Monthly Archives: June 2022

Trump Dreamed a Voldemort Moment

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2022

It’s now clear that Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021, dreamed of leading his followers into the Capitol. Think of Voldemort entering Hogwarts.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged authoritarianism, Donald Trump, Fascism, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, January 6 insurrection, January 6 Investigation Committee, Vladimir Putin, Voldemort | Comments closed

Mother and Son in a Daily Dance of Pain

By Robin Bates | Published: June 29, 2022

As I lift up my mother from her sick bed, I sometimes think of Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” even though the situations are markedly different.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "My Papa's Waltz", Covid 19, Illness, old age, Parent-child relationships, Theodore Roethke | Comments closed

The Underground Railway Returns

By Robin Bates | Published: June 28, 2022

In Coates’s “Water Dancer,” we see the necessity of a reliable underground railway. We will need the same for red state women seeking abortions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Abortion, Dobbs v Jackson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Underground Railroad, Water Dancer | Comments closed

Read Lit, Then Fight for Freedom

By Robin Bates | Published: June 27, 2022

While literature may seem irrelevant to our political battles, it provides (as Shelley points out) an invaluable human compass.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abortion debates, Azar Nafisi, Defence of Poetry, Percy Shelley, Reading Lolita in Tehran | Comments closed

Dr. Frankenstein, Birth Enforcer

By Robin Bates | Published: June 26, 2022

Shelley’s “Frankenstein” understands issues that have arisen around the abortion debate.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Abortion, anti-abortion movement, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Roe v Wade | Comments closed

David’s Music in a Time of Illness

By Robin Bates | Published: June 25, 2022

This Hecht poem about David performing for Saul soothed my own bout with illness.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Among School Children", "Saul and David", Anthony Hecht, COVID-19, W.B. Yeats | Comments closed

Stopping Trump’s Loose Cannon

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2022

Some of the officials who bravely stood up to Trump after his electoral defeat enabled him earlier. They are like the gunner with the loose cannon in Hugo’s “93.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Donald Trump, GOP, January 6 Investigation Committee, Ninety-Three, Rusty Bowers, Victor Hugo, William Barr | Comments closed

On Fathers & Sons & Things Fall Apart

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2022

In a recent talk with my oldest son, I suddenly realized I was replicating my father’s relationship with me. I also found myself identifying with characters in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Chinua Achebe, fathers and sons, Things Fall Apart | Comments closed

Poetry Helps Balance Realism & Hope

By Robin Bates | Published: June 21, 2022

Poetry not only calls out society’s ills but offers us hope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Speech to the Young", Audre Lorde, Edwidge Danticat, Gwendolyn Brooks, hope, Karl Marx | Comments closed