I can wade grief

Here is a poem by Emily Dickinson, American poet  : The Test     by Emily Dickinson I can wade grief, Whole pools of it, — I ‘m used to that. But the least push of joy Breaks up my feet, And I tip — drunken. Let no pebble smile, ‘T was the new liquor, — That was

Building Facades

  I’m taking “façade” in its most literal sense:  the face of a building. These are some facades that intrigue me: Pontalba building, New Orleans Louisiana USA   Tudor façade, Chester  UK façade of a McDonald’s,  Georgia Tour Vegetal,  Nantes, France And finally, here is the medieval façade of the west front of Salisbury Cathedral,

Courage to Speak, Humility to Listen

No valuing of humility in evidence in the September 26 debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  I think of Mohandas Gandhi  and Desmond Tutu, and  I weep.   Here’s a passage from the writings of Parker Palmer, and a poem by Marge Piercy. These appeared on the podcast “On Being.” “If we value things

Unfinished Symphonies

Karl Rahner, the great twentieth century Jesuit theologian, once said: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished.” He’s not the only one. Henry Ward Beecher, nineteenth century American clergyman, abolitionist, and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, observed:     <a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/unfinished/”>Unfinished</a&gt;

and sorry I could not travel both

Read again this classic poem by Robert Frost : The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just

Perfect Dress

It amazes me when I look at stylish dresses and how they change from decade to decade. In particular, I decided to look at prom dresses: Here is a recent prom dress : Here’s a prom photo from the 1990’s:   and here’s what a prom dress looked like in the 1950’s: When I saw

“A word is worth one coin; silence, two.”

How ironic!   I can talk on and on about the word silence! So many songs, so many poems, so many associations! However, I’ve decided to talk about Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen. It was first published in 1967, but the themes of the story are timeless. The novel is set in New York at the

My Favorite Hiking Story

I am not much of a hiker.  I’m a bird watcher, so when I hike, I am stopping frequently to look and listen.  I have no destination. This book, however, is one I loved.  It is laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and generally just a good honest human story. It’s been made into a film, but

The Passionate, Accurate Story

  About fifteen years ago I read The Passionate, Accurate Story: Making Your Heart’s Truth into Literature by Carol Bly   I am not by nature a fiction writer, but still, this book had a large impact upon me. Here are some quotes from it: “It is very difficult to teach navigation theory to someone

Fragile Jelly

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/fragile/”>Fragile</a&gt; About thirteen years ago, I lost the central vision in my left eye. Three surgeries couldn’t repair it.  My other eye compensates, but this event has caused me to value my eyes more than I ever did before. Here is one of the poems I wrote on the subject.  In Shakespeare’s King Lear,