Monthly Archives: January 2022

A Poem Describing Literature Lovers

By Robin Bates | Published: January 20, 2022

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.

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Are the Liberal Arts Automatically Liberal?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2022

Literature, in the current climate, cannot help but be seen as political. That’s because it urges us to consider other views.

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Book Bans Again on the Rise

By Robin Bates | Published: January 18, 2022

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.”

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Skiddeth Bus and Sloppeth Us

By Robin Bates | Published: January 17, 2022

Pound’s “Ancient Music” is the perfect poem for people feeling overwhelmed by snow.

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His Word Still Burns the Center of the Sun

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2022

I recall the day I heard Martin Luther King speak and share a Gwendolyn Brooks poem.

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The Lynching of Jesus

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2022

In “Christ in Alabama,” Hughes imagines a black Christ being lynched by a white mob.

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A Comic Tweeter in Love with Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: January 13, 2022

My son Toby Wilson-Bates is a master of comic literary twitter. I share examples.

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Rogers, Covid, and Atlas Shrugged

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2022

Quarterback Rogers’s favorite book, “Atlas Shrugged,” helps explain his Covid resistance.

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The Fearsome Georgia Bulldogs

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2022

To honor the world champion Georgia Bulldogs, I compare them to the bulldog (actually, bull terrier) in “Oliver Twist.”

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