Poetry

American Names

While quoting last week from a novel by Toni Morrison, I was reminded of this poem. An old favorite of mine. You must forgive - even, I think, accept - the occasional use of language we don't like to use today. Benet died in the year that I was born, not quite a month later actually. No wonder I feel a connection. Read more about American Names

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For Jim Lovell

I didn't know my friend Hall's father, Jim Lovell, as well as I might have liked to. I know that he liked birding - we went together, he and I and Hall and his wife, Hall's mother, she in a wheelchair. She counted off more birds than any one of us. The too few times I visited Pete and Hall on my own, Jim would take us all out to dinner. He was a nice man. He was a learned man. He was an English professor, in his working days, and we might have had some delightful conversations had time and chance allowed. But not too long ago, time ran out. Read more about For Jim Lovell

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Sing Ye Well

I'm one of those besotted souls with a weakness for English period drama, and one of my favorites for a few seasons was Lark Rise to Candleford. I think it was in Series 3, Episode 4, when the villagers go out to gather in the wheat, that Alf (John Dagleish) leads the men into the field with The Keeper. I was so taken with it that I memorized it. I bet you will be too. Read more about Sing Ye Well

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