Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Eagle

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     Hokusai:  Eagle in Flight The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; C lose to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd ...
11 comments:
Sunday, March 26, 2017

Favorite SF novels or short works--2016

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These are those SF/F works that I read and enjoyed during 2016, and many of which I might read again, sometime down the road. NOVELS ...
14 comments:
Friday, March 24, 2017

Li Po: "Drinking Alone in Moonlight"

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I have already posted this poem, but it was a different translation.  I have heard the saying, "In vino veritas,"when means, I gue...
7 comments:
Monday, March 20, 2017

Robert Frost: Spring Pools

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Spring Pools These pools that, though in forests, still reflect The total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, c...
10 comments:
Friday, March 17, 2017

Basho's frog

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This is probably one of Basho's most famous haiku.   I have a book titled Basho's One Hundred Frogs,  a collection of 100 differen...
7 comments:
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A Minute Observation

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Nothing very profound here--just an observation by Joseph Wood Krutch on the long northern winters and various ways that some animals have f...
8 comments:
Saturday, March 11, 2017

Eric Hoffer: totalitarianism in free societies

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No. 28 There is a large measure of totalitarianism even in the freest of free societies.  But in a free society totalitarianism is not im...
22 comments:
Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Favorite Fiction--2016

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Some favorite works of fiction I read during 2016, FIRST READS Sarah Orne Jewett:                   The Country of Pointed Firs ...
14 comments:
Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Rubaiyat: Second Edition, Quatrain LXXXVI

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A confusing quatrain:  the syntax is not clear to me. SECOND EDITION:  QUATRAIN LXXXVI Nay, but for the terror of his wrathful Face, I...
7 comments:
Thursday, March 2, 2017

A Minute Meditation

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I realized then the truth about all love:  that it is an absolute which takes all or forfeits all.  The other feelings, compassion, tenderne...
3 comments:
Sunday, February 26, 2017

Robert Hayden: Those Winter Sundays

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Sometimes while reading a poem, a stanza or even a line may resurrect memories long forgotten or at least not recalled in many years.  This ...
12 comments:
Thursday, February 23, 2017

Ryokan: the ultimate enlightenment?

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Is he enlightened or just lazy? Without a jot of ambition left I let my nature flow where it will. There are ten days of rice in my bag...
10 comments:
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

A Minute Meditation

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No. 65 Reading these grand mountain manuscripts displayed through every vicissitude of heat and cold, calm and storm, upheaving volcanoe...
11 comments:
Sunday, February 19, 2017

Favorite Films: 2016

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These are the films that I watched and most  enjoyed in 2016 and would like to view again.  The first group are those films I watched for t...
18 comments:
Thursday, February 16, 2017

Jack London: The Scarlet Plague

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Jack London:   The Scarlet Plague Edgar Allan Poe published a short work titled "The Masque of the Red Death" (aka "The Ma...
14 comments:
Sunday, February 12, 2017

The Rubaiyat: Second Edition, Quatrain LXXXV

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This quatrain is linked to the previous quatrain in which the  Poet/Narrator points out that the Creator has put before us certain pleasures...
9 comments:
Sunday, January 29, 2017

Down Time

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It's time for a mental health and sanity check, as it's been too long since my last one.   I need to reduce my time in front of the ...
9 comments:
Friday, January 27, 2017

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park: In Defense of Fanny Price

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The following is a quotation from Carrots for Michaelmas, a blog belonging to Haley Stewart.  This link will take you to the complete artic...
8 comments:
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Lawrence Durrell: Justine, Part I

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Lawrence Durrell Justine :  the first book in the Alexandria Quartet This is my fourth visit to Alexandria with the aid of Lawrence Durre...
10 comments:
Sunday, January 22, 2017

N. Scott Momaday: In the Bear's House, an overview

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N. Scott Momaday In the Bear's House In the Bear's House is a rather unusual work, as will be seen from the Table of Contents I...
12 comments: