I gave up writing rhymed poetry a long time ago. In grade school I composed limericks about other people at recess (not an avenue to popularity, believe me); in college I once wrote a truly awful sonnet that included the word “manacle,” and to my everlasting shame, I entered it in a poetry contest. […]
MoreWhen You Are Old by William Butler Yeats When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of […]
MoreThe brutal assault on journalist Lara Logan during the Tahrir Square celebration of the Egyptian revolution shocks and repulses. (Surrounded by a mob of 200 men, Logan was separated from her crew, stripped and beaten. A group of Egyptian women and soldiers came to her rescue.) Some shocking and repulsive reactions to her ordeal […]
MoreDust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued. The Wall Street Journal reports that scientists have identified a […]
MoreHere’s a sampling of the Valentine’s Day cards I’m sending to my friends: I found these retro Valentine’s Day cards on line. I love them because they’re corny and sweet but mostly because they’re not associated with any advertising campaign like the Hello Kitty or Barbie or Toy Story valentines that drugstores shelve this time […]
MoreThe other night I made a discovery at the library. It was the most excited I’d been at the library since I got a $25 fine waived by a sympathetic clerk who had no knowledge of my shameful history of overdue books. My heart was pumping happily along as the discovery unfolded before me, until […]
MoreA Man Said to the Universe by Stephen Crane A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me “A sense of obligation.” Here in Michigan, last week’s Blizzard of the Century earned the same distinction among storms as Student of the Month has among […]
MoreAutobiographia Literaria by Frank O’Hara When I was a child I played by myself in a corner of the schoolyard all alone. – I hated dolls and I hated games, animals were not friendly and birds flew away. – If anyone was looking for me I hid behind a tree and cried out “I am […]
MoreThe other day I posted but didn’t analyze a poem by Carl Sandburg. (The poem begins Hog butcher for the world, which might be a fun way to answer the phone when telemarketers call.) Did Carl Sandburg’s name ring a bell with you? If you experienced not a clang but only a faint tinkle from […]
Morelike so: This poem is very long and I’m unable to find a copy of it online (and unwilling to type it up myself), so my photographs will be the only version of the text available. Here goes: Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my father’s death. A lot of the family commemorated the […]
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