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The Roanoke Star prints my comments about the word “overeducated.”

I am so pleased to see The Roanoke Star today print my commentary about the recent popular discussion of the word “overeducated.”  You can find it here over at The Roanoke Star’s website. Thank you, Publisher Stuart Revercomb, for allowing me to share my thoughts at this terrific venue for local news and commentary.

“Vase of Flowers,” Henri Fantin-Latour, 1877

Oil on canvas.

The New River Valley News prints my letter to the editor about the word “overeducated.”

The New River Valley News printed my letter to the editor about the word “overeducated” being bandied about by right-wing politicians.  You can find it right here. Thank you, Editor and Web Developer Rose Bowen!

Careful. I hear some girl lost her baby brother there.

Also … we won’t be on this road long. Just a Minotaur two.

The Bosphorus Review of Books publishes “Delaware Sheets.”

I’m honored to share here that the Bosphorus Review of Books in the Republic of Turkey today published my poem “Delaware Sheets.”  You can find it right here. The Bosphorus Review of Books is a bi-monthly English-language literary journal based in Istanbul.  It is a truly outstanding publication, with the goal of connecting Istanbul with the global literary community.  I am grateful indeed to…

“Vase of Flowers,” Odilon Redon, 1900

I can never be “overeducated.”

I can never be “overeducated.”   The more that I learn, the more I understand how much more I have to learn. The greater my knowledge, the smaller a fraction it seems of the vast and sprawling sum of knowledge to be gained.   It is like cresting a tall hill at the edge of my neighborhood, only to lay eyes for the first time on distant ranges of mountains, lining a dawn horizon like endless,…

Detail from “Monastery of Innisfallen Island and Ross Castle Killarny,” William L. Walton after Frances Emilia Crofton, 1854

Lithograph.

She blinded me with science.  

Cover to “Detective Comics” #691, Scott McDaniel & Bob LeRose, 1995

DC Comics.

Keep ’em separate.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again … Church and State are like chocolate and tuna fish.  Either one of those things can be just fine on their own — but not when they’re combined together.

Nolan’s Insomnia Theater Presents: “Frankenstein” (1931)

I watched “Frankenstein” (1931) last night, as it was one of those immeasurably frustrating nights when I couldn’t sleep.  No, it obviously can’t be considered frightening by modern standards — but it was still fun finally getting to see a classic Universal Pictures monster movie I’ve heard about all my life. Here are a few fun Frankenfacts, courtesy of Wikipedia: If the story here feels static…

Variant Cover to “Doctor Fate” #1, Ibrahim Moustafa, 2015

DC Comics.

“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

“If only it were all so simple!  If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.  But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.  And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918 – 1956 A…

The Salem Times-Register prints my letter about the defenders of Ukraine.

I learned a little while ago that the Salem Times-Register printed my recent letter about the courage of the Ukrainian people protecting their homeland.  You can find it right here. Thank you, Editor Shawn Nowlin, for allowing me to share my thoughts with my neighbors in Southwest Virginia.

“people are not good to each other”

we forget the terror of one personaching in one roomaloneunkisseduntouchedcut offwatering a plant alonewithout a telephone that would neverringanyway. people are not good to each otherpeople are not good to each otherpeople are not good to each other and the beads swing and the clouds obscureand dogs piss upon rose bushesthe killer beheads the child like taking a biteout of an ice cream conewhile…