The GOP's Empty Chair

We all waited for actor Clint Eastwood to turn to the empty chair on stage at the GOP convention to ask,

"Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

41 years ago, Clint gave a memorable performance in Dirty Harry. Last night, the chair was more coherent. 

The GOP has become the most intellectually bankrupt band of small-minded, hate-filled people imaginable.

The GOP has become the empty chair of pragmatic fixes to a host of economic and social ills.

If it isn't a clean sweep for the Democratic Party this November, the fix is in.

Degrees of Gray

I was fortunate to hear poet and teacher Richard Hugo read his poems on a Spring evening in 1980.

Richard Hugo discusses and reads Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg from Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo.

Hugo was invited to read at Montana State by another favorite poet and teacher Greg Keeler.

“Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.”
― Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing

Richard Hugo’s poems, and his peerless book of lectures and essays on poetry and writing, Triggering Town, have been influential in my approach to coaxing, writing and refining a poem.

Say Your Life Broke Down. The poet, Richard Hugo. Painting by Greg Keeler

“In the world of imagination, all things belong.”
― Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing