set to folk-rock song
poem in villanelle form
Robinson: 1869-1935
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Sunday, March 8, 2026
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
"Hold On, Keep Going," Lyrics by Hans Ostrom
tough, tough times: but hold on, keeping going
power-rock-ballad
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Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Death and Joy
for the memory of W.B.
A longtime historian
friend, gold-standard trained
at Harvard, Cambridge, Yale,
has gone down hard:
neurological nightmare:
bodily and mental collapse.
Before the finale,
he said he was losing
big chunks of memory
like a glacier
calving blocks of ice.
Flip-flopping like a minor
sea monter in a water-
aerobics class to
"maintain health," you
obsess about your
friend's brutal rotting
and death. You look over
to another pool and see
a Black grandpa holding
a toddler in a swim-class.
He's shaved bald
with a trimmed gray beard:
a griot look you like.
You saw him before
and said, "I have a grandson
that age--isn't it great?"
"It is the greatest," he said.
Now you see again
his look of supreme joy
as he helps the kid
float. Joy and vicious
decay, along the way.
Are they supposed
to balance out?
Well, it's not math--
it's life. And death. Just
the way things are. You're glad
you glanced over to that other
blue pool as you wallowed.
friend, gold-standard trained
at Harvard, Cambridge, Yale,
has gone down hard:
neurological nightmare:
bodily and mental collapse.
Before the finale,
he said he was losing
big chunks of memory
like a glacier
calving blocks of ice.
Flip-flopping like a minor
sea monter in a water-
aerobics class to
"maintain health," you
obsess about your
friend's brutal rotting
and death. You look over
to another pool and see
a Black grandpa holding
a toddler in a swim-class.
He's shaved bald
with a trimmed gray beard:
a griot look you like.
You saw him before
and said, "I have a grandson
that age--isn't it great?"
"It is the greatest," he said.
Now you see again
his look of supreme joy
as he helps the kid
float. Joy and vicious
decay, along the way.
Are they supposed
to balance out?
Well, it's not math--
it's life. And death. Just
the way things are. You're glad
you glanced over to that other
blue pool as you wallowed.
Hans Ostrom 2026
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