Tuesday We’ve put up a birdfeeder outside our screened-in back porch and are now being visited by a non-stop stream of goldfinches, titmice, and chickadees. One additional benefit is that, for the first time in my life, I fully appreciate a Yeats image that has always eluded me. It makes sense that “The Lake Isle […]
Monthly Archives: July 2020
On John Lewis’s Love of “Invictus”
The late John Lewis’s favorite poem was apparently “Invictus,” a problematic lyric but one can see how Lewis used it in the cause of social justice.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Invictus", Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis, William Ernest Henley Comments closed
Scraping One’s Knees on Jacob’s Ladder
Denise Levertov draws on the Jacob’s dream about a stairway to heaven to capture poetry’s transcendent qualities.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Altar", "Circus Animals Desertion", "Jacob's Ladder", 9-11 poems, Denise Levertov, George Herbert, Lucille Clifton, sacred spaces, Transcendence, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
An Early Advocate of Native Lives Matter
A recent SCOTUS ruling in favor of Indian rights brings to mind a Scott Bates poem about Christian Priber, an early fighter for Indian autonomy.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "P Is for Pribers Paradise", Christian G. Priber, Colonialism, Indian rights, McGirt v Oklahoma, Scott Bates Comments closed
Young People and Covid Spread
Dr. Birx has blamed the Covid-19 explosion in part on irresponsible young people. Reading the carpe diem poets would have helped her understand them better.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time", Andrew Marvell, carpe diem, coronavirus response, COVID-19, Robert Herrick Comments closed
We Are Waiting Rooms at Bus Stations
As poet Marge Piercy sees it, we are bus station waiting rooms through which people pass, each leaving an imprint.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Visible and the In-", identity, Marge Piercy, personal encounters, Relationships Comments closed
Mary Trump, Smiley on Nightmare Families
To see another family as dysfunctional as the one Mary Trump describes in her recent book, look to Jane Smiley’s “Thousand Acres.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, family dysfunction, Jane Smiley, King Lear, Mary Trump, Thousand Acres, Too Much and Never Enough, Trump family, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Hearts Upright & Sound Receive the Seed
In a series of parables, 18th century poet Christopher Smart sought to make Jesus’s parables accessible to the expanding middle class.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Sower and the Seed", Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Smart, evangelical movements, Jesus parables Comments closed
