v. anastasi
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“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Meditations on Modernity By Vincent H. Anastasi 2023 III. The Medicine If I could take the creek to work, I would – hitch a ride with the swans who swam…
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“But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death Meditations on Modernity By Vincent H. Anastasi 2023 II. The…
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“If we had a keen vision of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.” George Eliot Meditations on…
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Though you likely won’t find this excerpt from Tennyson’s immortal poem In Memoriam A. H. H. on any top ten list of love poems (by the way, here’s a list I liked), I would argue that section 27 deserves the honor of being labeled one of the most powerful love poems ever written. Tennyson commemorates…
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As I noted last week, these poems take a more lighthearted look at the world, specifically looking at fast food and fashion, though I doubt either situation would be seen as lighthearted by the soldiers lining the escalator or models walking the runway. Still, the images captured by these two photographers tell stories that go…
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Admittedly, I should have posted this yesterday to allow you all the time to Sabbath either on Saturday or Sunday with this Wendell Berry wafer. But as these days are full with life and activity, this post had to wait until now. And yet, the timelessness of Berry’s wisdom about “how to be alive” ever…
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Just like last year, I’m returning to some of the unpublished photo poems inspired by images from The Guardian’s Photo of the Day posts that I wrote back in 2019 when I was teaching a semester course in poetry. Having just covered the villanelle form in my AP English Literature class today, and seeing that…
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Once again, My Pastoral Ponderings offers a wonderful poem that I’ve never read before and that ministers life to my soul as part of his Poem of the Week series. Forgiveness of others and ourselves is such a powerful, freeing gift, and yet, one we struggle mightily to give freely. Such a rich post and…
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For over a month I’ve been waiting to publish this poem. (I’ve also been in a writing drought…hence my lack of posts.) Earlier in the year, my art teacher colleague at Grove City High School invited me out to his property to experience firsthand the mystery of wood fired pottery. He hoped I could capture…
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Today we revisited Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers as we explored how metaphor helps us better understand the abstract concepts of life like love, joy, anger, and hope. Dickinson’s extended metaphor comparing hope to a bird always reminds me of the following poem by Lisel Mueller, where she expands that single…
the deepening ground 