BURNT NORTON by T. S. Eliot (No. 1 of ‘Four Quartets’) Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in…
Willmar, Minnesota. Years have passed since visiting with relatives here. Willmar, a great plains town is a center for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. Driving into Willmar, you are unlikely to miss the switching yard for the freight bearing trains bound for Chicago, or for the Pacific coast. Willmar is home to the…
Another week begins. The Olympics in Tokyo are in full swing. I watched some of it on TV. The main event of my weekend was attendance at the Geneva Art Fair. I had several memorable conversations with artists. Life at best, is an art-form, a practice that reveals beauty and meaning. I aspire to…
June 20, today is Father’s Day. I am suspicious. Could Father’s Day be a “Hallmark holiday,” created by clever marketers to sell cards, to condition “consumers” to spend more? Learning to be a good father is important. I just do not think fatherhood compares to the months of pregnancy, to the hazard of giving…
[there must be one thing you can’t have in order to be alive] Jon-Michael Frank there must be one thing you can’t have in order to be alive watching flowers open on youtube I mean, my life is wasted on my life requirement is simple it takes a wound to return to yourself the…
Plato was not a fan of the tragedians, or of the work of any poet. The view of Plato, that reason will lead us to an epiphany of “the good”, if we discipline ourselves enough, — is precisely the idealism which is central to our Enlightenment heritage, here in this United States of America. …
I do not know if that is a word. The thought is to be in and of “the wild.” Nature is alive, undomesticated, responsive to the presence of humans: physical expressions of our institutions such as roads and buildings, our consumptive way of life, garbage dumps, the oceans loaded with plastic run-off of industry. …
This is one of those mornings when I have nothing to say. A new day, when nothing seems especially new about it. I know, I simply need to shift the axis of my point of view. I have made that move before, and felt something in the depths which I dare not say or…
It is Saturday morning. I awakened early, around 5AM I suppose. The nightmare caused me to grasp for consciousness. I no longer remember any details. A feeling of dread lingers though. The vision in some form is likely to return. It is there in the nether regions of the unconscious. What fear is the…
Friday dawns cool and sunny, typical of spring here in the Midwest. Of the projects in mind for today: a morning Zoom session to hear our grandson, a new author present his story of a visit to the zoo. I will be privileged to witness his reading of the story. He is six years…
