dual personalities

Tag: poetry

April 2, 2025

April charms

by chuckofish

I am currently working on an article for the Kirkwood Historical Review about A.G. Edwards, an early “pioneer” of our adopted hometown. They weren’t fighting off Indians or anything, but those mid-19th century guys led very interesting lives nonetheless.

Edwards was a graduate of West Point (class of 1832) and was 45th in a class of 45–the goat. I should note here that the term “Goat” holds a special place in U.S. Army tradition. The term refers to the cadet graduating from West Point with the lowest Grade Point Average (GPA) or “the man who would have stood first if he had boned (i.e. studied)”. Rather than being a badge of shame, it recognizes the tenacity or foolhardiness it takes to be the last graduate of the best of the best. “It is definitely an honor; it is in no way a joke,” according to

James Robbins, author of “Last in their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point.” At West Point, where plenty of cadets “wash out” years before graduation, there’s a genuine respect for the cadet who faltered, but graduated. And, truly, General A.G. Edwards went on to great things.

In other news, this appeared on my Instagram feed on April Fool’s Day:

Well, to infinity and beyond!

Also, I really like John Piper’s answer to Jordan Peterson’s take on happiness–it is wonderful. “Jordan Peterson is negative about happiness as the aim of life because he defines happiness as fleeting, unpredictable, impulsive, and superficial rather than as deep, lasting, soul-satisfying, rooted in God, and expanding in love. He’s probably right that for most people, happiness is experienced as fleeting, superficial, unpredictable, and impulsive rather than as deep and lasting and soul-satisfying and rooted in God.” Read the whole thing.

And here’s a poem: Always Marry an April Girl by Ogden Nash

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.

April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.

4 Comments
March 24, 2025

Embrace awkwardness

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was a quiet one mostly spent recovering from a stressful week full of trips to MoBap, semi-annual and annual checkups and infusions etc. It has been five years since I ended chemo/radiation, but once you’ve had cancer, dark thoughts are always at the back of your mind. All you can do is trust God and live your life.

I ran across this poem, In Case I Die Unexpectedly, and I think it is really good. We should all write our own version.

for Hildegaard

Always salt your pasta water.
Watch how he treats his mother.
Ask people how you can pray for them,
then stop and pray for them
right then and there,
in a crowded restaurant,
in the grocery aisle,
during donuts before or after church.
Embrace awkwardness, or else
you will miss out on so much.
Don’t chew your nails (like I do).
Don’t open everything with your teeth (like I do).
Don’t always fill the silence. It can be a gift.
Carry the pocket knife your dad will give you,
but don’t forget to take it out of your backpack
before you go to the airport.
Wash your darks and lights separately.
If you find a good peach, give thanks to God.
If you find a good mango, get down on your knees and worship.
Give things away as often as possible. Hold everything
with open hands. Nothing is our own.
Don’t fall for fad diets. Try to eat healthy, but
don’t feel guilty for going to McDonald’s.
There is no such thing as “get rich quick,”
there is only hard work. Go to bed tired.
Put your feet in the water as often as possible:
touch, taste, and see that God is good.
Wake up with hope. Jesus is the same
yesterday, today and forever. 

–Rachel Joy Welcher

Well, daughter #1 and Mr. Smith made it home after a fun-filled visit in Mahomet.

I gather that Mr. Smith was quite a hit with the young ladies. They have gotten over their fear and pet him freely now.

Onward and upward!

3 Comments
January 30, 2025

“The secret ministry of frost/ Shall hang them up in silent icicles”*

by chuckofish

FYI I decided to keep my blog at WordPress and I upgraded my site, meaning I pay more now, but I am back to posting photos. Yay! I know you have missed this little fella:

Well, January is almost over and the snow is finally starting to melt, although the ice mounds left by the snow plows will be with us until March probably.

Yesterday after school, while Lottie was in dance class, the boy and the bud came over to hang out. I heard all about the bud’s first drum lesson at The School of Rock. He is definitely cool enough to be in the band**.

In other news, my Bible Study starts up today. I am happy to return to this smart group of ladies as we delve into Exodus 1-18. Time to watch The Ten Commandments (1956) I guess.

I thought this about the release of the JFK files, conspiracy theories, and the “Deep State” was very interesting.

And this is funny!

**Remember this?

*From “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; read the poem here.

