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.
The Book of Days…part xxxx
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
reach out, “touch the music,” my poem
galumphing is real…
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott is a free spirit…(book review)
wrath and anger…each a no no
Book of Sirach, 27:30
“…connected to my past…”…“amaze,” my poem
I am the connection
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.
Lessons in Chemistry…getting started…book review
Scientists in every bathroom
The Nurses: Episodes 1-16…book review
by Janet Kovarik, a storyteller…
Essays Toward a Historical Theory of Big Business
The Essential Alfred Chandler…book review
Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War…book review
William Manchester’s nightmare…
21 Lessons for the 21st Century…book review
Yuval Harari is a teacher
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 allows 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: The American Revolution: A History
The “Founders” were afraid of “democracy”…
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….
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.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (book review)
Neil Postman nailed it 35 years ago
a tree for Becky…”A man’s job,” my poem
some Yuletide cheer…
Tales from a Free-Range Childhood (book review)
Donald Davis, a real storyteller…
Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships (book review)
Robin Dunbar says friendship is all about trust…
“What the hangman hears” is more than words (poem)
“…the rope is so big…”
She’s trying to talk, just sayin’…
and singing is allowed
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (book review)
an American slave talks…
“Love has a name,” a ruby future (poem)
a lonely rose, barely hot tears…
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire (book review)
Peter Hopkirk tells the old story
The Political Depravity of the Founding Fathers (book review)
the so-called “Founding Fathers”…