My heart rouses to bring you news, that concerns you and concerns many men. It is difficult to get the news from despised poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. That’s Dr. William … Continue reading →

A show which starts humbly in musings of humble arts, sweeping and ironing, and ends with a transcendent vision of transcendent arts of sweeping and ironing as nothing less than Truth and Beauty, and along the way picks up four … Continue reading →

A FRESH START IN THE NO-COUNT NEW YEAR, featuring Henry David Thoreau’s Chanticleer and the Morning Risers, a cast of thousands of epic minds from every culture and clime: who doesn’t write about morning? Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Hirsch, Billy … Continue reading →

John Muir, of such currency in our culture that California’s quarter features him, died almost one hundred years ago today, Christmas Eve, at a hospital here in Los Angeles. On his death certificate, his occupation was listed as “Geologist.” . … Continue reading →

“I’ve known rivers.” That’s Langston Hughes. Perhaps the human soul has known rivers forever. Certainly there are soulful songs about rivers in our lives today. There’s Paul Robeson’s Old Man River, and Moon River and Billy Joel’s River of Dreams, and Joni Mitchell’s “wish … Continue reading →

Bring Forth the Nobody and Send In the Clowns: The Wild Spirit of Emily Dickinson’s Creativity and Freedom We Celebrate on Her Birthday “lest any doubt that we are glad that they are born today”   I have come to … Continue reading →

In Memory of Ruth Stone, b. 1915, d. Nov 19, 2011 And honoring Robert Hass, former poet laureate, Library of Congress “Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind.” Georg Simmel Thanksgiving, Football, Pumpkins, Shopping, a Little Time Out! It is … Continue reading →

From my journal: I read the paper, The San Francisco Chronicle, that Christer puts for me in the back room to savor and drink my first cup of coffee before the morning email. This day’s first page deals with a … Continue reading →

My heart rouses to bring you news that concerns you and concerns many men. It is difficult to get the news from despised poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. You know who … Continue reading →

What is not flighty but soars? You, Poetry Slow Down Listeners!   “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Kahil Gibran “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position … Continue reading →