Monthly Archives: June 2015

A Guide’s Conradian Revenge Fantasy

By Robin Bates | Published: June 9, 2015

Do tour guides ever dream of doling out to their chargers what the porters in “Heart of Darkness” do with one of the visiting English?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cuzco, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Peru, tours | Comments closed

Pound’s Description of a Long Marriage

By Robin Bates | Published: June 8, 2015

With every passing year of my marriage, which hits 42 years today, my appreciation for Ezra Pound’s “River-Merchant’s Wife” grows.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "The River Merchant's Wife", Ezra Pound, Marriage, marriage anniversary, Separation | Comments closed

Opening of Eyes Long Closed

By Robin Bates | Published: June 7, 2015

David Whyte assures us that God is here now, not in some indefinite future. We have but to open our eyes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "The Opening of Eyes", David Whyte, God incarnate | Comments closed

The Explosion of Summer

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2015

A Paul Laurence Dunbar poem to usher us into the summer. It begins with breathless waiting–and then everything explodes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Summer in the South", Paul Laurence Dunbar, Seasons, summer | Comments closed

Satan: Freedom Fighter Turned Dictator

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2015

“Paradise Lost” can function as a lesson in how freedom fighters become dictators. It also shows what we must do to resist this tendency.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged corruption, Dictators, freedom fighters, John Milton, Paradise Lost, politics, republican ideals | Comments closed

Swimming with the Water Babies

By Robin Bates | Published: June 3, 2015

Swimming with my granddaughters put me in mind of Charles Kingsley’s “Water Babies.” Kingsley helped us enter into the rich imaginative lives of children.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, Childhood, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, swimming, Water Babies, William Blake | Comments closed

Donne and Climate Change Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2015

Somewhat unexpectedly, John Donne’s “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” gives insight into climate change denial.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Good Morrow, "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", California drought, climate change, flooding, global warming, John Donne, Texas flooding | Comments closed

Poetry Comforts the Mentally Disabled

By Robin Bates | Published: June 1, 2015

This “New York Times” article describes how poetry came to the aid of a man with schizoaffective disorder. It also aided his therapist.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Mental Illness, poetic therapy, schizoaffective disorder, Therapy | Comments closed