Nothing is far

Art:    Bird    by Chris Oh   Here’s a wonderful poem by Robert Francis: Nothing Is Far BY ROBERT FRANCIS Though I have never caught the word Of God from any calling bird, I hear all that the ancients heard. Though I have seen no deity Enter or leave a twilit tree, I see all

plead to dream a dream of air

  Another summer poem: Fever BY HAILEY LEITHAUSER The heat so peaked tonight the moon can’t cool   a scum-mucked swimming pool, or breeze   emerge to lift the frowsy ruff of owls too hot   to hoot, (the mouse and brown barn rat astute   enough to know to drop and dash) while   on

Who is Immanuel Wallerstein, and why am I quoting him?

  from Wikipedia: Immanuel Wallerstein (/ˈwɔːlərstiːn/; born September 28, 1930) is an American sociologist, economic historian and world-systems analyst, arguably best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his world-systems approach.   me: He  gave this as an Address, “The End of What Modernity?” to the President’s Forum, 

The Loneliness of Donald Trump

  The following is a beautifully written essay by Rebecca Solnit. I pasted it here in its entirety because I think it is so significant. The Loneliness of Donald Trump   Once upon a time, a child was born into wealth and wanted for nothing, but he was possessed by bottomless, endless, grating, grasping wanting,

Another world

I am teaching one class at the university this semester. It’s called “Modernity in Literature” and it’s a required Core course for Juniors and/or Seniors. So my students were born in 1998 or 1999.  We are reading and talking about texts that shaped the worldview of readers in the 20th century, by writers writing from

A quick feeling, like a leaf

  Here’s a summer poem from my seventh book, Reconnaissance:     Lenape Park, 1959     Eight years old, sleek as a seal in her shiny wet swimsuit, She climbs the ladder to the high dive.   Ten feet up, balanced by thick August air, She slowly bends to see, depths down, the glacier

His labor is a chant

Bee  by Rhonda Lynn   This summer I have been particularly gardening for bees and butterflies.  I’ve been pretty successful; many happy bees, of many different kinds!  I even went to a talk on “The Bees of Maryland” by Gene Skarpula at the Maryland Natural History Museum. One of the things I found out was

Thinking of ice on this hot day

  “Water has a brain. No one knows this.”    Christian Steinbach What’s the context?  It’s from an interview done by The New Yorker about this man, nicknamed “the magic ice man.” Here’s a bit of it: It’s often said that Alpine skiing is an outdoor sport, a no-duh remark intended to account for the

Breaking the heart of the air

  High Summer     painting by Claire Christinel   More wondrous August poems on this very hot evening…   Summer BY CARLO BETOCCHI TRANSLATED BY GEOFFREY BROCK And it grows, the vain summer, even for us with our bright green sins:   behold the dry guest, the wind, as it stirs up quarrels among magnolia boughs  

Summer’s lease has all too short a date

painting by  Charles Guilloux   Maybe we have another month of summer, but the days are shortening at both ends here, in mid-August. Two poets’ thoughts on this:   “August rushes by like desert rainfall, A flood of frenzied upheaval, Expected, But still catching me unprepared. Like a matchflame Bursting on the scene, Heat and