Jun 18 2021
Having recently completed a road trip replete with the sights and sounds of the great outdoors, nature in all its resplendent beauty, mysterious, healing, and intoxicating, I am reminded of Emily Dickinson's poem and that I, too, do not have…
Feb 28 2021
More than 60 years after leaving Russia, Vladimir Horowitz marked his return in 1986 with a concert at the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. One can stream videos on YouTube and other platforms of this legendary concert…
Dec 21 2020
In Music and the Mind, psychiatrist Anthony Storr explores the power of music to stimulate the mind, captivate the heart, and nurture the soul. He writes, "Music exalts life, enhances life, and gives it meaning...For those who love it, it…
Jun 6 2020
A global pandemic, protests that one hopes will galvanize systemic changes and encourage conversations so long overdue, a world in flux...It may seem like the end of time as we know it.
In 1940 in a Nazi prison camp in…
Mar 26 2020
In the midst of this global pandemic, we are being asked to...pause, to simply...stop (not so simple to do), or, as Robert Frost so eloquently expresses in his poem, step backward.
Not only sands and gravels
Were once more on…
Feb 16 2020
I have always liked that phrase from Michael Shorb's poem "Geese." I often reflect on it when observing flocks of birds soaring as one during migrations. There is a rhythm and harmony to this "dance" that is musical. In hindsight…
Oct 1 2019
My daughter and I celebrated milestone birthdays recently with a grand adventure: the "Tour du Mont Blanc," a long-distance hike that circles the Mont Blanc massif and passes through France, Italy, and Switzerland. The daily hikes were challenging and exhilarating…
Aug 7 2019
I am compelled to post this verse from the The Radiance Sutras.
It speaks for itself and for all of us who have been privileged to experience, if only momentarily, James Joyce's "aesthetic arrest" when carried away and lost…
Apr 9 2019
I've been a fan of "Live from Here," the weekly PBS radio show, since it filled the time slot claimed for years by "A Prairie Home Companion." Every week I'm newly amazed at what Chris Thile "comes up with"…
Dec 25 2018
Hodie - "This Day"
I have two Christmas musical traditions: raising my voice enthusiastically - though not always accurately - in the superb Dallas Bach Society's annual Messiah sing-along, and listening to - actually luxuriating in - my recording…
Nov 14 2018
Of Mere Being
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze décor.
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You…
Jul 23 2018
The sounds of nature are all around us all the time wherever we are. But we have to pay attention and somehow listen through the noise of our daily lives. Hearing the music of bird songs, waterfalls, and wind through…