity — a collection of haunting, thought-provoking pieces that explore fear, belief, mortality, and the strange edges of the human mind.

Tonight’s works include:
• Instructions for Avoiding Ghosts (1:40)
• Hunting Dragons (2:50)
• Unsure Myself (6:25)
• And the Dead Have Got to Live Somewhere (7:35)
• Progress Within the Program (9:50)
• In Admiration of Meta Physical Mechanics (11:05)
• Red Sky Descending (13:40)
• See No Evil (15:00)

More of Simon’s work can be found here:

Facebook: Hi-Reciprocity

https://hi-reciprocity.bandcamp.com/

So come… draw closer to the fire, and listen well.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Rather than a tale told by the fire, I'm joined by a fellow poet, storyteller, and co-creator Joanna Vale for an intimate conversation exploring the inspiration behind her latest season — a collection of stories and poems shaped by the lessons of nature.

Together, we discuss the ideas hidden beneath each piece: what rivers remember, what owls witness, and what the natural world can teach us about ourselves if we are willing to truly look. 

From shifting perspectives to the quiet wisdom found in the wild places of the world, this episode offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain into the creative process itself.

So draw closer to the hearth… and join us for an evening of reflection, inspiration, and conversation beside the fire. 🔥

If you would like to support the vital work with Nightingales please use the link below:

https://www.singingwithnightingales.co.uk

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

How often do we mistake our own perspective… for truth?

How often do we look… and believe we have seen?

Tonight’s episode invites us… to loosen that certainty…
 to step beyond ourselves…
 and to inhabit… something other.

In Beltane Fire and other poems… Joanna Vale brings a collection that asks not that we observe the world differently…
but that we become it…

To feel the hunger of the owl…
 to move with the quiet persistence of the river…
 to exist, if only for a moment… outside the boundaries of our own mind.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

How often do we pass by the ordinary…
 without ever truly seeing it?

In a world that moves ever faster, we grow accustomed to glancing rather than looking…
 to judging rather than understanding.
 And yet—what if the dull, the dark, the unremarkable…
 were only waiting for us to look again?

Tonight, by the fire, we turn to a tale from the Lenape people…
 a story of sacrifice, transformation, and quiet heroism.

This is Rainbow Crow—a legend that asks us not only to listen…
but to see.

To look deeper.
To question what we think we know.
And perhaps… to recognise that what appears broken or plain…
may in truth be something far more extraordinary.

So draw closer to the hearth…
 and let us begin.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Tonight, we leave the hearth behind… and carry the fire out into the woods.

In this episode of Verse and Tales, we explore Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats — a poem that captures a fleeting but wonderous moment of beauty… Where the weight of life is set aside, and something deeper takes hold.

As the nightingale sings, Keats is drawn into a kaleidoscope of emotions, from wonder, despair and even the temptation of death.

This episode is a meditation on presence in the moment, and the quiet tragedy of always preparing to live, but failing to notice time slipping away, the gentle invitation to stop, listen, and exist fully.

So join me… by the fire… beneath the trees…

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Tonight, by the fire, we turn to a tale as old as memory itself — How the Nightingale got its song.

There is an old story, its origins long forgotten, that tells how the nightingale came by its voice — not through grandeur, nor beauty of form, but through something far rarer… something placed deep within.

In this episode, we explore the quiet truth that worth is not always seen, and that what appears plain may yet hold something extraordinary. A reflection on hidden depths, on the danger of judging too quickly, and on the small, golden gifts that reside within us all — waiting only to be heard.

So come, draw closer to the fire…
 and listen.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

“If you prick us, do we not bleed?
 If you poison us, do we not die?
 And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

In this final By the Hearth episode of Verse & Tales, we reflect upon a season shaped by exile, memory, and the quiet cost of survival.

From soldiers scarred by winter battlefields, to hollow men wandering through the echoes of trauma…
 From those cast out by society, to children torn from the only home they have ever known…

This has been a journey through displacement — and the human need to belong.

Through the words of William Shakespeare and original works, we have explored sorrow, anger, and the search for meaning in a world that can so easily turn its back.

Yet this story does not belong to one people alone.

It is a story repeated throughout history…
 and, perhaps, one that is never as far from us as we might hope.

Tonight, we gather by the fire not only to reflect —
 but to ask what it truly means to see one another as human.

Come… join me by the hearth.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

To bring that world closer, I made use of a set of restored wax recordings belonging to a Mr Jonathan Hargreaves, a merchant of the area.

What you are about to hear… are those recordings.

If you’d like to move through them, you can use the following time markers:

Prospect of Whitby — 0:49
Tunnel under the Thames  — 2:34
Execution Dock — 4:39
The Workhouse — 8:19
The silent women of London — 11:15
Turks Head Beer Shop — 13:43
Tobacco Docks — 16:16
Bluefields Gate Rookery — 19:59
Wilton’s Music Hall, (Mary Lloyd) — 24:35

Or… simply sit back, and let the past speak.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

In this episode of Verse & Tales, we explore exile, belonging, and the quiet loneliness carried by those who find themselves without a place to call home.

Our journey moves through poetry and reflection — from silence, to sorrow, to the bitter taste of frustration.

Alongside Sonnet 97 by William Shakespeare, we encounter original works that explore wandering souls, displacement, and the quiet tragedy of children sent away from home.

Together these voices give shape to exile, memory, and the enduring search for belonging.

Come… join me by the hearth.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Yet it is not only soldiers who carry those battles with them. For many who flee the chaos, the war follows close behind — across oceans, across borders, and into the uneasy memories of those who receive them.

