What Am I Doing Here?

A little poetry, a little photography, and a little commentary with a bit of food and humor along the way. That is how my blog continues to move along in these days of pandemic and political polarization. Here is a small sampling of recent blog posts. 

Commentary

If past is prologue, then a letter from some white Birmingham ministers in 1963 illustrates how nice established society continues to respond to racial inequities to this day. “How Shall We Respond to Dr.King’s Dream?” takes a look at how we’re doing.

“War Is (Still) Not the Answer” written just after the U. S. pulled its troops from Afghanistan, offers a few thoughts on why I side with the Quakers on matters of war. 

“Can anyone say that we are a life-affirming culture when we cannot keep our children from being gunned down in their schools?” “Why do we Sacrifice Our Children?”  has been one of my most-viewed posts lately and, sadly, one that has been posted several times before. 

On a different note, “Giving Thanks Prayer by Native Americans” shares an old indigenous practice. Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants writes that the various Native American tribes have one thing in common: “we are rooted in cultures of gratitude.”

 A Place for Poetry

“Autumn Gold” presents a photo of a ginkgo tree I happened upon one day and the haiku that it inspired. In November, I was amazed to find a perfect camellia blossom. In “Last Blooms,” I posted my photo and another haiku from that encounter.

And speaking of haiku, the art of legendary singer Tony Bennett has served as inspiration for a series of haiku. “Tony Bennett and Me” offers the links to those featured on my Saturday Haiku feature.

“Autumn: A Time to Settle” is a re-post of one of my poems which has also been featured in the Birmingham Arts Journal.

“Remembering Brian Hawkins” offers my recollection of a poet and spoken word artist gone too soon.

 Just for Fun

“Backyard Birdland” is a bit of whimsy I caught on video in which a towhee and a squirrel argue over a birdbath. Earlier in the year, I captured a video of goldfinches feeding in the flower garden. In July, it was pure luck that I photographed a hummingbird face-to-face with another hummer as he zoomed in toward the feeder.

Food and Humor

Because sometimes we need to lighten up, I often post a cartoon on Fridays and will occasionally share a recipe I am excited about.

“The Queen’s Drop Scone Pancakes” shares my discovery of the recipe that Queen Elizabeth presented to President Eisenhower when she visited the U.S. back in the 1950s.

“The Way Bach Wrote It” and “Tell me you haven’t had this dream” are two magazine cartoons I’ve shared and “Buster Keaton – The Art of the Gag” is a short video I found on the creativity of early filmmaker/comedian..

There is always Music

There is music every week – each Monday, in fact. One of the most popular music posts was Bob Dylan’s cover of StephenFoster’s “Hard Times.”

A camellia blooming in November

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Poets, Prayers, and Radio Talk Show Hosts

A  Brief Review of Recent Popular Posts

Photo by Charles Kinnaird

Earlier this year my blog surpassed 600,000 page views (602,000 as of this date), so I figured it was time fora brief review of what’s happening at Not Dark Yet.

The Top Four Posts This Month

The top posts for the past month include two new ones and two old ones. My recollection of “Rush Limbaugh’s On-Air Reign” has been the most read piece this month. The second most read is an interfaith essay that was first posted during Ramadan in 2013, “The Lamps are Different but the Light is the Same.” 

Coming in at number 3 is “My Season with Dante,” a colorful account of my encounter with Dante’s Divine Comedy that began with an evening class at church and continued with my listening to the entire work on an audiobook. It was first posted in 2012 and includes illustrations by William Blake depicting the passage through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  

The fourth most popular post this month was my review of all the Inaugural poets from U.S. Presidential Inaugurations (there have only been six, and I make a tenuous claim to have heard all of them in real-time). With “The Presidential Inaugural Poem: Calling Us to Our Touchstones” you can see and hear each inaugural poet from Robert Frost to Amanda Gorman.

Recent Popular Posts

Some of you followed my series about growing up in the Jim Crow South. “Growing Up under Southern Apartheid” featured 10 personal essays that spanned my pre-school and elementary school days in which I tried to convey what it was like in the days of segregation. There is an eleventh essay about my grandfather and his encounter with the KKK back in the 1920s.

There is still a lot more to tell about growing up in the segregated South and I have plans to continue the memoir series at a later date. For an index to all the stories so far go to https://notdarkyet-commentary.blogspot.com/2020/10/index-for-growing-up-under-southern_6.html.

During the past year, as one would expect, there were many essays and poems about life during the pandemic which we continue to live with even as we are finding hope with the vaccine efforts. Some of my poems are in a book that my writing group has published, The Social Distance: Poetry in Response to COVID-19. You can read about that in my September post, “PoetryDuring Days of COVID.”

In the Days Ahead

In the coming month of April, I will feature a variety of poets reading their work in celebration of National Poetry Month. Not Dark Yet continues to feature music on Mondays, haiku on Saturdays, and personal essays during the week with humor and recipes tossed in as well. I hope you will find something that piques your interest there.

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