Author Archives: Robin Bates

After This Is Over–a Prayer

A prayer poem for those who feel they have experienced an apocalyptic moment.

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Zadie Smith in a Postcolonial World

My Postcolonial Lit class, taught in Slovenia, concluded with Zadie Smith exploring a transformed, multicultural world.

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Art Takes Us into a Luminescent World

A visit to artist friends in Assisi revealed a luminescent world and brought to mind Thomas Gray’s “Elegy on a Country Churchyard.”

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Rushdie on Dreams That Refuse to Die

While “Midnight’s Children” may apply only too closely to Trump-led America, there’s some room for hope in it as well.

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The Courage to Find Hope Within

A recent poem about hope–which many of us need at the moment.

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Soldiers: Citizens of Death’s Grey Land

A poem by World War I vet Siegfried Sassoon describing soldiers as dreamers.

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On Christians Who Devour the Poor

Richard Crashaw calls out those religious leaders who, like the pampered scribes attacked by Jesus, devour widows’ houses. We’ve got our own hypocritical Christians today.

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The Political Results of Collective Amnesia

Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” describes the kind of amnesia following a traumatic incident that may help explain one of the reasons why Trump beat Biden.

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Stop the Clocks: This Is the Hour of Lead

Auden’s mourning poem “Stop All the Clocks” captures the mood of those who saw a fascist triumph in the American presidential election.

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