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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.
A Shropshire Lad…book review
A. E. Houseman, well, there’s rhyming…
The Book of Days…part lx
nature poems about the dawn’s early light…
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young
…too much death (book review)
“seeing more”… it’s the fall, my poem
they don’t look back
the skirr thing, “cloud talk” my poem
they do stir
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.
A Thousand Mornings…book review
rich Mary Oliver stuff, her poems
The Price of Salt…book review
the price of love is always right
The Old Man and the Sea…book review
the old man is a teacher
A beautiful book
Words do not fail me, here’s a review…
Literary Life: A Second Memoir…book review
Larry McMurtry’s passionate engagement with books…
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.
A Magnificent Catastrophe (the 1800 election, book review)
Edward Larson tells the nasty story
Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood (book review)
there’s lots you don’t know…
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 Witches: Salem, 1692 (book review)
…a community gone crazy…
How the Irish Became White (book review)
another slice of American history by Noel Ignatiev
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
Fire in the Lake (book review)
you should have read it in 1972…
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.
All the President’s Men…movie review
the good guys win
be a buttonhole…
Naomi Shihab Nye says it all
Small Things Like These…book review
get to know Claire Keegan
“time would ease me…”…Sarah Orne Jewett
straight from the heart
Lincoln, he was a politician…movie review
Daniel Day-Lewis is good
Victory…Joseph Conrad is good…book review
your life is good…
The Sixth Extinction…book review
Elizabeth Kolbert talks about the other global horror…
“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