Wednesday This past Sunday I shared a number of poems from Lucille Clifton’s Book of Days to reflect on how Christian nationalists, many of them wielding weapons of war, work against Jesus’s goal to bring the kingdom of God to Earth. One poem from the collection particularly stands out in the wake of the mass […]
Monthly Archives: May 2022
Gun Violence and Armageddon
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Easter 1916", "armageddon", Buffalo mass shooting, gun violence, Lucille Clifton, Uvalde mass shooting, violence, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Debunking Cherished Myths
In Brecht’s “Galileo,” we see how myths blind us to facts. Consider the the wild west myth that a only good guy with a gun will take down a bad guy with a gun.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bertolt Brecht, Galileo, gun epidemic, gun safety, mass shootings, NRA, school shootings, Uvalde shootings Comments closed
How Weigh the Cost of the War Dead?
In “The Watchers,” Whittier honors the fallen while seeing the necessity of war to bring about freedom.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Watchers", Civil War, John Greenleaf Whittier, Memorial Day, slavery Comments closed
Thy Will Be Done on Earth
Lucille Clifton’s final book of poems call out some of the blindnesses of Christian fundamentalists.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Black Boy, Book of Days, Christian nationalists, Fundamentalism, Lucille Clifton, Richard Wright Comments closed
On Men and Novel Reading
Thoughts on the differences between women and men reading novels.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Jane Austen, Melodrama, men reading, Northanger Abbey Comments closed
Massacre Machinery & Slaughterhouse 5
Kurt Vonnegut, one who has seen the horrors of war, was a passionate opponent of guns in civilian hands.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged gun violence, Kurt Vonnegut, mass shootings, Slaughterhouse Five Comments closed
A Poem for Uvalde’s Grieving Families
In the wake of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, here’s a Conrad Aiken poem for all who are suffering heartbreak.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Bread and Music", Conrad Aiken, death of a child, mass shooting Comments closed
Which Poets Should Ukraine Honor?
Ukraine is currently taking down monuments to Russian-speaking poets and authors.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alexander Pushkin, Joseph Brodsky, monuments and statues, Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine, Ukraine invasion, Vasyl Stus Comments closed
Austen on the Simple Country Life
In the strawberry picking scene in “Emma,” Austen wields her satiric pen to take apart social climber Mrs. Elton.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged class anxiety, Emma, Gustave Flaubert, indirect style, Jane Austen, Madame Bovary Comments closed
