I’ve spent the last couple of days going through my father’s files (and throwing most of them away). I feel like Heracles cleaning out the Augean stables, as described by Seamus Heaney.
Tag Archives: Scott Bates
A Herculean Task: Purging Old Files
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "at last we killed the roaches", Augean stables, Herzog, Lucille Clifton, Saul Bellow, Seamus Heaney Comments closed
Curling Up with a Good Book
This Scott Bates is a testimony to the solitary joy of reading.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Retiring Candle", Charles Perrault, Erewhon, Evangelism, Jesus, Lewis Carroll, reading, Samuel Butler, Thorstein Veblen, Through the Looking Glass, Yevgeny Yevtushenko Comments closed
The Epiphany from a Camel’s Point of View
In a very engaging poem, Scott Bates tells the story of the Epiphany from the point of view of the came of one of the Wise Men.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fable of the Third Christmas Camel", "Journey of the Magi", Epiphany, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
There’s More to Christmas Than We Think
When fundamentalist Christians say that there is a war on Christmas, they point to secular and pagan threats. But many of the symbols they embrace are borrowed from other religions traditions, as this Scott Bates poem makes clear.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Christmas at the Courthouse", Christmas, nativity scene Comments closed
The Tern from Turner, Maine
A fun poem about a liberated tern from Turner, Maine.
An ANTidote for Apocalyptic Talk
Depressed by all the doom and gloom being voiced in the presidential primaries? Here’s a Scott Bates poem about an apocalytptic antichrist ant to lighten you mood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "A Is for Apocalyptic Ant", politics, Presidential Primaries Comments closed
Has America Become a Lion for Peace?
From having destabilized the world with the invasion of Iraq, America is becoming a force for peace with the Iranian peace accord. The turnaround reminds me of the evangelical lion in one of Scott Bates’s animal fables.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "St. Leo the Evangelical Lion", Iran, Iranian Peace Accord, peace Comments closed
A Season for Miraculous Breakthroughs
In this Scott Bates poem about Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 American-Soviet rescue operation that liberated three ice-bound gray whales, the possibility for international cooperation to save the planet is imagined. Were he still alive today, my father would be excited by the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Great Whale Rap", climate change, Environment, Operation Breakthrough, Paris climate accord, Whales Comments closed
