Monday morning, the Russian assault on Kyiv continues. Ukrainian resistance has been fierce, the intended lightning quick investment of the capital city bogged down. The Russians have sufficient armor, artillery and infantry to squeeze the outnumbered defenders. Infrastructure is destroyed in the course of the shelling, rocket attacks, the street fighting. For information on…
Saturday morning, gleaming sunlight upon pure fallen show, and at Starbucks I wrestle with words again. Each day presents a new contestation to say what is sayable. Before turning in last night I noted that on television an interview conducted with a female Ukrainian diplomat. By all appearances it was a measured, sober, responsible…
“Western leaders and diplomats,” she wrote, “think they live in a world where rules matter, where diplomatic protocol is useful, where polite speech is valued. All of them think that when they go to Russia, they are talking to people whose minds can be changed by argument or debate. They think the Russian elite…
Took a walk yesterday; a mid-winter warmup, the sidewalk was melted clear of ice. Walking past Almond Marsh I felt sad, resonating with the gray sky, the muted brown of the decaying cattails. The melt water was a sheen of reflected light upon an ice covered marsh. The world before me appeared ethereal drained…
Revisionary by Robert Pinsky The globe on a tilted axis means The News. As the icon spins the angle seems to shift. Science has found ancestral Neanderthals. We have a bit of their blood. They painted caves Better than sapiens, as we named ourselves. History has found the Jews who fought for Hitler. Thousands…
She was thirty years old. Several days ago report of a suicide on my iphone feed caught my attention. The age of the individual prompted me to read further. She was a North Carolinian, my home state. Chosen Miss America 2019, she was a civil attorney who did free legal work for people unjustly…
A poignant conversation happened between friends this week. The occasion and opportunity for the exchange of words was the death of a renowned self-taught improvisational pianist Michael Jones. Jones lived in Toronto and was an international recording artist. This morning I thought about other losses. Upon waking I learned of the death of Meatloaf,…
The universe is just there; that’s the only way one can view it and remain master of one’s senses. The universe neither threatens nor promises. It holds things beyond our sway: the fall of a meteor, growing old and dying. These are the realities of the universe and they must be faced regardless of…
Yesterday morning family members peering into the backyard called to me, “quick come and look, a hawk is feeding on top of our wood pile.” Suspecting that I’d be too late, I pulled the flash card out of this laptop and inserted it into my camera. In the distance a solitary hawk was feeding…
You’ve got to be kidding. Not more on religion… But I have to — because I am not finished. There is much at stake. To risk overstating the matter, — “the survival of humanity!” At least that is how it seems from my vantage point. I know that I am the least likely in…
