
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.
Winesburg, Ohio…book review
it beats the Spoon River stuff…
The Book of Days…part xlix
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
Range: Why Generalists Triumph…book review
David Epstein says it’s OK to experiment
friends can touch…my poem
“Touch,” brief moments…
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1…book review
John McPhee cleared the decks
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.
friends can touch…my poem
“Touch,” brief moments…
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1…book review
John McPhee cleared the decks
Stonehenge…the stones know…my poem
fingers of the gods
The Pioneers by David McCullough…book review
bona fide McCullough, erudite prose
“…and hides our dreams…”…“dew not,” my poem
Away, you foggy dew!
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.
The Witches, 1692…book review
a community gone crazy…
Cave of Bones…Homo naledi…book review
there were more of us…
Origins of Modern America, 1860-1900…book review
The Gilded Age, not very pretty…
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
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.
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family…book review
he wasn’t the only one…
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (book review)
no managers in olden times…
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (book review)
Martin Wolf teaches about trust…
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
1491 by Charles Mann (book review)
…lost American legacies
The Last European War (book review)
it’s by John Lukacs, dig in…
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)
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…