The Poet’s Dilemma

Jacquelynn King
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Join us each week as we explore the power of choice in our contingent lives through the evocative lens of poetry. We’ll navigate everyday dilemmas and the profound, life-altering decisions that shape us. No topic is off-limits, from inner child wounds and generational trauma to sex, sexual abuse, science, history, and current events. Reflect, connect, and discover how each choice impacts our journey.

Episodes

  1. May 24

    The Dilemma of Imposter Syndrome

    The dilemma: how do I believe in my own worth when everything, internally and externally, tells me I shouldn’t? Season 1 comes to a close not with a new question, but with the one that’s been quietly threading through every episode. Imposter syndrome. The voice that whispers you do not belong. That your success is accidental. That your dreams are too big for who you are. In this final episode, we turn inward. We unpack where the imposter is born: in childhood, in culture, in systems that were never designed for everyone to feel worthy. We explore where it lives: in the private corners of our internal monologue, shaping how we see ourselves when no one else is watching. Because what if the imposter isn’t proof that you don’t belong, but evidence that you’re stepping into something bigger than you’ve ever allowed yourself to believe? This episode is a reckoning. A confrontation with the narratives we’ve inherited. And an invitation to reclaim authorship over our own story. To believe radically, rebelliously that you are not a fraud in your own life. You are the becoming. As we reflect on a season that explored choice, artistry, community, harmony, desire, healing, truth, and self-sabotage, we arrive here, at the root of it all: worthiness.  Featured Works: Teachings inspired by Esther Perel and Arthur C. Brooks Spotlight Mantra: Morning Spell by Florence Given  Original Poem: When the Beat of the Heart Races like a Racing Horse in their Final Lap to Victory by Jacquelynn King  Original Poem: Don’t Cry by Jacquelynn King

    28 min

  2. May 17

    The Dilemma of Self-Sabotage

    The dilemma: why do we get in our own way? What if the greatest obstacle is allowing ourselves to become who we are capable and destined to become. In this episode, we step into the intimate and often invisible war between who we are and who we’re becoming. We explore the patterns, beliefs, and inherited narratives that keep us stuck in the loop of self-fulfilling prophecies that validate our deepest insecurities. From childhood wounds to the seductive familiarity of old stories, this is a conversation about the ways we sabotage our own expansion. But here’s the unraveling: what if self-sabotage isn’t failure, but a signal? Together, we examine the artist’s relationship to suffering, the myth of pain as a prerequisite for meaning, and the quiet rebellion of choosing self-love over self-destruction. Through reflections on figures like Sylvia Plath and Amy Winehouse, we ask: what happens when identity becomes entangled with pain and can we choose differently? This episode is an invitation to interrupt the pattern. To question the voice that says you’re not enough. To choose unfamiliar freedom over familiar limitation. Because healing isn’t a destination, it’s a practice. And sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is get out of your own way. Let’s get into it, Poets. Featured Works: Spotlight Poet: Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath Original Poem: Back to Black by Amy Winehouse Original Poem: Misanthropy by Jacquelynn King  🎙️The Poet’s Dilemma podcast, we don’t aim to solve the dilemma, we learn how to live inside of it.

    28 min

  3. May 10

    The Dilemma of Knowing the Truth about Your Heroes

    The dilemma: what happens when we learn the truth about our heroes?We grow up worshipping them. We build meaning, identity, even morality around their words, their art, their existence. But what happens when the illusion cracks? When the person behind the pedestal reveals their humanity: flawed, contradictory, sometimes harmful? In this episode, we sit inside the heartbreak of disillusionment. The grief of realizing that the people who shaped us are not who we thought they were. And the deeper question that follows: how do we reconcile the art with the artist, the message with the messenger, the hero with the human? This conversation explores accountability, forgiveness, and the paradox of being alive. Where good people do bad things, and where redemption is not found in perfection, but in the how of our return. How we repair. How we take responsibility. How we grow. We reflect on our cultural obsession with idolization, the commodification of identity, and the role we play in choosing who we elevate and why. From personal stories to philosophical reckonings, this episode invites us to confront a difficult truth: we are all capable of harm, and we are all capable of healing. Featured Works:  Spotlight Poet: El Olvido by Judith Ortiz Cofer,  Original Poem: Confidence by Jacquelynn King This is not an episode about canceling. It’s an episode about reckoning. So here’s your invitation, Poets: Look at your heroes. Look at yourself. And ask: when we fall, how do we come back? 🎙️The Poet’s Dilemma podcast, we don’t aim to solve the dilemma, we learn how to live inside of it.

