Resurrection
I am already a dead man: I have broken faith With the life entrusted to my treasuring, and Not once, but again and again, as if at…
Travel: A Poem
The birds that traverse the garden – Emerging to sight above the hedge, The silvery magnolia tree, the rose Branches splayed against the sky – From east…
Dumpster Diving for T.S. Eliot
Last year I wrote of my experience jumping into a school’s dumpster in order to rescue books that had been thrown out for reasons unknown to me.[1]…
What the Dragonfly Told Me
Bend down, arch down Down toward the glass surfaced pond Not a ripple disturbs your amorous gaze Lower now still to witness your birth anew And with…
The Next Generation
This strong foreigner’s strength Passed down through her father’s blood And before that from Yangban The honored class of scholars To this woman who is now The…
The Poetic Interiority of Sensuality
Quali fioretti dal notturno gelo chinati e chiusi, poi che ’l sol li ’mbianca si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo As gentle flowers, by the frost…
Made in Italy: A Poem
There is this room. There are the paintings, Family photographs standing in their frames, Sofas, cushions – books, magazines, coasters On the table – the little Italian…
Fear, Dust, and Water: A Look Into T.S. Eliot’s Poetic Imagery
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us…
Poems and a Poor Old Lady in December
A most welcome December, and a most welcome Advent season. We often joke on an annual basis around this time, saying “where has the year gone?” It…
Philosophy and the Beyond
"The philosophies of this world are blind to true divinity—the living God”. This introductory proposition summarizes a traditional indictment of Christianity as represented most notably by Saint…
Socrates’ Homer in the Republic: Retaining the Poetic Past and Preparing for the Philosophic Future
Homer is acknowledged by Socrates as the educator of Hellas, “the most poetic of the poets and the first of tragedians” who provides the model around which…
The Other Side of Bleakness: On Winter and the Nativity
Those of us who associate Christmas with cold weather, rain, snow, dark days with little sunlight, and windy chills, might sometimes forget to count our blessings. It…
Sense and Senselessness in Lyn Hejinian’s Postmodernism
The Unfollowing. Lyn Hejinian. Oakland, CA: Omnidawn Publishing, 2016. Sonnets have traditionally borrowed from the language of logic and law, presenting arguments in favor of and…
Essays on Writing In The Between: Poetry As The Key to Education (Essay XIV)
Essay 14: System and Vision My modest proposal for poetry —- that it be recognized as the center not the margin of public education —- is based…