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.
“Ideas are like rabbits.”
John Steinbeck said so…(quote)
The Book of Days…part xxxxiii
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
Feeling lucky? get ready for it
way to go…
“a tree knows its work”…“des arbres et vents” my poem
a way with wind
Literary Life: A Second Memoir…book review
Larry McMurtry’s love affair with books
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.
All of Us: The Collected Poems…book review
prose in disguise, by Raymond Carver
A Sense of Wonder (book review)
Oliver, Iyer, Doyle, and more…just the best
Countdown 1945…book review
first person accounts
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott is a free spirit…(book review)
American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation (book review)
a big part of the American story
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.
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…
Go Down Together…Bonnie and Clyde (book review)
they were violent criminals
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (book review)
consistent tension, a page turner…
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (book review)
Pekka Hämäläinen tells it like it was…
Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat…(book review)
Stephen Biddle looks to leadership
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
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.
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (comments)
it wasn’t strictly business, but…
The Future of News (book review)
…the blind managers of television, newspapers…
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (book review)
William Bernstein forgets the inequality bit…
-30- The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper
bad news about the news (book review)
Is the public interested in public interest news?
Isn’t news the new stuff you suddenly want to know?
For All the Tea in China (book review)
Sarah Rose brews the whole ugly story
How the Irish Became White (book review)
another slice of American history by Noel Ignatiev
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle…
Colin Woodard makes it easier to understand…(book review)
Hand me that hammer…
building bridges is a good thing (my poem)
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young
…too much death (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.
“…connected to my past…”…“amaze,” my poem
I am the connection
the third kind… “Arrival,” movie review
the aliens talk, will you listen?
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels…book review
Ian Morris talks energy
Are you Punch or Judy?
sit back and listen…
a black southerner said…
what do you think she said?
Body Heat, the movie…a review
humanity in full view…
Heart of Darkness…book review
Joseph Conrad’s deep dive
Twilight of the Elites…book review
Our elites are corrupt, they can’t stop themselves…
“…the tongue is a fire…”…James 3:6
how does it taste?
“The prayer of the humble…”… Sirach, 35:17
give it a try