“The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.” —George Bernard Shaw I’ve put untapped potential on a shelfmuch like a book one someday wants to read.I’m less concerned with . . . . Continue Reading »
Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah —2 Chronicles 35:25 Weep, oh weep! Josiah’s dead, the child-king has been killed, and Judah could go to the grave, the promise unfulfilled, And precious Zion stands condemned, Who will save Jerusalem? Josiah, the resilient king who overcame the odds, . . . . Continue Reading »
Goliath Picture a twelve-year-oldwith round rocks for his slingfacing the fearsome, boldGoliath. In a ringtwo armies stand apart.The boy with his brave heart can kill from thirty yardswolves on a pasture’s banks,but now the lamb he guardsis Israel. The ranksof Philistines at warcut . . . . Continue Reading »
Scottish poet Thomas A. Clark believes the imagination is the key to transforming our inhuman culture. Continue Reading »
Don't borrow another's thoughtwithout citation. Don't filchanother writer's diction,assuming I'm deaf to styleand tone—elements I teach.Remember, if you Google,copy, paste, I will followthe crumbs, find your swiped intro,patchwork body paragraphs.I will expose each captive,orphaned sentence. . . . . Continue Reading »
I follow the clean-edged macadam northTo catch the train. The maples lining bothSides hang with leaves turned soft but brilliant reds,Oranges, and umbers that will make their bedsSoon in the unmown grass that lines my street,And crumble at the weight of passing feet.The people who just moved in . . . . Continue Reading »
John Bradburne—the saintly ascetic murdered in 1979 while caring for lepers in Rhodesia—was also the most prolific poet in the English language. Continue Reading »
Watch poet Dana Gioia recite “Majority,” a tribute to his son who died in infancy. Continue Reading »
Enticing to the coward is the crowd:It speaks what each dares not to speak alone,And compensates for fear with voices loudTo offer wisdom that it doesn’t own.With stridency, a courage is displayedWhich hadn’t been in evidence before;The shame of individuals afraidFor just a time the crowd lets . . . . Continue Reading »
Allen Tate: The Modern Mind and the Discovery of Enduring Loveby john v. glass iiithe catholic university of america, 376 pages, $59.95 I well remember sitting up half the night annotating Allen Tate’s “Ode to the Confederate Dead” in my Norton anthology. As do I remember reading for the first . . . . Continue Reading »
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