In the summer of 1980, I was responsible for a Kettering Foundation symposium in Woodstock, VT, that brought together scientists, theologians, psychologists, and others to explore the subject “Recovery of Wholeness.”
Mavis Staples deep, rich voice carries me into a land where there’s “total communication” because of the love that’s present in all of us. Her voice surrounds my heart…
I am 79, in need of repair, much like the rest of the country, and it seems to me that in the last twenty years the arc of history has definitely turned downward. The horrors…
Growing up as a young Black man in the city of Philadelphia was replete with memorable experiences and learnings that have stood the test of time. The sharing of pearls of wisdom and uniquely crafted
This poem taught me that word bits combined with rhythm can get us through the toughest times. The speaker creates memorable phrases through the use of commas: “But still, like dust, I rise,”…
The opening line of Joy Harjo’s poem, “A Postcolonial Tale,” found me just in time….
When younger, I was an ardent lover of movies, of cinema. From Cocteau to Kurosawa, Keaton to Kubrick, watching a great film was a near religious experience. Images and words…
Scholastic book order day in Mrs. Rader’s sixth-grade English class was my favorite. Once, I thumbed through the newsprint leaflet and selected a poetry anthology called Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle.
I entered teaching as a writer, and remain one. I had spent 10 years as a journalist and the habits of writing every single day stuck with me even as I changed careers.
The words stream through my mind; enveloping me in rich, voluptuous warmth. Deep in my chest, I feel the tender acquiescence to an irresistible force. I wallow in these lines. And I one-hundred-percent reject them…
In Lynn Ungar’s poem, “In the Moment,” there is a gentle, almost chiding, call for us to step back from railing that “everything has gone off script” (which is both futile and exhausting), and instead
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better best.”
I see something in you that you don’t see in yourself.
— Mrs. Robinson
One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming
– Morgan Harper Nichols, All Along You Were Blooming
True understanding is unattainable without both love and detachment.
– Owen Barfield, History in English Words
Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.
— from “Unforgiven,” Clint Eastwood, dir.
Love is the only transportation / To where there’s total communication
— from If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me) sung by Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers and written by Homer Banks, Carl Hampton and Ray Jackson
If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.
— Charlie Parker from Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff
Loving you is not a choice It’s who I am.
— from the song “Loving You” from the musical Passion, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
And scull across his roof and make for shore, / With twisted face and pocket full of seeds.
— from “Epitaph for the Race of Man” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
But still, like dust, I rise.
— from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
Every day is a reenactment of the creation story.
— from “A Postcolonial Tale,” by Joy Harjo. This is both a poem and a song.
…you must Be the thing you see.
— from “To Look at Any Thing,” by John Moffett
Play the scene you’re in. / Shift the plot. Tell me / Where we can go together.
— from “In The Moment” by Lynn Ungar