Monthly Archives: August 2020

Choose Honey over Race Hatred

By Robin Bates | Published: August 31, 2020

Audre Lorde captures the utter waste when we descend into violence, a good message for the race hatred we are witnessing around the country.

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Novels That Predicted a Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: August 30, 2020

Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” and Roth’s “Plot against America” do a very good job of predicting a Donald Trump.

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Without Nature, No Language for Soul

By Robin Bates | Published: August 29, 2020

In an age when we are exhausted by apocalyptic rhetoric, Richard Wilbur provides a poem that remind us of how much we owe to natural beauty.

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Obama: From Patience to Fury

By Robin Bates | Published: August 27, 2020

Dryden’s “beware the fury of a patient man” applies to the speech that Obama gave last week at the Democratic National Convention.

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The USPS and Conspiracy Theories

By Robin Bates | Published: August 26, 2020

As controversies swirl around the postal service, Pynchon’s “Crying of Lot 49” seems relevant. So does Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.”

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Does Lit Lead to Illicit Sex?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 25, 2020

Dante’s beautifully tragic account of Paolo and Francesca captures–as many great works do–the dangers of total absorption in a relationship.

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A Poem Brought to You by the Letter C

By Robin Bates | Published: August 24, 2020

This playful poem by my father about a rebellious letter C makes me wish he had been able to share his poetry with my grandson.

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Children’s Natural Affinity for Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: August 23, 2020

I describe here the remote poetry instruction I have been conducting with my 8-year-old grandson for the past four months.

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A Weary Pilgrim, Now at Rest

By Robin Bates | Published: August 22, 2020

An Anne Bradstreet poem captures some of the spirit of the funeral for a close friend.

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