Author Archives: Robin Bates

To Understand Trump’s Trials, Ask Alice

By Robin Bates | Published: March 25, 2024

To understand the Trump trials, check out Lewis Carroll’s Alice books.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 24, 2024

As I revisited the grave of my son for the first time in six years, the concluding paragraphs of “Wuthering Heights” came to mind.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 23, 2024

Vaughan’s “Palm Sunday” draws its energy from spring growth.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 22, 2024

Few trees are more beautiful in blossom than the cherry, now in full flower in the National Arboretum. A.E. Housman knew this well.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2024

Austen’s Anne Eliott describes “good company” in a way that captures our own friendships.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 19, 2024

As we travel around the country refreshing friendships, I think of what Kahlil Gibran says about the subject.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 18, 2024

A joyous Thomas Nashe poem to welcome in the new season.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2024

Attending a good bookstore makes me realize how relatively little I have read. Borges’s “Library of Babel” makes one feel similarly small.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 16, 2024

By glorifying God, we glorify God’s creation, and vice versa. Mary Oliver captures how this works in “Summer Day.”