Monthly Archives: April 2017

Milton’s Jesus vs. Trump’s Bombs

Unfortunately centrists and liberals have been endorsing Trump’s bellicosity abroad. Milton’s Jesus in “Paradise Regained” would not approve.

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Masters of Spite: Satan and Trump

Many wonder whether spite drives many of Donald Trump’s policy decisions. If so, he has good company in Milton’s Satan, who is defined by spite.

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A Trans Activist and a Poetic Judge

When forced to rule against transgender student Gavin Grimm because of a Trump administration directive, the sympathetic judge quoted a Naomi Shihab Nye poem. I examine the poem here and show why it is applicable to Gavin’s case.

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Absent from This World, Alive in Another

As is traditional with this blog, we share a Mary Oliver poem about a magical encounter with a deer–which recalls Mary Magdalene’s magical encounter with Jesus in the garden.

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A Poem in Favor of Taxation

Edward Guest’s poem in favor of taxes. Think of paying them as your patriotic duty.

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O Christ Who Drives the Furrow Straight

John Masefield’s poem “Everlasting Mercy” (1911) uses powerful fertility image to capture the spirit of Christian redemption in this Good Friday poem.

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Rakunks & Wolvogs & Pigoons, Oh My!

As gene splicing becomes more common, we need novels like Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” to point out the dangers. By making connections, good dystopian fiction serves to wakes us up.

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Sleeping Bears?! What Would Papa Say?

The GOP’s decision to allow the hunting of hibernating bears and denned wolf cubs raises issues of wannabe machismo that one can find in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

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On Toddlers, Terrorists, and Loaded Guns

Among the ways that Donald Trump is repaying the NRA for its support is reversing an Obama executive decision designed to keep guns out of the hands of mentally handicapped persons. Hilaire Belloc would have something to say about America’s casual acceptance of guns.

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