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Category Archive: Poetry & Stories

Petreides' Hamartia - September 21, 2006
An epic poem by my son Christian. Sing goddess, of the procrastination of Peter's son Christian and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon his GPA, hurled in its glory to the house of hated C's, and his strong soul...

Primer on Litcrit - February 13, 2006
New Critics, Feminists Phenomenology; Reader-Response critics Need no apology. There are Formalists of Russia, Structuralists of France. Give Archetypal Critics More than a glance. Marxists are strange birds, Like Speech-Act Theorists. And yet there's no doubt Which theory is Queerest....

Not quite haiku - December 18, 2005
spectral rime-frosted trees in early morning moonlight cast shadows on the pasture...

A Faustian Christmas - December 05, 2005
A bit of nonsense from several years ago. Scene 1 Mr Faust sitting in a big chair, with Little Faust on his lap, reading. Mrs Faust sitting in another chair, knitting or something. Mr Faust: And I heard him exclaim...

Just Quitting - November 24, 2005
One day, Henry just quit. He had soldered wires for he didn't know what in the back room of the Magnavox plant for thirteen years, and enough was enough. His eyes itched, the watery coffee from the machine was bitter,...

Tim-Tom the Tumblebee - November 13, 2005
Once there was a little bumblebee who was very clumsy. When he flew, he didn't say "Buzz," like most bees. He said "Zubb." When he aimed for a flower, he often missed and found himself trying to suck nectar from...

Christ Plays - August 03, 2005
Eugene Peterson's latest book, the first of a five-volume spiritual theology, takes its title from some lovely lines of Gerald Manley Hopkins: Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father...

Tramps' Tales - August 05, 2004
Here is a story written by my son, Christian, age 14. Tramps, as you probably well know, are usually not very likable creatures. I say "creatures" because I, myself, have often been in doubt as to the species �Eor gender...

Deadlines - July 16, 2004
hordes rushing at me armed to the teeth from the future...

Evensong - June 27, 2004
Evensong A full moon rises from behind The topmost branches of a tree, Then slants across the sky. A pheasant�s shriek joins distant shouts, The barks and laughter from the park, On the cooling air. Then comes the silence of...

A Few Haiku - April 26, 2004
her bandanna blue through the cattails by the pond in the green pasture in the pond morning clouds and sun flecks of moonlight like fireflies �E the ripples of the pond across her chair shafts of sunlight through the lace...

A Poem - April 04, 2004
Promise of Spring Between the snowy banks, The living water flows. A pledge of rhododendrun A promise of the rose....

Canzona of Beethoven's A Minor Quartet, revisited - March 25, 2004
a stately dance on a green lawn in the summer sun...

Every Tree - September 24, 2003
Every tree That sheds autumnal glory In hope of spring Reveals The eternal life Of God...

Letter from a Graduate Student - September 11, 2003
Letter from a Graduate Student Following is a transcription of a letter found in the archives of a recently deceased Professor of Philosophy at a major American university. The original was written in a childish scrawl, and was almost...

More Haiku - September 08, 2003
a book unread on the shelf �E a rebuke...

Sleeplessness - September 02, 2003
There are, I think, two forms of sleeplessness: The fretting, turning, twisting, aged kind, With night unending, dark and death rule all. But then there is a sleeplessness that's quiet, Delicious, calm, composed. I lie awake Like the lidless seraphim,...

Haiku - September 02, 2003
Inspired by Gary Hotham, and by the world around me, I sometimes try my hand at haiku. (Gary, by the way, has refused to comment on the quality of my haiku, which is probably just as well.) two pillars of...

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