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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.
“walking in beauty…”…“walking along,” my poem
I may join you
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
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.
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…
War at The Wall Street Journal…book review
they botched it
Kaa’s Hunting, The Jungle Book…book review
leaf-eating and brotherhood
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.
Book review: Lafayette by Harlow Unger
He was a great man. Also rich and lucky.
Book review: Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw
Oops, Columbus didn’t “discover” America
…but he got close…
Book review: Who Built America?
…including people who got their hands dirty
Book review: John Eliot: The Man Who Loved The Indians
Entertaining, convenient biography by Carleton Beals
Book review: John Eliot: “Apostle to the Indians”
…a righteous man of his time
Book review: Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life
A thought leader in the 19th century…
Book review: A Cold Welcome
The culprit was global cooling, 500 years ago…
Book review: The Myths of Tet
How people get killed by lies…
Book review: Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell
Richard Sharpe is all Hollywood bravery, but it was butcher’s work done at the battle…
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.
“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…
“stop seeking the impossible…”…The Daily Stoic
commit to resisting the bad stuff