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Recent Posts
- Reflections on the 2017 Philip Larkin Exhibition at Hull
- Perhaps Someday We Will Learn How to Live
- America’s Unofficial Poet Laureate: Mary Oliver
- On First Looking Into Milford’s Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Sarah Teasdale: “There Will Come Soft Rains”
- Is Mindfulness Warmed-over Buddhism?
- She showed us the way: Reflections on Mary Tyler Moore
- Book fan, Barack Obama
- Happiness: What it is and How to Find It
- Tibet’s Tragedy: A Culture Teetering into Oblivion
- Weighing-in: Reflections on 2016
- Does the Electoral College Have a Future?
- Teach me to measure all my days
- Solace for the Hard Places: Jeffers, “Shine, Perishing Republic”
- You have every right to be afraid!
- Open the door and come right in….
- Introducing my hummingbird friends…
- Leap Frogging
- Live Longer Now
- On Reading Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch
- Revisiting George Eliot’s Middlemarch
- New England Memories
- Memorial Day: “Neither shall they learn war any more”
- Before Surgery Reading: Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small
- A favorite poem: William Carlos Williams’ “Spring and All”
- The war on cancer: New treatments lock-out most of us
- On finding a new booklist quarry
- Apple vs. the FBI: How Money May Decide the Issue
- Brimmings: Five Years and Counting
- Macdonald’s H is for Hawks: Finding Passage
Author Archives: RJ
Reflections on the 2017 Philip Larkin Exhibition at Hull
The Guardian (July 4, 2017) features a review of a favorite poet of mine, Philip Larkin, in connection with a current exhibit of Larkin artifacts at Hull’s Brynmore Jones Library, where he was a librarian for many years. It notes … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Hull, literary criticism, Philip Larkin, Poetry, poets, Terry Eagleton
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Perhaps Someday We Will Learn How to Live
Every morning I awaken to a country bristling with hate, intolerance, and violence. Trump bullied his way to the presidency, exploiting public anxieties, e. g., steel belt resentment of jobs sent abroad, latent fears of a changing demographic replacing White … Continue reading
Posted in Lifestyle, Politics
Tagged hate, Islamaphobia, Muslims, Southern Poverty Law Center, Trump
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America’s Unofficial Poet Laureate: Mary Oliver
Judging by her phenomenal sales, Mary Oliver surely rates as America’s unofficial poet laureate, and yet the anomaly that she’s never held the office since its inception in 1937. I have to confess that I hadn’t heard of her, despite … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged MARY OLIVER, modern poetry, National Book Award, POET LAUREATE, Poetry, POETRY FOUNDATION, PULITZER PRIZE
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On First Looking Into Milford’s Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned. –Edna … Continue reading
Sarah Teasdale: “There Will Come Soft Rains”
Am in a poetry mood again, which just shows you how subversive reading a poet’s biography can be (Nancy Milford’s Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay). In doing so, I came across Sara Teasdale, a once in-vogue … Continue reading
Is Mindfulness Warmed-over Buddhism?
Mindfulness meditation seems everywhere these days. Even the corporate world embraces it, e. g., Google, Facebook, EBay and Twitter. And in medical circles, it’s all the rage, particularly in psychiatry where it increasingly rivals pharmaceutical intervention as a primary therapy … Continue reading
She showed us the way: Reflections on Mary Tyler Moore
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 08: Actress Mary Tyler Moore attends NBC’s taping of ‘Betty White’s 90th Birthday: (Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images) A few days ago we lost Mary Tyler Moore, not only an icon from the entertainment world, but … Continue reading
Happiness: What it is and How to Find It
I came across this still proverbial Tibetan saying in my pre-meditation reading the other day that I wanted to share with you: “Seeking happiness outside is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north.” In short, our happiness must … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Reflections
Tagged Buddhism, contentment, counseling, David Michie, happiness, Hellen Keller, meditation, mindfulness, peace, psychology
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Tibet’s Tragedy: A Culture Teetering into Oblivion
The horror began with the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949. In the decades since, Chinese oppression has continued relentlessly, with several hundred thousand Tibetans having been executed, tortured or imprisoned. Commenting after her recent release, one survivor informs us … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Reflections
Tagged Amnesty International, Buddhism, Dalai Llama, Larung Gar, Lhasa, Stephen Batchelor, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism
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