Monthly Archives: April 2024

Ask Not for Whom the Bush Burns

By Robin Bates | Published: April 20, 2024

In this Passover poem, Chaya Lester calls us to have the courage to leave traumatic relationships.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Hear the Call", "Passover", abusive relationships, Chaya Lester, Exodus, trauma | Comments closed

In a Dante-esque Prison of His Own Making

By Robin Bates | Published: April 18, 2024

Trump’s suffering the the Manhattan courtroom is his own version of Dante’s Inferno.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged authoritarianism, Dante, Donald Trump, Fascism, Inferno, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Trump trials | Comments closed

Mary Oliver on Frog (and Human) Sex

By Robin Bates | Published: April 17, 2024

Mary Oliver captures the magic of April in these two sexually-charged frog poems.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Blossom", "Spring", April, frogs, Mary Oliver | Comments closed

Poetry’s Role in the 2019 Indian Protests

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2024

Poetry has been a powerful ally of Indian Muslims protesting Modi’s Hindu nationalism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "On That Day", "You Will See", 2019 Indian Muslim protests, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Hindu Nationalism, Hussain Haidry, protest poetry, Urdu poetry | Comments closed

Bothsiderism in Lewis’ Last Battle

By Robin Bates | Published: April 15, 2024

When the journalists engage in bothsiderism in the 2024 election, they resemble the dwarfs in Lewis’s “Last Battle.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bothsiderism, C.S. Lewis, Donald Trump, Journalism, Last Battle, mainstream medium, press freedom | Comments closed

Literature on Why Taxes Are Good

By Robin Bates | Published: April 14, 2024

Edgar A. Guest has a fun poem in favor of taxes. And Dickens unloads on those with money who avoid paying them.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged billionaires, Charles Dickens, Edgar A. Guest, Hard Times, Taxes, wealth inequality | Comments closed

The Healing Power of Biblical Stories

By Robin Bates | Published: April 13, 2024

In her new book about Biblical healing stories, Hess uses the Gospel’s narrative richness to address issues of depression.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bible, Biblical healing stories, Depression, Doubt, doubting Thomas, Lory Widmer Hess, When Fragments Make a Whole | Comments closed

Wyatt Prunty on Faith and Imagination

By Robin Bates | Published: April 11, 2024

In a talk on “Faith and the Imagination,” poet Wyatt Prunty talked about the faith required in the creative process–which is also like faith in one’s children growing up.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Learning the Bicycle", "On the Death of My Son", "Writer", Ben Jonson, creative process, Richard Wilbur, Wyatt Prunty | Comments closed

How Quixote Hones Problem-Solving Skills

By Robin Bates | Published: April 10, 2024

Works that employ meta-fiction to break down the boundaries between the real and the fantastical teach us how to think outside the box.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Angus Fletcher, Aristophanes, breaking the fourth wall, counterfactual thinkiing, Don Quixote, Lysistrata, Miguel de Cervantes, Plautus, Pseudolus, Wonderworks | Comments closed