Helene Pollock's Song of the Soul

Great interview with a beautiful soul. Thank you, Helene! And Mark!

Song of The Soul

This was a very interesting program. I enjoyed the variety of songs that gave me a variety of feelings. It was especially good for me to hear popular songs such as "Fake Plastic Trees" analyzed in a spiritual sense.

Helene said something like "if someone could listen to my music, then they might really know me". This idea spoke to me -- so many times we gravitate towards songs because they speak our feelings for us (at least I do) yet I'd never heard that truth expressed like that before. I'd never heard of John Michael Talbot; I'm glad for the mix of performers she wove into this interview. Thank you to Helene and to Northern Spirit for this piece.

Thank you so much for doing this. It was really helpful to listen to this show and the wonderful conversation between you and Helene. Seeing music as it effects personal narratives is incredibly meaningful and I am grateful for Helene sharing that experience so openly. I could feel there was a lot of deep emotional significance for the music she chose to share.

This is really nice. I love the show, and I love what you are doing with it. I think Helene has something to offer all of us in her loving way. Thank you for sharing her with us. I will be listening more in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed the music as well as the comments. I know Helene and she is a deeply spiritual person. It was wonderful to share her music. The format was excellent and I can see the program as a powerful spiritual tool.

This was a wonderful show with Helene, and I really enjoyed her commentary accompanied by the music. I, too, am a product of the '60s college scene and the struggles of that era!

Listening to Helene's sharing of her soul and the music that inspires her was a most uplifting experience. What touched me the most was her vulnerability and her willingness to share so deeply about her connection to God through music. I resonnated with that level of spirituality, being a liturgical musician with Medical Mission Sisters in Philadelphia, PA. Music sustains me on many different levels. Helene's spiritual journey is one that obviously is done with great care and loving. Thank you, Helene, for sharing yourself with us so fully! Thank you, Mark, for a wonderful program and I wish you all the luck in the future. Peace, Mary Anne Crowley

The music really helps to illustrate Helene's wonderful spiritual growth and exploration. It is a great way to share things that can be hard to articulate in conversation. It's like being invited inside of her meditations; that is a valuable gift. Thank you for sharing Helene and her knowledge and her journey with the wider world of seekers.

What an amazing testimony! The songs truly did serve as commentary on the words. And Helene, while Mark did do an exceptional job of taking the pieces to create a wonderfully unified whole, you were the source of those pieces. Thank you for a deeply rewarding experience, one which transcended the usual quotation bits. Thank you for sharing this aspect of your life. It is obviously a well considered, intentional walk. An inspiration.

Mark deserves a lot of credit for an excellent interview. He managed to make the various points hang together, and he especially highlighted *the music*, and that's what it's all about -- our experience of Divine Love, through music. Thank you Mark!

Dear Mark, Just to say how I enjoyed listening to this program which I thought was “Music from the soul to the soul and talk from the deep mind to the mind”. I would also like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to know my friend Helene Pollock better and appreciate her keen understanding of the human mind through music of the heart. The songs were inspiring particularly ‘Cave of the Heart' by John Michael Talbot and “Anointed” by Kathy Sherman. These 2 songs brought memories of my soul searching periods and set in me a wave of spiritual exuberance. I will refer to them in my lonesome search for peace and love in a world of much needed understanding and truth. As a Quaker from Lebanon having fled with my family the atrocities of the war of summer 2006 to the peace and compassion of Haverford College, Helene Pollock was a steady support for us in a period of anxiety and adaptation. I thank you dear Mark for giving me the opportunity to know Helene better and know where she is coming form. Please excuse my subjective comment. I wish you and your program continued progress in outreach and the spread of deep contentment of the soul. In Friendship Tony Manasseh

My dear friend Helene Pollock emailed me about your show and since she is someone whom I regard as a spiritual friend, I listened. What an amazing and moving experience! What a wonderful gift you have for bringing out a person's hidden depths through music! I have known and admired and loved Helene for years and had many deep and soulful conversations with her but I had no idea of this side of her personality and spirit. What a wonderful revelation! I was so impressed by the idea of your show that I invited my wife (who is a Methodist pastor) to listen in and suggested that this might be a meaningful and moving way to organize a worship sharing experience for music lovers. I think that Quakers might find this format to be spiritually enriching and will certainly recommend your show to Friends. Yours in peace and friendship, Anthony Manousos, Editor of Friends Bulletin