Category Archives: poem

Advent Aslant: WaitIng without Hope

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Boz

The poetry that followed T. S. Eliot’s 1927 conversion to Anglicanism has informed my life ever since my own similarly startling embrace of that faith 70 years later.  The First World War-inspired despair of such poems as The Waste Land … Continue reading →

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Time: Advent Word 3

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Boz

Today, I will borrow my contribution from”Burnt Norton,” first of the Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot, my acknowledged maestro in all things Anglican. Whenever I ponder the word time, it is this poem that informs my musings: Time present and time past Are … Continue reading →

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One Doomed Youth–and 17 Million More

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Boz

From July to November 1917, Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was a shell-shocked second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, under the care of W. H. R. Rivers at Craiglockhart War Hospital. There, he became close friends with Siegfried Sassoon, who became … Continue reading →

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The Armistice: A Remembrance

Posted on November 25, 2017 by Boz

The 99th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I took center stage in my English 112 class on Friday, November 10. For more than a year, I have been preparing to guide my students on this journey through … Continue reading →

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March Rain: A Haiku

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Boz
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The Thing with Feathers

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Boz

Advent 2003 Emily Dickinson tells us that “hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”  Let’s forget all about the image in our minds of … Continue reading →

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Hope Is a Thing

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Boz

Twenty years ago today, so the legend goes, the hopeless step-grandmother of a wild child saw a red sign on a gray door: “Enter Here in Peace.” Though the parlous state of her soul belied the mode of entry, she took … Continue reading →

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Finding World War I: Fact, Fiction, and Truth in Pat Barker’s “Regeneration Trilogy”

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Boz

We are living moment by moment through the centennial of the war that neither ended all wars nor made the world safe for democracy–catchphrases so cheap and aims so lofty that even as the armistice was being signed on November 11, 1918, … Continue reading →

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A Few Things I Know

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Boz

Geese cackle, feathers tickle, Belts buckle, beets pickle. 1543: Annus mirabilis Crest has been shown to be an effective, decay-preventive dentifrice that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional … Continue reading →

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