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.
The Gifts of Imperfection…book review
what it is, who you be…Dr. Brené Brown
“A Time to Talk,” my version of the poem
Frost’s original is good, too
“…the hollow men…” and so on
T. S. Eliot, a bloomin’ wasteland…
getting started, a big thing…my poem
we did it
The Book of Days…part lxii
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
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.
“…midst all these books.”
one view of the sweet life…
The Girl at the Lion d’Or…book review
Sebastian Faulks is tenaciously literate, richly Gallic…
The Birthday Party and The Room…by Harold Pinter
not much here
A Shropshire Lad…book review
A. E. Houseman, well, there’s rhyming…
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young
…too much death (book review)
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.
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…
Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War…book review
William Manchester’s nightmare…
Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300…book review
Peter Heather tells a new story
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.
How the Irish Became White (book review)
another slice of American history by Noel Ignatiev
Book review: The Myths of Tet
How people get killed by lies…
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much about each other…
Book review: Forced Founders
Woody Holton explains that Virginia’s “Founding Fathers” had patriotism, and some other stuff, on their minds….
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 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…
“More than coffee…” (my poem)
ask me again, Polly…
not just cookies…my poem
eat the last one
learning to read?…no problem
start writing anyway…