TEXT AND ROCK. cover art

TEXT AND ROCK.

TEXT AND ROCK.

By: Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison
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Ancient myth and artifact meet poetry and rhythm for the post-modern soul.​

Hosted by Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison, TEXT AND ROCK is a weekly podcast that bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and contemporary life. Mark, an antiquarian, writer, and part-time punk rocker, and Eric, a musician, podcaster, and rhythm instructor, delve into topics ranging from biblical texts and ancient artifacts to modern spirituality and cultural critique. Their engaging discussions aim to help listeners read the Bible like an ancient and have faith like a modern.​

Whether you're seeking to deepen your understanding of sacred texts, explore the intersections of faith and culture, or simply enjoy thought-provoking conversations, TEXT AND ROCK offers a unique perspective that resonates with the post-modern soul.​

For more content, including poetry and video, visit www.textandrock.com.​

© 2025 TEXT AND ROCK.
Spirituality
Episodes
  • YOU ARE ONLY A WATCHER.
    Jun 19 2025

    Send us a text

    Mark and Eric talk about a philosophy of God that might work for you if simple answers do not. How does human religions actually work in real time? Is God something we can actually name and put in a box? Or it is a moving target of an ideal that humans cast out before themselves to deal with the difficulty of reality?

    We hope you love it!

    Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

    https://www.https://linktr.ee/txtandrck

    And below is the poem in this episode...

    Heart,
    Mark and Eric

    ___________________________________

    YOU ARE ONLY A WATCHER.


    Have the humility and awareness

    to open your eyes to the unseen

    and you will find the face of God.


    I don’t mean spirits or daemons

    or old gods disguised as just another object.

    No. You are invited to the thing behind all things—

    big bang’s banger,

    electric in lightning,

    fortitude in blood cell—

    the only wisdom frightening

    enough to hold light and dark matter

    in one weird-science jar and say, “Oh well.”


    Let’s just see what you have to say

    to the morning sun that brings in day.

    You can predict it will arrive and leave

    but that should never give you any reprieve

    from the fact that you are only

    an ancient-future Watcher

    of the only One truly lonely


    when it comes to pulling on unseen string theories;

    making it all go. And so no, your existentialism

    does not impress me and it draws the furies.


    For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

    You can find all of social handles here:

    TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

    Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.


    Show More Show Less
    23 mins
  • MR. SMITH STAYS HOME.
    May 17 2025

    Send us a text

    Mark and Eric talk wealth gap, systemic overhaul, and the scandal of politics in the fading western empire. Along the way, they talk about Jesus as a Second Temple Period human sage, a different kind of kingdom, and how to treat people in hard knock times.

    We hope you love it!

    Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

    https://www.https://linktr.ee/txtandrck

    And below is the poem in this episode...

    Heart,
    Mark and Eric


    For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

    You can find all of social handles here:

    TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

    Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.


    Show More Show Less
    23 mins
  • AWARENESS.
    May 7 2025

    Send us a text

    Mark and Eric kick around the idea of awareness as a philosophical pillar for meaning, life, and even divinity, before performing an original poem entitled "Awareness."

    We hope you love it!

    Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

    https://www.https://linktr.ee/txtandrck

    And below is the poem in this episode...

    Heart,
    Mark and Eric


    AWARENESS.

    Awareness is the first and greatest gift of God. Look, traveller:

    in an age that worships intellectual knowing,

    be mindful of the primal gift of awareness,

    constantly observing the empirical evidence

    in the first place. What is the I that thinks and feels?


    You can thank Rene Descartes, for the idea’s first expression.

    Or think of Yahweh’s words to Moshe,

    or recall Jesus’ allusion to that same theophany—

    all are naming existence before any other discernible fact.


    Awareness is the means you have for observing.

    No experiment is possible without the observing eye;

    no observation of tree line or big sky comes

    without center of self and mystic intuition under the mind.


    All this is theoretical and heady, but think of the implications

    when you actually taste the spaghetti:

    Who says you are old or young?

    Who says you’ve been here only this long?

    Who says when you leave you are really ever gone?

    Who says where awareness goes when the body expires?

    Who says you have this short time—so make the best of it?

    Who says there is no such thing as a silver thread?


    God says the answers to all these questions,

    but is not interested to spoil the surprise.

    Instead, God provides and sustains your awareness

    so you can marvel, wonder, and take in the dawn.


    If you are an enlightened one,

    you have realized the absurdity of assumed finality.

    You wonder how you came to the House of the World,

    and how many times, and where you might go next.


    Now when you read, “in the beginning”

    you ask with the rabbis, “which beginning?” and laugh.

    Your cosmology and individuality dances with the idea,

    that awareness is the first heavenly light:


    A star factory divided into a billion souls across the ages.


    For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

    You can find all of social handles here:

    TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

    Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.


    Show More Show Less
    36 mins

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