Tag Archives: fathers and sons

Homage to My Father, a Reader

By Robin Bates | Published: August 24, 2018

Friday Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of my father’s death. To remember him, I share one of his poems about reading. My father read to my brothers and me virtually every night when we were growing up, passing along a passion that became our own. In “The Retiring Candle,” he imagines an introverted candle retreating […]

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Loud Sneezes, a Sign from the Gods

By Robin Bates | Published: July 28, 2014

My loud sneezes, according to Homer, as a sign from the gods.

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Remembering a Father’s Tenderness

By Robin Bates | Published: June 15, 2014

In this poem about his father, Li-Young Lee remembers a tender moment that has led to his own tenderness as an adult.

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Great Political Novels Not Agenda Driven

By Robin Bates | Published: September 27, 2012

Great political novels are rich in spiritual attitude. Poor ones are agenda driven.

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Sons Must Kill Their Fathers, Alas

By Robin Bates | Published: January 18, 2012

There’s is no easy way for son’s to find their identities apart from their fathers, but they have no choice but to try.

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The Greatest Generation’s Citizen Kane

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2010

Charlie Kane sold to a bank  Film Friday Several weeks ago I wrote about the impact that the movie Citizen Kane had on my father in the months before he was drafted into the army in 1942. I was so fascinated by his response that I collaborated with him on an article about what Citizen […]

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My Three Sons and the Mystic Power of 3

By Robin Bates | Published: July 31, 2009

  Yesterday I was talking to my wife about our children—who, at 27 and 25, I admit are no longer children.  Being the proud parents that we are, we were noting with wonder how they are identifying their gifts, building upon their strengths, and developing into fully self-actualized human beings.  As we talked, however, we […]

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On Literary Names and Destinies

By Robin Bates | Published: July 26, 2009

Reynold, “Portrait of Sterne”                                   Just as I was born into a literary name, so were Darien and Toby.  Before telling the story, I will follow up on the allusion in my last post to Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy […]

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On Being Named after Christopher Robin

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2009

  As I have been writing about fathers and sons in the past few posts, I shift today from my position of father to that of son and to the literary origins of my name.   My father named me after Christopher Robin and recently told me that he envisioned having the kind of relationship with […]

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