6 Comments
January 22, 2025

Some poetry (and a prayer)

by chuckofish

Today we toast George Gordon, Lord Byron, who was born on this day in 1788. As you know, he is one of the major figures of the Romantic Movement in English literature. He wrote lengthy narratives as well as shorter lyrics, and died at the age of 36. So for those of you who are feeling world-weary and disillusioned (a quintessential theme of Byron’s poetry) here’s “So, we’ll go no more a-roving”:

So, we’ll go no more a roving

   So late into the night,

Though the heart be still as loving,

   And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,

   And the soul wears out the breast,

And the heart must pause to breathe,

   And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,

   And the day returns too soon,

Yet we’ll go no more a roving

   By the light of the moon.

And here’s the poem read by John Gielgud.

I will also say that I thought Rev. Franklin Graham did a masterful job praying at the Inauguration on Monday. And I have to admit, I also liked Archbishop Dolan remembering Gen. George Patton’s instructions to his soldiers as they began the Battle of the Bulge eight decades ago:

“Pray! Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night. Pray by day.”

Pray.

2 Comments
January 16, 2025

“Since the Puritans got a shock/ When they landed on Plymouth Rock”*

by chuckofish

Today we toast the Broadway star Ethel Merman on her birthday (1908-84). I bet you didn’t know that she was a lifelong Episcopalian (Her funeral was held in a chapel at St. Bartholomew’s in NYC)–which is hilarious (or perhaps not) since she was notorious for her brash demeanor and for telling vulgar stories in public. She was truly a force of nature and very famous in her time, indeed a cultural icon. I’m sure no one under the age of 60 today even knows who she is. Que sera, sera.

It is also the birthday of the English poet Robert Service, about whom I have blogged before. As you toast him, you might read one of his poems or watch The Spoilers (1942) in which he shared a brief scene with Marlene Dietrich. (Service appeared unbilled as a Yukon poet patterned after Service himself.) The Spoilers, which takes place in Alaska, is a good choice for a cold January night.

On a more serious note, this is a good article by Jen Wilkin about the chiastic pattern of life she discovered at her mother’s deathbed. “Remembering that seasons of life follow a patterned order helps us inhabit the season we are in and prioritize how to use the time we are given. Since death announced its presence in Genesis 3, our days have been numbered. Perhaps God, in his infinite kindness, gave us a chiasm, a patterned measuring rod, to number those days rightly.” (A chiasmus is a literary device in which ideas are presented and then subsequently repeated or inverted in a symmetrical mirror-like structure.  A modern example of a short chiasm would be If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. “Jesus makes a pithy chiastic statement in Mark 2:27: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'”)

This is one of several articles I have read about the inappropriateness of singing ‘Imagine’–“a strange and indeed hopeless song for any funeral, let alone one that is meant to be Christian in nature”–at Jimmy Carter’s funeral. “John Lennon’s song collapses in on its own irrationality. He imagines ‘living life in peace’, and there being no “greed or hunger”, but such talk demands a form and purpose, but atheism and naturalism cannot provide such a definition.” Indeed.

Have a good day. Sing a song loudly and brazenly, read a poem, watch an old movie, think about the arc of your life, thank God for his mercies which are new every morning.

*A line from “Anything Goes” by Cole Porter; Ethel Merman starred in the original Broadway production in 1934.

2 Comments
January 15, 2025

Blue skies

by chuckofish

We are experiencing blue skies (and freezing temps) here in flyover country and the best part for me is that the sun on the snow is the perfect natural light by which to needlepoint. I sit by my large living room window and sew–easily discerning the changing colors in the intricate pattern–and listen to Sinclair Ferguson expound on scripture. What could be nicer?

Well, it’s a good way to spend an hour in between chores.

Why make so much of fragmentary blue

In here and there a bird, or butterfly,

Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,

When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—

Though some savants make earth include the sky;

And blue so far above us comes so high,

It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

–Robert Frost

Lottie is back in her dancing class routine so the boy and the wee bud were back at my house yesterday afternoon. The boy manhandled the trash bin over the ice mound left by the snow plow so I can take it down the driveway for pickup tomorrow. Much appreciated. It’s the little things, right?

And, hey, did you hear that band members of the music group Village People announced on Monday that they have accepted an invitation from President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign to be part of the Inauguration activities? Well, they did. You will recall that Village People founding member Victor Willis gave permission for President-elect Trump to use the band’s classic hit “Y.M.C.A.” at his rallies during his campaign because of its “bringing so much joy to the American people”. (The song charted again and went to #1 and stayed there for some time. The videos went viral.)

