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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 Book of Days…part lviii
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
“…remain generous of heart…”…Amor Towles (quote)
all that has happened to us…
Good Bones…book review
bones and more bones…
dance the night away…”daily,” my poem
make time for it
“endless regret or secret happiness…”
quote from Sarah Orne Jewett
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.
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
Washington Square…book review
Henry James, less than meets the eye
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 Liberty Bell, a book review
Historian Gary Nash tells it all
The Witches: Salem, 1692 (book review)
…a community gone crazy…
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (comments)
it wasn’t strictly business, but…
-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
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)
Book review: Thieves in the Night
Arthur Koestler’s story of Galilee, before Israel…
An Empire on the Edge (book review)
The British wanted to win the Revolutionary War, but they didn’t try real hard…
No one remembers “The Six Grandfathers”
…except the Lakota Sioux
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.
“a breath of poetry…”…from Silas Marner
George Eliot said it all
“again is a potent word”…my poem
“redux,” get it right
changing the world into words…Bill Gass said it
a kind of alchemy
The Picture of Dorian Gray…classic?…movie review
The 1973 version is the best of more than 30
Aging: An Apprenticeship…book review
How to live so you’re ready to die…
the baby seats, step right up…my poem
we know the kids who will use them
“You aren’t good enough…”
sez who?…sez Sally Field (quote)
“Speak like rain.” Isak Dinesen’s story
in her novel, Out of Africa
don’t cross the buck’s trail…my poem
a walk in the woods
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day…movie review
and lives happily ever after…