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.
“query”…my poem
the man, solitary
one, two, counting lives…my poem
I count my own
“waiting”…my poem
words take their time…
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…
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.
Good Poems: American Places…book review
Garrison Keillor picks a few gems…
learning to read?…no problem
start writing anyway…
Traveling Light…book review
…poems by David Wagoner, yum!
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie…book review
growing up is hard to do
The Bright Ages (book review)
A New History of Medieval Europe
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.
Eye of the Needle…desperate but human…movie review
living and dying
Battle of Wits…crypto in WWII…book review
surprise! personalities were important…
The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania…book review
hiding in your house…
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
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
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams…book review
Stacy Schiff teaches more…
With the Old Breed…book review
the prayers of E. B. Sledge, a warfighter
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (book review)
no managers in olden times…
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.
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…
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)
Reconstruction After the Civil War (book review)
mostly, nothing changed
The Man Who Broke Capitalism (book review)
Jack Welch, all-American what?
Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction (book review)
as they saw it in mid-19th century…
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire (book review)
Peter Hopkirk tells the old story
A Magnificent Catastrophe (the 1800 election, book review)
Edward Larson tells the nasty story
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.
Atonement…book review
Ian McEwan tells a big story
looking for butterflies…Jacqueline Woodson quote
some things never die…
Red Brethren (book review)
David Silverman on “race” in early America
words have physical feeling…a quote
from The Bridges of Madison County
All the President’s Men…movie review
the good guys win
be a buttonhole…
Naomi Shihab Nye says it all
Small Things Like These…book review
get to know Claire Keegan
“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett
straight from the heart
Lincoln, he was a politician…movie review
Daniel Day-Lewis is good
Victory…Joseph Conrad is good…book review
your life is good…