3 Comments
January 13, 2025

Monday, Monday

by chuckofish

There was more snow on Friday than I anticipated, so no Friday happy hour, but we caught up on Saturday. Everybody was out and about. Daughter #1 and I went to our local antique mall after Mr. Smith had his shampoo, and it was hopping! Then we went to the Presbyterian re-sale shop where we stocked up on $1.50 dvd’s. I found Here Comes the Boom (2012) and embarrassed her by saying loudly, “Here comes the boom!” Sorry. Good to know I can still embarrass my non-teenage daughter in a public setting.

It was great to be back in church on Sunday after a few weeks away. We had a good sermon and an excellent adult ed class on the life and times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Francis Schaeffer was a leading 20th century Christian scholar and the author of How Should We Then Live?, but one with whom I was not acquainted before I became a Presbyterian. He was once actually the pastor of my church back in the 1940s. I have a lot to learn.

After church the fam came over to our house and we celebrated daughter #3’s belated birthday. We had tacos and the OM did all the cooking. Plus there was birthday cake and daughter #1 brough macaroons. I had not seen the twins since Christmas Eve and they seemed older and more mature. Funny how that works.

Now we are starting a new week and hopefully we will all get back on track after a week of working at home and snow days.

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly.
leaving nothing out.

–Wendell Berry

3 Comments
January 10, 2025

The world is more than we know

by chuckofish

Well, I finally ventured out into the world in my car to the grocery store! All went well. More snow today, though–fingers crossed for Friday happy hour!

Meanwhile, with Anne, “I am utterly astonished by the devastation from the fires [in California]. The best word to describe it is ‘dystopian hellscape.’ …Then to see the clips of interviews with the Mayor and the Chief of Police, and the footage of the LA Fire Department in a Pride Parade, and then to see the staggering news that the Mayor had cut the fire department budget by millions of dollars—the list of terrible revelations just goes on and on. But mostly the thing that sticks in the mind is the great wall of fire devouring everything. Some people—and I think it’s appropriate—have flung around the phrase ‘biblical proportions’.” …I mean, the level of governmental incompetence leading up to this disaster is mind-blowing.

As one pundit said, “In a very real sense, California in 2025 is the wilderness again, with nature and mankind returning to their feral states”, as assembled in this recent Babylon Bee video:

Anyway, our prayers are with the poor souls in California.

And this is interesting–about another surprise from Joe Rogan. You don’t have to watch the whole 3-hour interview with Christian apologist Wesley Huff, but check out the short 4-minute clip which will give you an idea of what went on in the conversation. As Denny Burk says, “It is so encouraging to hear the gospel so faithfully presented and defended. It’s also encouraging to encounter such a presentation on a program that reaches millions of people across the world. Let’s pray for the word to bear fruit.”

And here’s a poem by America’s first published poet, the Puritan Anne Bradstreet. “Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our house, July 10th. 1666. Copied Out of a Loose Paper.“

Have a good weekend! Thank God for a warm, dry, safe home!

4 Comments
January 8, 2025

[The] hardship of the January freeze*

by chuckofish

Another day of staying home with not much going on. I am grateful for my nice, snug house and a furnace that is fully functional. We all remember what it was like back in 2006 when the electricity was out for three days and we had no heat. No fun. In fact, really terrible.

I am not being overly productive, but I am getting odds ‘n ends taken care of and the Kirkwood Historical Review ready to send to the printer. And I am reading, actual books! I got several new ones for Christmas…Print the Legend: the Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman (from my brother) and Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds (from my sister). The latter was a huge bestseller back in 1936, staying on the bestseller list for two years. The Bantam Books edition went through no less than 48 printings between July 1936 and August 1956; the novel is still in print after eight decades.

Daughter #1 gave me the TCM film guide to the 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era, wherein I found the nugget of information that Judy Garland was 4’11”–no wonder she was perfect with Mickey Rooney! Well, you learn something new every day.

I also bought the The New and Collected Poems of Richard Wilbur at an estate sale last weekend and so I have been dipping into it. Here’s one* of his poems to read.

And don’t forget to toast Elvis Presley today on what would have been his 90th birthday.

So as long as the holiday treats and the wine hold out, I’ll be fine.

4 Comments
January 7, 2025

When it got cold

by chuckofish

Well, we are firmly encased under a blanket of snow. And it is quiet–so quiet–in my neighborhood. No cars, practically no one walking by. No leaf blowers. Very nice.

I suppose I should bundle up and go outside, “But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,  a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.”   (I really like this poem by Billy Collins about snow.)

And here’s an old song which uses the phrase “We bundled up”.

Our driveway is going to be plowed on Wednesday, so until then, we are stuck at home. I can dig it. Hang in there and I will too.

3 Comments