Monthly Archives: August 2018
A Stock Photography Tour of the Southwestern United States
I’m off to New Mexico and Arizona in the first week of October. I’ll be gone at least seven days, possibly ten, looking at rock shops, places to collect, museums, and natural wonders. Along the way I’ll be taking photographs … Continue reading
A. E. Housman’s Minimalist Poetry
A.E. Housman was a minimalist poet, whose spartan lines are matched by only the best Haiku writers. He bitterly and wryly welcomed death, romanticizing its inevitability. He was extremely popular during the First World War and his poems reflected the … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged A.E. Housman, Housman, Poetry, World War I
Leave a comment
Progress Report on My Book
With eleven months to go before my deadline of August 1, 2019, I’ve written approximately 28,000 words. My contract calls for a total of 50,000 to 60,000 words so I feel good about my progress. Ideally, I’d like to submit … Continue reading
Become a Dentist — A Way to Make Your Natural Tendencies Pay
I have a long history of major dental problems, made worse by the fact that conventional dentistry never gets me out of pain. General anesthesia is the only method that works for me. In yesterday’s operation, it was determined that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged bridge, dental work, dentistry, General anesthesias, implants, pain
Leave a comment
How Bullying Structures Society
For anyone who suffered through school at the hands of bullies and a system that ignored or encouraged them, George Orwell’s writing rings true: By the social standards that prevailed about me, I was no good, and could not be … Continue reading
The Peroration Was Magnificent, Though Difficult to Remember
He looked into his heart and saw that it was black. Perhaps that’s all we need to know about Heart of Darkness. But there is so much more. Ideas and thoughts first judged rambling come back as well structured sentences … Continue reading
Eliot Never Too Common to Quote
Now that I live in the desert, The Hollow Men resonates with me more and more. Eliot was of course writing about a dryness of spirit. Still, connections hold. This vital poem by Thomas Stearns Eliot is widely quoted and analyzed. … Continue reading
Posted in art, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged Conrad, dryness, Heart of Darkness, Poetry, T.S. Eliot, the desert, The Hollow Men
1 Comment
Not Only
Writers use “not only” to vary their writing but it can be wordy. It also brings in a negative tone with the word “not.” See how much more direct the second instances are compared to the first. In the first … Continue reading
Oh! I Have Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth
This film and poem was often used by television stations in the 1960s before signing off for the evening. It was written in 1941 by 19-year-old Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr, three months before he was killed in World … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged High flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr, television sign offs
Leave a comment