“”Understand, I am always trying to figure out what the soul is, and where hidden, and what shape…”

oliver 2 croppedI have always felt more at home with questions than with answers, and I gravitate toward poets who explore rather than explain. Mary Oliver, one of my favorites, writes in this poem, “I believe I will never quite know.  Though I play at the edge of knowing, truly I … Read More

“We rise again in the grass. In flowers. In songs.”

Doerr croppedAnthony Doerr believes that literary writers should “strive toward complexity, toward questions, and away from certainty, away from stereotype.” This novel, which is a page-turner, one worth getting up early to read, demonstrates that he follows his own advice. Set in France and Germany during 1934-2014, focusing mostly on … Read More