Tag Archives: refugees

Passover, a Time to Remember Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: April 5, 2023

Passover is a good occasion to read this Adam Zagajewski poem about refugees.

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On Telling the Homeless to “Move On”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2022

People want refugees and the homeless to be out of sight, out of mind. Like society with Jo in “Bleak House.”

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The Decision to Stay or to Leave

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2022

To leave Ukraine or stay in it: these poems grapple with such a dilemma.

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Eyes Welded Shut by Mortal Pain

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2019

Spiritual Sunday Today’s Old Testament lesson, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, is catnip to hellfire and brimstone preachers, who use it as a parable for what they regard at the modern world’s sinful ways. I find deeply problematic, however, the idea that a city is so unredeemable that every man, woman and child must […]

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Calculated Hysteria over Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: October 26, 2018

Brian Bilston’s clever poem about refugees captures America’s split over the issue while Silko’s apocalyptic vision matches white nationalist nightmares.

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Brecht Quatrains for Challenging Times

By Robin Bates | Published: November 17, 2017

During World War II Bertolt Brecht wrote quatrains that speak powerfully to our own political times.

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The Odyssey Speaks to Today’s Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2015

“The Odyssey” looked different to a literature teacher after he taught it to a class of Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. Homer’s poem challenges us to open our own hearts to those fleeing persecution and war.

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Tolstoy Calls Us to Aid Syrian Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2015

During the evacuation of Moscow in “War and Peace,” the Rostov family gives up their worldly goods to help soldiers in distress. This is much more than many in the U.S. are willing to do for Syrian refugees.

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A Guest Worthy To Be Here

By Robin Bates | Published: September 5, 2015

Jesus learned to accept a Canaanite woman at his table and George Herbert learns that he belongs at that table. We can use them as models as we face refugees and immigrants.

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