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.
“we won’t be still…”…“motion,” my poem
talk it up
“your quick laugh…”…“a time,” my poem
quiet love
The Book of Days…part lxi
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
“I bethink a new imagination…”…“Passage,” my poem
humdrum steps
The Girl at the Lion d’Or…book review
Sebastian Faulks is tenaciously literate, richly Gallic…
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 Anxious Generation…book review
just say no
Twice-Told Tales…book review
…baubles of memory from Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History
…humans and their faith, by Rodney Stark (book review)
Golden Tales of New England…book review
Some feel-good stories of the 19th century…
This America…by Jill Lepore, book review
The Case for the Nation
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.
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…
The History of the American Revolution…book review
David Ramsay served in the war
Our Ancient Faith…book review
not really a Lincoln book
Countdown 1945…book review
first person accounts
American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation (book review)
a big part of the American story
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels…book review
Ian Morris talks energy
Twilight of the Elites…book review
Our elites are corrupt, they can’t stop themselves…
Eye of the Needle…desperate but human…movie review
living and dying
The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania…book review
hiding in your house…
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.
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels…book review
Ian Morris talks energy
Twilight of the Elites…book review
Our elites are corrupt, they can’t stop themselves…
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (book review)
no managers in olden times…
What It Is Like to Go to War (book review)
Karl Marlantes tells the ugly story
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?
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 Wizard of Oz…you can watch it again
movie review of the Judy Garland version
The Price of Salt…book review
the price of love is always right
The art of Lynn Ungar
A permission, the fields…(poetry)
The Old Man and the Sea…book review
the old man is a teacher
“query”…my poem
the man, solitary
do we have the stuff for democracy?
a Lincoln quote…
Million Dollar Baby…movie review
Clint Eastwood, a heart-throb…
“…make sunshine…”…Louisa May Alcott quote
why not?
“…a sandy cat…”…Virginia Woolf quote
you have to think about the cat
Last Chance Harvey…movie review
heart throbs galore…