i sing of Olaf glad and big — ee cummings
I’ve been reconnecting lately with friends who were resisters to the war in Vietnam, some as organizers, some who went …
Previous articles
First Love
First Love for José Angel Valente You were my first …
Kindness, a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
A friend who read my earlier post about Ira Sandperl and his book “A Little Kinder” sent me this wonderful …
A Little Kinder: An Old Friend Moves On
George Saunders, the celebrated American fiction writer, gave a commencement speech of the kind we all wish we’d had, to …
The Butler: 34 Years in the White House
We joined with many last night who have appreciated Lee Daniel’s production of The Butler, a fictionalized take on the …
Gas Attacks
Reposting this first of all anti-war poems to make an impact on me as a young man, as news of …
Seamus Heaney Gone, Long Live His Tongue
Seamus Heaney has left us a lifetime-left of reading and contemplation. Here are two from “The Cure at Troy,” Heaney’s …
Stride Piano at SF Jazz
Wow! I had not been to the new SF Jazz center which opened this past January until Sunday night when …
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, a Novel
Looking at a bookshelf while stopping through Winslow, Arizona I didn’t see a girl in a flat bed Ford but …
Elmore Leonard is El Hombre
Elmore Leonard has gone, leaving the finest, gun-tottinist gallery of characters on the range and in the hood this side …
Trans Atlantic by Colum McCann, A Novel
I took a break from my usual fare of fiction and philosophy about the darker reaches of human nature to …
Blue Jasmine — Woody’s Latest
There is something about watching a Woody Allen movie that always starts me squirming in my seat. Blue Jasmine, his …