    38 min

  4. May 3

    The Dilemma of the Wounded Healer 

    The dilemma: what does it mean to be a wounded healer? What if the very thing that hurts us is what heals us? In this episode, we step into the complexity of paradoxes: to be healed is to be wounded. Through the Ancient Greek myth of Chiron and the teachings of Carl Jung, we explore the idea that healing is not a destination, but rather a relationship we foster. A relationship to our scars, to our past, and to the parts of ourselves that were silenced. Because the truth is, we all carry the weight of our personal wounds and collective ones. This episode invites you to sit with your shadow self and uncover the medicine they have to teach you. In doing so, we affirm the path of healing ourselves and the collective.  Featured Works & References: Spotlight Text: The myth of Chiron Spotlight Text: The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung Spotlight Text: Bread of Angels by Patti Smith  Spotlight Poet: Where the Light Enters You by Omid Safi  Original Poem: Invocation for the Unnamed by Jacquelynn King   🎙️The Poet’s Dilemma podcast, we don’t aim to solve the dilemma, we learn how to live inside of it.

    39 min

  5. Apr 26

    The Dilemma of Sex on the First Date

    The dilemma: should I have sex on the first date? What implications will it have? What happens when desire meets timing? When pleasure collides with perception? When curiosity overrides caution? In this episode of The Poet’s Dilemma, we trade in restraint for exploration and step into a conversation that is as ancient as it is immediate: sex, desire, and the stories we attach to them. Is there ever really a “right” moment? Or is that just another narrative we’ve inherited from societal pressures. We unpack the psychology and physiology behind attraction, the intoxicating pull of validation and novelty, and the risks we take when we choose pleasure in the present moment. From hormonal impulse to emotional consequence, this episode invites you to examine not just when we have sex, but why. Because here’s the truth: there is no formula. No equation. No guaranteed outcome. Only choice, awareness, and the willingness to own what comes next. Analyzed through the lens of thinkers like Esther Perel and the poetic legacy of Sappho, we explore desire as both liberation and mirror, revealing what we crave, what we fear, and what we’re still learning about ourselves. So here’s your invitation, Poets.  Tune into your body. Honor your desire. Because freedom without awareness, well that isn’t freedom at all. Featured Works:  Spotlight Poet: 31 by Sappho  Spotlight Poet: Telemachus by Ocean Vuong Original Poem: A Series of Sex Notes by Jacquelynn King  🎙️ The Poet’s Dilemma podcast where we don’t aim to solve the dilemma, we learn how to live inside it.

    25 min

  6. Apr 19

    The Dilemma of Harmony

    The dilemma: how can we achieve societal harmony? What if harmony isn’t some distant utopia, but a choice we can collectively make. In this episode, we meet at the doorway of rebellion, revolt, and expansiveness. Together, we unravel the forces that shape our world: fear, power, capitalism, and the unrelenting ways it pulls us away from something deeper, something softer, something more harmonious. But here’s the plot twist: harmony isn’t the absence of chaos. It’s the courage to move with it. This episode dives into Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism and aims to make sense of collective transcendence. It is a call to action to intentionally strive towards harmony, equality, and freedom. Let’s put these teachings to work. It’s not just something to listen to, it's something to practice.  So here’s your invitation, Poets. Pause, breathe, notice where harmony already exists in your life, and then go create more of it. Featured Works:  Spotlight Poem: The Book of the Dead  by Muriel Rukeyser  Original Poem: Tragic Optimism  🎙️ The Poet’s Dilemma podcast, where we don’t aim to solve the dilemma, we learn how to live inside it.

