BOOKS
BOOKS
Time with Thay | So Strongly Do the Bugles Call | Swinging Away
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Time with Thay
Time with Thay
I've read and reread Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh, which my wife Sandy Carlson picked up for me in the fall of 2022 at a local independent bookshop, the Hickory Stick, in Washington, Connecticut.
In the fall of 2023, I spent three months going over pages which I had dogeared over the numerous times I read through the book. I highlighted poem titles, passages, and phrases that caught my attention, and then I spent seven more months writing. Each time I thought I was finished, I came back to this project and penned another poem.
The majority of poems in this collection are responses to poems in Call Me by My True Names. Others are based on Thich's general body of work.
So Strongly Do the Bugles Call
So Strongly Do the Bugles Call
Says Columbia professor Stephanie McCurry in a piece published in Civil War Times in 2012: "We love our Civil War as no other people do. This fondness for the war, [...] is a peculiar but essential part of American culture. For better or for worse, our culture not only permits but encourages divergent rememberings of the war’s causes, principles, and consequences. That is why we can all love it…"
This book echoes the voices of those who lived through that time, and aspects of American life since. The poems are the observations, retellings, and statements by the author, incorporating the words of soldiers, civilians, and dignitaries, then and now.
Swinging Away
Swinging Away
Swinging Away is all that baseball is. It's about the anticipation of a new season, the playing of the game itself, and any variation in which baseball rules apply. It's about backyard fun and rain delays. It's about collectibles, treasured memories, and heroes. It's about life, family, and love. It's about America's national game and its presence so often in our lives.
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