Send us Fan Mail

Max talks about a friend with mental health issues and depression, who would call and spend over 45 minutes talking about his issues, and then he wanted to tell jokes, which was his way of trying to heal himself. He also had a hard time dealing with his daughter's depression and made a joke about it, which caused a falling out. Max discussed his own depression with his friend and his parody poem.

Max reads his poem, I Got Blues, which was inspired by Mississippi Blues and artists like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.

Max also talks about his trips to Arabia Mountain and how healing nature is, and extolls on how great a chef Marco Pierre White is, how he left professional cooking to cook for the people he loves, a similar voyage that Max took. Arabia Mountain inspired his poem, The Mountain.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Max explores Mental Health and Emily Dickinson, her gregarious youth, and she went into seminary, which made her reclusive and did not leave her family's property. Upon her death, she asked her sister to destroy her letters, but her poetry survived.

During her lifetime, only a few of her poems were printed, mostly anonymously, and her writings were published after her death. They have spoken to millions over the decades.

Max reads:

• Because I Could Not Stop for Death
• I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died
• A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
• There's a Certain Slant of Light
• A Bird Came Down the Walk
• The Soul Selects Her Own Society
• I Like to See it Lap in the Miles
• My Life Closed Twice Before it's Close
• Success is Counted, Sweetest
• I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed
• After Great Pain, the Former Feeling Comes
• I Felt a Funeral in My Brain
• I Never Saw a Moore
• Much Madness is Diviness Sense

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send a text

In this episode, Max researches NeuroticPoets.com , and Lord Byron shows right up and talks about his own mental health struggles and how poetry has helped him cope. Apparently, Lord Byron was born with a club foot, and a girl that he was interested in called him, "That lame boy," which was very hurtful. His poetry lays his soul bare.

His life was layered and brief - he died at 36 years old but left behind a treasure trove of poetry. Max reads:

• She Walks in Beauty,
• So We'll Go No More a Roving
• When We Two Parted
• There was a Sound of Rivelry by Night

These are reflective, powerful poems, so let us know what you think. Thanks for listening.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send a text

Join Max as he looks at the magical imagination of his daughter, Amber Grimm, and her stories, The Moon Follows Boo, in which a little cat named Boo loses his way at night but gets help from the Moon, who guides Boo back home, and we find out that the moon sometimes feels lonely, lighting the night for the world to see.

The next story is about Polly the Polite Possum and how she tries to have a nice tea party for her friends in the forest. But it's interrupted by a couple of raccoons named Bandit and Gem who need a good lesson on etiquette.

Ellie in the Closet is about a rainbow lizard who feels ugly because she's different and hides in the closet. But a friend named Storm gives her the confidence to come out of the closet. She is finally able to leave her isolation and show the world her true colors.

Rapunzel Pup is about a disabled puppy with a prosthetic leg who has an overprotective mother who won't let her go outside. She finds friends who help her navigate her new surroundings and take a cat to task for making fun of Rapunzel.

It's a sweet episode that's great for the entire family.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send a text

In this episode, Max discusses his blog, also titled A River Between Zen and Chaos, and shares his perspective on poetry. He talks about his British grandfather, Sidney (Sid) Robinson, who was also a writer. Max reads The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage by Sir Walter Raleigh, which seems like a poem his grandfather would have liked. His grandfather, who never had a formal education, also loved the poetry of William Wordsworth. Max tells about learning about his grandfather's passion for writing at his memorial service and their last moments together.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send a text

In this episode, Max explores how growing up with a stutter until he was 15 years old. He got speech therapy and how working in theater helped him develop his voice, especially doing Shakespeare especially Richard III and Hamlet.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send us a text

Max discusses a past job with the printing company and an incident that led to him writing the poem Dear Legal Department after a co-worker has a head injury at work and is told to call management instead of 911. Let us know if you have ever experienced corporate insanity where procedure takes precedence over safety and common sense.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!

Send us a text

Max talks about growing up and life in Miami before he moved to Atlanta. At a young age, Harry Cruz's Southern Gothic style influenced Max's early writing. He talks about going to a convenience store and talking to a young man, whom he found out later committed murder. He also talks about working for a man who had stockpiled guns with supplies for when the "state of anarchy" breaks out, he'll be ready. He left the job after about six weeks. The poem All I'm Saying was written a few years after leaving the craziness of Miami and looks at the mindset of the men he met.

Another poem inspired by the upside-down world of cocaine filled Miami in the 1970s and 80s, a strange dream with devilish women, rats, and the 23rd Psalm. The poem Rats in the Wall, talks about ending a relationship with the potent white powder.

For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel - @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page. Thanks so much for listening!