Monthly Archives: May 2018

Trump, Clifton, & Immigrants as Animals

Trump describing immigrants as animals is scary stuff, as this Lucille Clifton poem makes clear.

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Light Breaks Where No Light Was Before

Lucille Clifton’s Lucifer poems are more pentecostal than diabolic.

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A Time To Gather Spiritual Honey

Mary Oliver love flowers because of their origins in dark places and for their ability to make luminous our own dark places.

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A Tale of Two Realities

The U.S. celebrating the opening of the Jerusalem embassy while Israeli soldier kill scores of Gaza protesters bring to mind Dickens’s “Tale of Two Cities.”

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The Meaning of Steampunk Fantasy

Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere” helps us understand why authors today are turning to steampunk, which Tolkien would have hated.

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Mike Pence=Elmer Gantry + Uriah Heep

Columnist George Will calls Mike Pence a cross between Elmer Gantry and Uriah Heep. I see the two and raise to a Dante sycophant and Shakespeare’s Cassius.

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Sending Students Out into the World

On Saturday at our commencement ceremony, I read C. P. Cavafy’s poem “Ithaka.” It was a great selection for a number of reasons.

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Hidden in the Dust: Clusters of Roses

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, American Islam’s poet laureate, captures the passionate love for God that Ramadan supports.

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In Lit, Who Best Represents Each Job?

I present the best literary representatives–at least imo-of a range of professions.

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