Monthly Archives: June 2021

Sumer Is i-Cumin In

By Robin Bates | Published: June 20, 2021

Nothing welcomes in the summer as well as this medieval lyric.

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Father God, I Want to Sit on Your Knees

By Robin Bates | Published: June 19, 2021

A Katherine Mansfield poem to “God the Father” for Father’s Day.

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A Father’s Day Poem about Tenderness

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2021

For upcoming Father’s Day, here’s a poem about father tenderness by Li-Young Lee.

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Was Jan. 6 Just Sound and Fury?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 16, 2021

Is rightwing militancy in America no more than “sound and fury, signifying nothing”? We can but pray that it is.

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To Esmé, without the Squalor

By Robin Bates | Published: June 15, 2021

I reflect upon a significant literary antecedent for my eldest granddaughter’s name and what it means.

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Marx & Engels on the Usefulness of Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: June 14, 2021

Marx and Engels see literature as playing a role in class conflict, just not the major role.

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A Poem for Those Enduring the Heat Wave

By Robin Bates | Published: June 13, 2021

A poem for those suffering through heat waves.

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I Will Take A Sprig from a Lofty Cedar

By Robin Bates | Published: June 12, 2021

Ezekiel’s poem about cedar trees brings to mind a Robert Haas poem about apple trees. Both tree poems promise a renewal of faith.

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Pushing 70 but Acting Like a Little Boy

By Robin Bates | Published: June 10, 2021

Tomorrow I turn 70. This Lu Yu captures the freshness that I always hope to maintain.

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