Category Archives: Uncategorized

Master, Speak to Us of Friendship

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.”

By Robin Bates | Published: March 14, 2024

A Jean Blewett poem for St. Patrick’s Day.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2024

In which I share a talk I will be giving on the thematic significance of card playing in Jane Austen’s novels.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2024

In McEwan’s “Saturday,” the poem “Dover Beach” prevents a rape and possibly a murder.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 11, 2024

As bully, Trump resembles Curley in “Of Mice and Men.” Recently Biden, like Lennie, struck back.

By Robin Bates | Published: March 10, 2024

In “Secret Garden,” healing begins with imagining a hopeful future. It’s a lesson for dealing with our environmental challenges.