Monthly Archives: December 2016

The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. A nice complete version with Sleeping Beauty highlights available on Philips 2 CDs. Enjoy joy to satisfy the heart and soul of any Inner Child.

(from the 1955 Johnson edition) first line number and poem number A narrow fellow in the grass–986 Because I could not stop for death–712 Before I got my eye put out–327 Dare you see a soul at the white heat?–365 … Continue reading →

The longer you live, the more you realize how subjective and agenda-ed “Truth” is. And how politicized everything is. I still remembering reading Josephine Tey’s excellently entertaining and suspenseful The Daughter of Time for an English 20 course (grade 11 academic) … Continue reading →

(the two must-see Christamas movies of all time; recommended versions: 1951′s A Christmas Carol (VCI Entertainment)–intro by recently deceased Patrick MacNee of The Avengers TV series; 1947′s It’s a Wonderful Life (Alliance Atlantis) ………………………………………………………… “He who loses his life shall … Continue reading →

Del’s last Christmas was in 1997. He had been diagnosed with cancer in September that year and the cancer and treatments had started to obviously ‘waste’ him, something I became aware of when I was in Winnipeg that November. I … Continue reading →

Trevor Hughes. A long-time senior high English teacher like me and a good poet, likewise. (The following sonnet he read at my recent workshop on Poetic Sensibility is reprinted with his permission.) That Room I should have known it wasn’t left by … Continue reading →

but the train has gone.” –from “Mary Had a Baby”, a traditional Saint Helena carol adapted nicely by Bruce Cockburn on his interesting Christmas CD

(photograph: Lorri Arndt) When I see barn doors open I imagine who or what’s been in or out. The dark inside a mystery to ponder. This one yawns as if an invite to warmth and closeness of a kind. Makes … Continue reading →