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.
Good Poems: American Places…book review
Garrison Keillor picks a few gems…
“Darkness begs for light…”…“View,” my poem
dawn begins to make its way…
Traveling Light…book review
…poems by David Wagoner, yum!
The Book of Days…part lv
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie…book review
growing up is hard to do
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.
not a real place in memory…
“Dreamery #1” (my poem)
The Fabric of Reality…book review
David Deutsch could use some philosophy…
Small Things Like These…book review
get to know Claire Keegan
“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett
straight from the heart
Victory…Joseph Conrad is good…book review
your life is good…
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 Unknown American Revolution (book review)
in the streets, says Gary Nash
The Urban Crucible, by Gary Nash (book review)
the revolution and the leather-apron crowd…
The Liberty Bell, a book review
Historian Gary Nash tells it all
New England Encounters (book review)
…the complex relations between Indians and colonists
The Witches: Salem, 1692 (book review)
…a community gone crazy…
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (comments)
it wasn’t strictly business, but…
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (book review)
William Bernstein forgets the inequality bit…
Book review: War and Peace, Second Epilogue
…something different: Tolstoy’s epilogue on history…
-30- The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper
bad news about the news (book review)
For All the Tea in China (book review)
Sarah Rose brews the whole ugly story
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.
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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.
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1…book review
John McPhee cleared the decks
Stonehenge…the stones know…my poem
fingers of the gods
Are you working on the main thing?
maybe Michelangelo got distracted…
“…and hides our dreams…”…“dew not,” my poem
Away, you foggy dew!
Out of Africa…movie review
the lions know so much…
“see the new possible…”…“caper,” my poem
those silent promises
the true, the beautiful…
just take a walk…says Anne Lamott
singing the easy tunes…“la cage,” my poem
I think I had a thought…
“before it’s light…”…my poem
get started again…
No Constitutional Right to be Ladies…book review
Linda Kerber drills down…