Poetry, with its eye on what really matters, can help us taste food again. Mary Oliver’s “Plum Trees” reminds us to eat with full awareness.
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Nothing So Sensible as Sensual Inundation
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Plum Trees", Andrew Marvell, Food, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Mary Oliver, Sensuality, T. S. Eliot, To His Coy Mistress Comments closed
Date Rape or Cultural Misunderstanding?
Reading “Passage to India” for the first time in decades has given me insights into a date rape that I became involved in years ago involving an Ethiopian and an American student. How much, I wonder, can be attributed to cultural misunderstanding?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged College, Cultural misunderstandings, E. M. Forster, India, Passage to India, Rape Comments closed
Touching the Divine through Poetry
Think of religious visionaries as the early poets, those who have found ways to gesture towards (not encapsulate!) the divine. The religious poets who have come after help keep religious language from getting stale.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Defense of Poetry, Fundamentalism, Percy Shelley, Religion Comments closed
James as Telemachus to Wade’s Odysseus
Lebron James is not the king but the sidekick, not Michael Jordan but Scottie Pippen. In literary terms, he is not King Odysseus but Prince Telemachus. His teammate Dwyane Wade is the king of the franchise.
King (and Eventually Queen) of Masks
The Chinese film “King of Masks,” followed by a concert of Chinese women performing on traditional Chinese instruments, demonstrated China’s new synthesis, liberated women reclaiming ancient arts that the Communists had tried to erase and from which women had been excluded.
The Novel that Changed the World
When it comes to literature changing lives, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is the gold standard for what is possible.
Sam Spade Takes on Sarah Palin
Something about Monday’s debate amongst Republicans vying for their party’s presidential nomination reminded me of Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.” They are all chasing after a legendary black bird that seems to be priceless but all too often turns out to be a lead simulacrum.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Dashiell Hammett, Election, Maltese Falcon, Mitt Romney, politics, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty Comments closed
Mutton Mouths and Butter Bodies
Jennifer Cognard-Black notes that food, being perishable, presents museums and historians with a challenge. To study what and how people ate, we must look for related artifacts, including written recipes.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Amelia Simmons, colonial history, Food, Historical St. Mary's City, Jennifer Cognard-Black Comments closed