    35 min

  7. Apr 12

    The Dilemma of the Duty of the Bard

    The dilemma: what is the duty of the bard? Who does history belong to? What narratives do we choose to amplify? Who is remembered? And who are the forgotten? In a world shaped by capitalism, consumption, and instant gratification, what obligation do artists hold to preserve humanity’s collective voice? In this episode of The Poet’s Dilemma, we journey through time to explore the sacred duty of the storyteller—the poet, historian, and keeper of collective memory. From the ancient Celtic bards of the Bronze Age to modern-day artists navigating the Information Age, Jacquelynn King reflects on the enduring power of language to shape culture, preserve truth, and inspire progress. Through philosophical inquiry, historical reflection, and poetic expression, this episode examines the moral and creative responsibility of those who dare to challenge the current state of things and our societal potential of harmony.  Featuring excerpts from The Song of Amergin and The Epic of Gilgamesh, alongside original works, including Jacquelynn’s stirring poem “Belonging,” this episode invites listeners to consider our place within history and the legacy we are writing with our own lives.  Provocative, lyrical, and deeply reflective, this episode is a love letter to storytelling and a call to reclaim the power of the poet in shaping the world. Featured Works: The Song of Amergin (translated by Lady Gregory) The Epic of Gilgamesh  Original poem: Belonging by Jacquelynn King

    24 min

  8. Apr 5

    The Dilemma of Accessing Community in the Face of Disaster

    The dilemma: how do I access community in the face of disaster? What happens when everything falls apart? Recorded in the wake of the Los Angeles fires of 2025, we step into the question of how we survive, not just individually, but together. When homes are lost, when systems fail, when the world feels like it’s burning, where do we turn?  Drawing from "A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster" by Rebecca Solnit, we explore the quiet truth that often goes untold: in moments of devastation, people don’t descend into chaos, they rise into community. Strangers become neighbors. Grief becomes a bridge. Survival becomes collective. This episode unpacks trauma, the nervous system, and the overwhelming nature of living in a world that can change in an instant. It asks: how do we steady ourselves enough to show up for others? What does it mean to be part of something larger when everything feels uncertain? Spotlight poem: Camp Fire by Sarah Kruse  Original poem: Eyes on the Fire by Jacquelynn King

    22 min

  9. Mar 29

    The Dilemma of Am I an Artist?

    The dilemma: am I an artist? What makes an artist, an artist? Is it what we create or in how we exist? In this episode, we pull apart the fragile boundary between life and art. From childhood definitions of creativity to the quiet, persistent voice of imposter syndrome, we ask: is artistry something earned or embodied?  Along the way, we wander through the philosophies of Oscar Wilde and Aristotle, questioning whether life imitates art, or if art imitates life. We explore the necessity of an audience, the vulnerability of self-expression, and the radical idea that simply being alive might be the most honest form of art.  This is an episode about identity, about permission, about the quiet rebellion of claiming yourself. Because maybe the real dilemma isn’t becoming an artist, it’s realizing we already are one.  Spotlight poem: There is Only One Question by Mary Oliver Original poem: Tempted by the Morning Sun by Jacquelynn King

    18 min

  10. Mar 22

    The Dilemma of Free-Willed Choice

    The dilemma: do I have free-willed choices? If destiny exists, what does it mean to choose? Do our choices belong to us or are they made before we’re even aware of them? In this episode, we explore the tension between choice and accountability through the lens of existentialism, Sam Harris’ Free Will, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the contingencies that shape our lives. Spotlight Poem: Maya Angelou, Still I Rise Original Poem: Some Days by Jacquelynn King

    23 min

  11. Season 1, Episode 1 Trailer

    Introducing: The Poet’s Dilemma

    Welcome, poets. This is The Poet’s Dilemma, where each week, we tackle a dilemma and how we reckon with it, unpacking it through the lens of poetry, philosophy, current events, spiritualism, science, play, and more. A space for discovery. For curiosity. We aren’t here to solve our dilemmas, only to understand them. With a simple goal: to become more reflective, more empathetic.

    5 min

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

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out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Join us each week as we explore the power of choice in our contingent lives through the evocative lens of poetry. We’ll navigate everyday dilemmas and the profound, life-altering decisions that shape us. No topic is off-limits, from inner child wounds and generational trauma to sex, sexual abuse, science, history, and current events. Reflect, connect, and discover how each choice impacts our journey.

Information

  • Creator
    Jacquelynn King
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jacquelynn King
  • Show Website
    The Poet’s Dilemma