poems
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“It is no more possible to live in the future than it is to live in the past. If life is not now, it is never.” Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House Meditations on Modernity By Vincent H. Anastasi 2023 IV. The Life Let this be the day well done: not the timely completion of all…
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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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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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Tonight we celebrated the end of my son’s first year of varsity soccer. In honor of that achievement, allow me to share with you a sonnet I wrote three years ago when I spoke at the girls soccer banquet where I teach. Believe it or not, soccer is like a sonnet. Both require hard work.…
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I dedicate tonight’s Blackout Poem to my mother-in-law, Bonnie, who is the queen of garlic. She cuts up and eats raw garlic with nearly every dinner, including (BRACE YOURSELF!) pancakes. I still remember my initiation into the Stitt family upon first meeting my wife’s older brothers. You like garlic? Here, try this. As an Italian,…
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Autumn has always been my favorite season. Perhaps my birthday coming shortly after the autumnal equinox has biased me in favor of this rich time of harvest and change, but as I meditated on turning forty-six and my desire to live to be one hundred years old, the following sonnet emerged. I struggled to capture…
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“[A body] belongs to the world of love, which is a world of living creatures, natural orders and cycles, many small, fragile lights in the dark.” Wendell Berry – from “Health is Membership” Reflection: The Bull Thistle By Vincent H. Anastasi 2022 Magenta flames stopped me on my way, burning on the spiny base of…
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Monday morning, as I looked out the windows of The Observatory (our family room), I saw a grey heron down in the creek. At first, I was content to simply admire him from afar. Besides, if I went outside and down to the water’s edge, I’d surely scare him off. But the lure was just…
the deepening ground 