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 xxxxvi
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
“truth lies open for all…”
Seneca the Younger said it
humans share food, with people they like
“Grace,” my poem
listen to the stones…”ken,” my poem
can we trust the words?
“…being human is a guest house…” …Rumi (1207-1273)
look for new arrivals…
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 Gifts of Imperfection…book review
what it is, who you be…Dr. Brené Brown
“…Virginia Woolf?”…it’s hell on earth
It ain’t the Cleaver family…
Facing East from Indian Country (book review)
Another point of view from Daniel K. Richter
The Bombing of Auschwitz…yay or nay? book review
it was a hard call…
Anne Lamott talks about shaking our heads…
…and she can do it (quote)
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.
The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania…book review
hiding in your house…
Code Girls, the life savers…book review
Liza Mundy tells it
Crazy Horse…book review
…a loner and a lone eagle, says Larry McMurtry
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
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family…book review
he wasn’t the only one…
A Short History of the World in 50 Places…book review
Jacob Fields does the pique thing…
Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300…book review
Peter Heather tells a new story
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.
Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War (book review)
David Williams says secession wasn’t popular
What It Is Like to Go to War (book review)
Karl Marlantes tells the ugly story
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (book review)
by Jared Diamond…frank and frightening
“Pick battles…small enough to win.” Kozol (quote)
Daniel Berrigan talks about evil…
1491 by Charles Mann (book review)
…lost American legacies
The Last European War (book review)
it’s by John Lukacs, dig in…
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (book review)
Pekka Hämäläinen tells it like it was…
What’s Wrong with Economics? A Primer for the Perplexed (book review)
Robert Skidelsky rebuts “Homo economicus”
The Founders’ Fortunes: How Money Shaped the Birth of America
Willard Randall documents it: money talks (book review)
Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South
…the North forgot about slavery (book review)
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.
Three Days of the Condor (movie review)
Robert Redford does spy stuff
tomorrow, shuffling, comes…my poem
live each bright hour
“Ideas are like rabbits.”
John Steinbeck said so…(quote)
“…the duly goggled…”…George Santayana
give the intellectual cripples a break…
Feeling lucky? get ready for it
way to go…
“…my final future…”… “now then…” my poem
the carpe diem thing
“We almost always know…”
doing the right thing…
“faintest breaths…”…“another thing,” my poem
they never look up
Starman…an alien with special sauce
movie review, Jeff Bridges et al.
“a dancing wight”…“Another time,” my poem
no song sublime