A Paul Dunbar poem to celebrate the summer solstice
Monthly Archives: June 2025
Gwendolyn Brooks’ Primer for Juneteenth
To mark Juneteenth, here are poems by Gwendolyn Brooks and Lucille Clifton celebrating Blackness.
Trump-Musk, Sauron-Saruman
Think of Trump as Sauron and Musk as Saruman in their recent tiff.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged corruption, DOGE, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion Leave a comment
Using Murakami to Explore MAGA Sadism
In his popular novel “Kafka on the Shore,” Murakami explores the kind of sadism that we are currently witnessing in Trump’s MAGA supporters.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, MAGA, sadism, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Comments closed
A.A. Milne and a Squeaking Tank
A squeaking tank at Trump’s military parade brings to mind Milne’s “The Knight Whose Armor Didn’t Squeak”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Knight Whose Armor Didn't Squeak", A. A. Milne, Arthur Sullivan, Gondoliers, June 14 parade, No Kings Protests, W.S. Gilbert Comments closed
God the Father as Loving Protector
Imagine God, not as an angry father demanding punishment for sin, but a loving father holding us lovingly in His arms. Happy Fathers Day.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Shoulders", John Donne "Hymn to God the Father", John Milton, Naomi Shihab Nye, Paradise Lost Comments closed
A.I. and the Tech Bro Accelerationists
AI is the darling of Silicon Valley accelerationists, who sound like the old Italian Futurists and who appear never to have read Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Andy Beckett, climate change, Ezra Pound, Fascism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Frankenstein, Greg Olear, Italian Futurism, Macbeth, Mary Shelley, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tobias Wilson-Bates, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Song of Angry Americans
As Trump attends a performance of “Les Misérables,” I apply passages from the novel to his military crackdown on protest.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Les Misérables, Martial law, Victor Hugo Comments closed
Without Literature, No Freedom
In a commencement address, novelist Nicole Krauss made an eloquent plea for the necessity of literature in maintaining democracy.
