Monthly Archives: October 2016

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed, words to consider, reconsider. Elizabeth Alexander 2009 Presidential Inauguration poem Guest editing “A Work Day in Hard Times” the week before U.S. elections, elections that have been … Continue reading →

Thursday October 27 Today-Tomorrow our university Trustee’s quarterly meeting, we’ll be slamming tasks and talks and visiting. So here, a day early, is a short poem I love to pieces and occasionally post.   Back Monday on regular schedule.  Have … Continue reading →

Wednesday October 26 A New Flower  “. . . I . . .  found myself with a new flower . . . ” Strong poems find language to bring readers close to some deep, human, inner experience.   Today’s post, … Continue reading →

Monday, October 24,  “stooks arise around” Hopkins often chooses words with long historical roots that wrinkle the foreheads of present-tense readers; hence the definition of “stooks”:  “. . . sheaves set upright in a field”   —  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stooks 1st morning … Continue reading →

Friday, October 14  –  Work Day/Hard Time list takes a (Jesuit) retreat week Packing for my annual Jesuit retreat, on Connecticut’s south shore of the Long Island Sound and on the banks of The Hammonasset River, a tidal estuary with … Continue reading →

Friday October 14  – this news just out this morning Congratulations to the 2016 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award winners! We are proud to announce the winners in this year’s Alpha Sigma Nu Book Awards competition.  Among the many outstanding … Continue reading →

Wednesday October 14 — “What you can plan is too small for you to live” Opening a book of poetry.  Turning pages until a poem catches your attention, stopping to read out loud.   Pretty good way to start a … Continue reading →

Monday, October 10,    “young as she is, the stuff Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy” Fall Break on our campus,  which means that administrative people come to work but students and faculty can sleep … Continue reading →

Wednesday  October 5   Work-day mid-week — time for dancing An hour or so ago I was still rubbing sleep around my eyes and looking out my window to the city’s morning traffic and early sunshine.  When I heard children … Continue reading →

Monday October 3 “ . . .  my work which is standing still and learning to be astonished.” Today’s post I’m writing at the Maritime Institute just 15 minutes from Baltimore’s airport.   About 80 people have been gathered by … Continue reading →