Total Views
Poetry and insights
I’m in love with words, and I love to use the right words to create poems that have clarity and character. I think of my work as “literal poetry.” I don’t put my pen down until I’ve said exactly what I feel, exactly what I mean to say, so that you, as the reader or listener, will have no doubt about it. I want to write poems that don’t need to be explained—what you see is what it is. I want to write poems that express deep human emotions, and very thoughtful observations, and very precise meanings. I am a poet, a writer, a teacher, a moralist, a historian and an unflinching student of human nature. I think a lot. I strive to express truth and give context—both rational and emotional—to reality. I think words can be pictures, and lovely songs, and bodacious scents, and private flavors, and early morning caresses that wake each part of me, one at a time. I know some of those words, and, from time to time, I write some of them.
Literary Life: A Second Memoir…book review
Larry McMurtry’s passionate engagement with books…
“The arrow of time…”…my poem
My time’s my own…
“…make sunshine…”…Louisa May Alcott quote
why not?
Kaa’s Hunting, The Jungle Book…book review
leaf-eating and brotherhood
The Book of Days…part lvi
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
Book Reviews and insights
Reading is part of my life. Old books are companions—they have a palpable essence that will never be duplicated in an eBook reader. I can live with books, inter librorum copias. I don’t read too many novels, although I’m partial to 19th century American and English writers like Dickens and Hawthorne and O. Henry. I’m happy when I’m reading aloud. I wish that I may live long enough to read at least most of the books in my library.
The Fabric of Reality…book review
David Deutsch could use some philosophy…
Small Things Like These…book review
get to know Claire Keegan
“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett
straight from the heart
Victory…Joseph Conrad is good…book review
your life is good…
The Sixth Extinction…book review
Elizabeth Kolbert talks about the other global horror…
Historical insights
I think it’s difficult to be a sensitive and sensible human being without some knowledge of history and its enduring elements. An insufficient understanding of history is an impediment to decent participation in human society. I am particularly intrigued by the systematic methods of the French Annalistes to examine the deep structures (longues durées) of history. Awareness and understanding of history allow us to create and sustain a mindful context for our past and present adventures.
Book review: The Proud Tower
Typical Tuchman tour de force. It’s a lot more than a history book.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
Book review: All The President’s Men
It’s a corker, but you won’t have to read it twice…
Book review: American Colonies
So many and so much came before the Pilgrims…
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much about each other…
A poet is a “maker”
…and it doesn’t have to rhyme…
Book review: American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
…it didn’t start the Revolution.
The “dime novels” popular in the Civil War
Think Kit Carson and the lads…
Book review: Forced Founders
Woody Holton explains that Virginia’s “Founding Fathers” had patriotism, and some other stuff, on their minds….
Book review: An Empire Divided
King George and his ministers never tried hard enough to win the Revolutionary War.
Politics: thoughts and insights
Yelling isn’t my style. I am a committed and, I think, well-informed liberal progressive. It’s my intention to avoid presenting any political commentaries that are doctrinaire, abusive, deliberately hateful or contrary to “…a decent respect to the opinions of mankind…” Maybe you’ll recognize those words from the Declaration of Independence. I respect the value and the necessity of dedicated support for the preservation of the public good. I’m willing to offer my considerations of what constitutes the public good.
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Tidbits
Occasional items that tickle your funny bone, or point your mind in a new direction, or invite you to stop for a moment and listen to what your heart is telling you.
“…the prayers of the millions…”…John Steinbeck’s view
what does God listen to?
Old Henry…a movie review
speaking of Billy the Kid
“…the boy climbs to me…”…“A man’s job,” my poem
making a Christmas
Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories…book review
…an old fisherman’s tears…
Roosters scream to start the day…
why is that?
Atonement…movie and book review
my life is my penance
“truth lies open for all…”
Seneca the Younger said it
humans share food, with people they like
“Grace,” my poem
Night by Elie Wiesel…book review
his first story about the camps
“duchess with a bird”…my poem
her new universe…