In “The Retiring Candle,” Scott Bates says it’s okay to hide your light under a bushel–as long as you have a good book, that is.
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Are the Liberal Arts Automatically Liberal?
Literature, in the current climate, cannot help but be seen as political. That’s because it urges us to consider other views.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "note to self", "grandma we are poets", Critical Race Theory, Liberal arts education, Lucille Clifton, Othello, rightwing radicalism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Book Bans Again on the Rise
With book bans on the rise, Langston Hughes’s “My Adventures as a Social Poet” is must reading. So is Brecht’s “Burning of the Books.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Burning of the Books", Bertolt Brecht, Book banning, Ethnic Studies, Langston Hughes, librotraficantes, My Adventures as a Social Poet Comments closed
Skiddeth Bus and Sloppeth Us
Pound’s “Ancient Music” is the perfect poem for people feeling overwhelmed by snow.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ancient Music", "Snow-Storm", "Summer Is Icumen In", Anonyous, Ezra Pound, snow Comments closed
His Word Still Burns the Center of the Sun
I recall the day I heard Martin Luther King speak and share a Gwendolyn Brooks poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Martin Luther King Jr.", Civil Rights Movement, Gwendolyn Brooks, non-violence Comments closed
The Lynching of Jesus
In “Christ in Alabama,” Hughes imagines a black Christ being lynched by a white mob.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Christ In Alabama", Langston Hughes, lynching, Martin Luther King, Scottsboro Boys, segregation Comments closed
A Comic Tweeter in Love with Lit
My son Toby Wilson-Bates is a master of comic literary twitter. I share examples.
Rogers, Covid, and Atlas Shrugged
Quarterback Rogers’s favorite book, “Atlas Shrugged,” helps explain his Covid resistance.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Aaron Rogers, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Covid vaccine, COVID-19, Football, Novak Djokovic, tennis, vaccine denial Comments closed
The Fearsome Georgia Bulldogs
To honor the world champion Georgia Bulldogs, I compare them to the bulldog (actually, bull terrier) in “Oliver Twist.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Arizona Crimson Tide, Charles Dickens, Football, Georgia Bulldogs, Oliver Twist Comments closed