Tonight, we take our fire to the sea, to visit a place upon the coast shaped by two haunting stories.

Drawing together the moral world of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin and the stark fable of The Island by Armin Greder, we journey to an island community that once faced a terrible choice.

Years pass. The island prospers. The memory of what happened fades into story.

And then, during the Festival of Summer, the same choice returns.

What follows is a tale of fear, memory, and the stories societies tell themselves to justify the decisions they make.

Because sometimes the greatest danger a community fears is not the stranger at the gate…

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Tonight, we take our humble flame into the long shadow cast after war.

For as Harry Patch — the last surviving British soldier of the First World War trenches — once said, some battles do not end when the guns fall silent.

This evening we explore what remains when the powerful have finished their games and peace has been declared. What happens to the men who return? What becomes of the spirit after devastation? When the noise stops — what echoes remain?

Tonight’s reading is The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot.

A poem of paralysis. Of spiritual drought. Of men who walk on, but are not whole.
 A meditation on the aftermath — on disillusionment, fragmentation, and the quiet horror of survival.

This is Verse & Tales —
 a journey into the world of story and poetry,
 tales told by the fire.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

In this episode of Verse & Tales, we journey into a frozen landscape gripped by winter.

A Man in Winter is a story of conflict, identity, and consequence. It invites us to look beyond banners and rhetoric — beyond uniforms and ideals — and to consider the person beneath them.

War reduces people to symbols.
This story asks us to see the human being instead.

A tale of survival, transformation, and the quiet moment when belief meets reality.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Tonight, there is no poem.
 No dramatic reading.
 No new tale brought to the fire.

Instead, we pause.

By the Hearth is a reflective interlude — a kind of director’s commentary — where I step out from behind the performance and share the thought process beneath the stories.

Across The Raven, The Monkey’s Paw, The Highwayman, and our reflections on division and liberty, a single thread began to emerge: choice.

Not monsters.
 Not fate.
 Not destiny.

Choice.

In this companion episode, I unpack why I chose those themes, what I believe links them together, and why I think reflection is as important as storytelling itself.

But this fire is not mine alone.

I would love to know your thoughts.

Do you agree with the interpretations?
 Did you see something different?
 What stayed with you once the embers cooled?
 What did you take away from the season?

Join the conversation — comment, message, or share your reflections.

Because stories are only half the journey.

Understanding them… that’s where the real magic lies.

🔥

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

In this episode, we return to The Highwayman — a tale of love, inevitability, and the cruel arithmetic of time.

Some stories only make sense once they are over.
 Once the hoofbeats have faded.
 Once the shot has rung out.
 Once the road lies empty.

Listening now, we know,
 that every promise is already haunted,
 that every choice is already closing doors,
 and that love, however fierce, cannot always outrun fate.

This is a story understood backwards —
 but lived, helplessly, forwards.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Tyranny does not rise with banners or chants — it rises quietly, through silence.

In this episode of By the Hearth, I bring three poems to life:
Invictus, No Land of the Free, and Five Men in a Boat —
exploring power, voice, fear, and the cost of not silence.

This is a spoken word poetry episode about:
 silence in society, personal resilience, freedom, moral courage, and what happens when we stop questioning the stories we are told.

A reflective, emotional podcast for anyone who feels the world is getting louder — 

Come sit by the fire. Listen closely.

And ask yourself: who will speak when it’s your turn?

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Three wishes offered.
Each seems harmless.
Each carries a cost unseen.

In this episode of Dr Embers: Verse & Tale, W. W. Jacobs’ classic short story The Monkey’s Paw is read by the fire — not as a warning, but as a journey into choice, consequence, and the quiet danger of wanting without understanding.

This is a story about decisions made in hope,
 and the price paid when fate is asked to bend.

You are invited to sit by the hearth and listen closely —
 for not every wish reveals its cost at the moment it is made.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Many know The Raven for its gothic beauty and haunting rhythm.
But beneath the darkness lies something even more powerful —
a grief so profound it slowly gives way to madness.

In this episode of Dr Embers: Verse & Tale, you are invited to experience Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven through a different lens —
not as a performance,
but as a journey into loss, obsession, and the fragile edges of the human mind.

Join me by the fire as we walk a familiar path together…
 and discover it may not be as familiar as it seems.

 Listeners are always welcome to share reflections, request stories, or submit original work to be considered for future episodes.
 You can find Dr Embers on Instagram at @Doctor.Embers or reach out directly at doctor.embers@outlook.com

----------

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

This short tale is offered as a quiet introduction to a new world —
 a glimpse of the atmosphere, the voice, and the journey that lies ahead.

Not every story needs to be explained.
 Some are simply meant to be felt.

Consider this a moment by the hearth…
to settle in,
to listen,
to prepare for what is to come.

The first full journey begins this Sunday at 19:00.

I look forward to welcoming you around the flames.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.

Before the stories begin, we must first build the fire.

In this short opening episode, I invite you to step closer to the hearth —
 to discover more about this journey of story and poetry,
 and why some tales are not meant to be rushed… but listened to.

This is not a performance.
 It is an invitation.

A quiet moment to tend the flames together —
 for every great journey must begin with a single thought.

Take a seat by the fire.
 The tales will follow.

The Fire is Lit!

Follow the journey on Instagram: @Doctor.Embers
Speak with me directly: doctor.embers@outlook.com

If something you hear stays with you,
 you are always welcome to share it —
 a thought, a reflection, or even a story of your own.

Join the circle — like and subscribe,
 so you never miss a chance to journey with us.