Category Archives: Poetry

Architecture and Writing and Compromises

Posted on November 2, 2019 by thomasfarley01

Tom Wolfe once said that we all have to live with an architect’s mistakes. How true. My bad writing won’t assault your senses (and that of the public) every time you drive to work. That’s unlike the concrete tilt ups … Continue reading →

Posted in art, Newspaper article, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged architecture, blacktop, California, california state fair, compromise, design, dying trees, eliot, fairgrounds, pavement, Sacramento, The Hollow Men, wallpaper magazine | Leave a comment

DHL, Serial Disorder and T.S. Eliot

Posted on October 22, 2019 by thomasfarley01

DHL I am using DHL to ship for the first time and getting odd results. They charge a premium price but the service isn’t premium. To hurry up a mineral identification I had my local shipping store send a tiny … Continue reading →

Posted in books, editing writing, Poetry, revising writing, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others, Writing tips | Tagged Conrad, Dante, dhl, eliot, Kurtz, Poetry, serial disorder, The Inferno, translations, ts eliot | Leave a comment

Rhyming, Rilke, and Doggerel

Posted on October 10, 2019 by thomasfarley01

Does rhyme move a poem along on its own accord? Is there a power that rhyme has that unrhymed poetry does not possess? It seems rhymed poetry can deliver a message in a way that communicates, if not in the … Continue reading →

Posted in art, editing writing, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged book of hours, doggerel, motive force, Poetry, power of rhyme, rhyme, Rilke, structure in poetry, ts eliot, unrhymed | Leave a comment

Lost and Found in T.S. Eliot

Posted on January 1, 2019 by thomasfarley01

My book is about rockhounding and prospecting in the Southwestern United States. At its heart is exploring. In peppering my book with quotations, I’ll have some thoughts from people who have wandered the world. But all that exploring may come … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, rocks and lapidary, southwestrockhounding.com, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others | Tagged Acts, exploring, four quartets, little bidding, pentecostal, Poetry, T.S. Eliot | Leave a comment

Just Because I Like Bob Dylan

Posted on November 1, 2018 by thomasfarley01

Good writing is captivating and compelling. It rolls off the tongue and imagination as easily as a marble rolling off a glass tabletop. Lewis Carroll had the gift. Dylan, too, in a different way. May all your writing roll. Tombstone … Continue reading →

Posted in art, music, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others | Tagged beat poetry, Dylan, Highway 61, Highway 61 Revisited, lyrics, Poetry, Tombstone Blues | Leave a comment

A. E. Housman’s Minimalist Poetry

Posted on August 29, 2018 by thomasfarley01

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

Eliot Never Too Common to Quote

Posted on August 21, 2018 by thomasfarley01

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