From Cocaine To Central Park: A Poet’s Healing Journey with Aaron Poochigian

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A poet’s recovery story rarely starts with a bus up Third Avenue and a rule about not writing while high. Ours does. We sit down with classicist and translator Aaron Poochigian to trace a line from an 18-year-old’s epiphany reading Virgil, through the isolation of lockdown and a cocaine addiction, to a disciplined practice of forest bathing in Central Park that rekindled creativity, routine, and joy.

Aaron makes a compelling case that poetry shouldn’t be confined to classrooms. He opens up his new book, Four Walks in Central Park, a didactic poem that doubles as a tour and a toolkit for attention. We delve into how Shinrin-yoku became a viable meditation for a restless mind, why setting simple rules—such as no drugs in the park and no drugs when writing about the park—helped curb cravings, and how a daily morning ritual helped rebuild sleep, mood, and purpose. Along the way, we wander from the hushed Hallett Nature Sanctuary to the weekend roller-disco at Wollman Rink, exploring contrast as a form of healing.

The park’s layered history surfaces too: Seneca Village, the artifice behind Olmsted and Vaux’s design, and the way curated nature can intensify perception. Aaron reads “The Invitation,” a poem that urges readers to play hooky, step into texture and light, and rediscover delight as an antidote to burnout. We finish at the carousel, where adult play meets literature—think Catcher in the Rye—and hope becomes practical again. If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your senses or your community, this conversation offers a clear path back through nature, routine, and storytelling.

Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a gentle nudge outdoors, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: what place in your city restores you most?

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