Undergoing a biopsy for prostate cancer has sent me to Dante’s ninth circle of Inferno for imagery that captures the experience.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Dante’s Inferno and My Cancer Biopsy
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged cancer biopsy, Dante, Divine Comedy, Inferno, John Milton, Paradise Lost Comments closed
Ralph Chaplin’s Poetic Call to Action
In a poem perhaps written in prison in 1917. Chaplin calls out the “cowed and the meek” who “see the world’s great anguish and its wrong and dare not speak!”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Mourn Not the Dead", GOP legislators, Ralph Chaplin, resistance Comments closed
How Homer Would Judge ICE
When ICE agents arrested people who had served them in a restaurant, they broke a taboo that goes at least as far back as Homer.
Standing Up to Trump’s Nazgul
Battling Trump feels eerily like the hobbits battling Sauron.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, ICE deportations, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
Micah and Dickinson on Kindness
The prophet Micah’s famous observation about justice, kindness, and humility can lead us to other poems about kindness, including Dickinson’s “If I can stop one heart from breaking.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Kindness", “If I can stop one heart from breaking", Emily Dickinson, Micah, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Minneapolis and Measure for Measure
Trump’s corrupt offer to Minnesota—give up your voting records and we’ll withdraw ICE—brings to mind Angelo’s corrupt offer in “Measure for Measure.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, ICE, Measure for Measure, Pam Bondi, William Shakespeare Comments closed
J.D. Vance as Andrew Aguecheek
Think of J.D. Vance as Sir Andrew Aguecheek from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged ICE killings, J.D. Vance, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Seeing the World as Your Plaything
A passage from William Cowper’s “The Task”—about self-indulgent princes—captures America’s current president.