Tag Archives: hope

Share Hope and Watch It Grow

By Robin Bates | Published: January 1, 2019

New Year’s Day Former colleague Dana Greene alerted me to this luminescent New Year’s poem by Denise Levertov. In it, the poet compares hope to a small crystal and a cluster of irises. When Emily Dickinson describes hope as “the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” she focuses on the individual. Hope comes […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "For the New Year 1981", Denise Levertov, New Year | Comments closed

Read This Poem To Feel Better

By Robin Bates | Published: November 15, 2018

Sheenagh Pugh’s “Sometimes” is a good poem to read if you’re feeling down.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Sometimes", Sheenagh Pugh | Comments closed

Three Poems for Surviving Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: October 17, 2017

Hope is needed in the face to emotional exhaustion over Trumpism. Here are three poems about finding hope in dark times.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hope is the thing with feathers", David Whyte, Donald Trump, Emily Dickson, Lucille Clifton | Comments closed

Despite Trump, “The Land Holds Us Still”

By Robin Bates | Published: December 7, 2016

On this one-month anniversary of the 2016 election, I look back at two authors who meditated on what to do next immediately after hearing the news. Terry Tempest Williams looks to nature while Zadie Smith looks to the music to be found in multiethnic harmony.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Erosion", 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, resistance, Terry Temest Williams, White Teeth, Zadie Smith | Comments closed

Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2015

Following philosopher Adrienne Martin, I meditate on what it means to “hope against hope” or to have “unimaginable hope.” The texts I use are “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “Beowulf,” and “Wizard of Earthsea.”