"The Trafficiad," Hans Ostrom

Re-posting one from several years ago. Dedicated to all commuters.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost

We were asked to memorize this poem in third or fourth grade. Because we lived in rural snow-country, the subject-matter seemed perfectly ordinary, except by then, no one used horse-drawn buggies.

"When My Love Swears" (Sonnet 138), by William Shakespeare

"I, Too," by Langston Hughes

"The Visitor," by W.H. Davies

"Broadway," by Carl Sandburg

"Brown Penny," by William Butler Yeats

"The Maldive Shark," by Herman Melville

As the Indian Ocean has been in the news, with the Malaysian Airline plane missing, I thought of Melville's poem, the Maldives being situated in the Indian Ocean.

CIA Spies on U.S. Congress

I'm not sure why people are so upset about the CIA's allegedly spying on Congressional staffers. Citizens in general get spied on all the time, sans warrants. And the fact that the concentration camp at Guantanamo is still open is incalculably more egregious.

Besides, at least the CIA is spying on the enemy: Congress.

"The Road to Avrillé," by Edna St. Vincent Millay

)

"Something Left Undone," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Bitter Thoughts on Receiving a Slice of Cordelia's Wedding Cake," by Robert Graves

"Island Fever"