Pat Perrin's Blog, page 10
July 12, 2014
Ifs, Ands, or Buts?
but: Archaic conjunction indicating exclusion; obsolete in today’s usage. … and so the latest edition of Aforista’s dictionary declares the word “but” to be defunct. Can the OED be far behind? I can’t resist mentioning that Pat and I anticipated this lexical milestone in the first book we ever worked on together—PragMagic, a compilation of […]
July 6, 2014
Trump IV: The Emperor (poem)
King Solomon sits on his sceptered throne, obeyed and adored by his vassals of lore— but all that he does, he does all alone. Once he was aided by jinn by the score who did his bidding by their boundless art. They did all he asked, and asked to do more. “Grant me one thing: […]
July 4, 2014
NOT Signed on July 4, 1776 …
Way back in 1997, I compiled, edited, and introduced a small collection of source materials about the Declaration of Independence. It was fascinating to explore the Story of that great document. Here is the epilogue I wrote for the book: What really happened during those first four fateful days of July, 1776? As the previous pages of this […]
July 1, 2014
Talking Leaves: Sequoyah and the Conjurors — a short play
Characters: Three Cherokee Conjurors Sequoyah The scene is a forest clearing near the Cherokee town of Willstown, Alabama, in 1821. Sequoyah stands facing three conjurors, a leather bag hanging from his shoulder. 1ST CONJUROR. George Guess, do you know why we have summoned you? SEQUOYAH. So I may plead for my life. But I don’t […]
June 29, 2014
An Amazing Book from an Amazing Man …
Before I sing this book’s praises, let me say that I’m a friend of the author. I don’t mention this as a matter of full disclosure, but out of pride and love; I can’t pretend otherwise. Even so, I’m sure that I have valid things to say about his fine new book. The Rev. Dr. Farley […]
June 25, 2014
Trump XVIII: The Moon (poem)
Once in the Borgo Pass while the moon was shedding the dew of thought and the children of the night howled their Te Deum, I came face to face with Dracula himself. That morning in a wayside inn a peasant woman had given me a crucifix— “For your mother’s sake,” she’d moaned, which seemed irrelevant […]
June 22, 2014
The Fair Youth of the Sonnets
“The best response to a poem is another poem.” I don’t know who first said that, but it seems like good advice. I try it out myself every now and then, whenever I read a poem that leaves me with nagging questions. Consider Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII … Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? […]
June 19, 2014
The Maiden and the Nation: Joan of Arc at Orléans — a short play
Characters: Joan of Arc An English Soldier St. Margaret St. Catherine The scene is the English fortress of the Augustinians, near Orléans in France, May 6, 1429. A battle has just ended. Joan tends to a dying English soldier. Behind her hover two saints, Margaret and Catherine. SOLDIER. I’m thirsty. JOAN. You’re dying. ST. MARGARET. […]
March 11, 2014
Lixgrijb Again … and Again
“I was just thinking,” said Coyote/Llixgrijb, “that maybe I’ve chosen the wrong realm to live in altogether. I created this physical, temporal realm, and put Brillig in it to experience it for me. But, really, all this physicality spells nothing but trouble. It seems that suffering, ignorance, and mortality are the only things that hold […]
November 13, 2013
Avoid Mere Self-expression!
That’s a line that I once scrawled inside a paper sculpture—one of a series of artworks called “messages.” Google “self-expression.” Today I got 2,480,000 results in less than a second. At a glance, it’s obvious that a lot of our cultural dialogue is dedicated to self-expression. A Wikipedia article connects it with a “creative class” […]
