At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, hostilities between Germany and the Allies ceased, bringing to a conclusion the fighting of World War I, the bloodiest and most destructive war the world had yet known. Although the formal treaty wasn’t signed for...

While out for a walk this past week in the Highland neighborhood of St. Paul, I came across some more sidewalk poetry. Last summer, after I posted a few of the sidewalk poems in my neighborhood of St. Anthony Park, Holly shared some background about this poetry that I thought I’d share: I...

Carl Sandburg’s poem “Grass” seems a fitting poem for this Memorial Day weekend precisely because he reminds us how quickly we forget the sacrifices of the fallen. Each battle, let alone each war, robs us of the strength, the potential, and the future of so many people. We pause on...

Padraic (or Patrick) Pearse is a controversial figure because of his role in the Easter Rising of 1916 and other activities on behalf of Irish nationalism. He also founded schools, was a poet and author, and devout Roman Catholic. Whatever one thinks of Pearse, it’s hard not to be moved the...

Stephen Crane made his literary mark at age 23 with his brilliant book on war, The Red Badge of Courage. Though he was rejected for service for poor health, Crane saw more than his fair share of the horrors of war as a correspondent covering conflicts in Greece, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Cuba....