Suggested reading for lovers of American history

Suggested reading

Wrestling with His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol 11 1849-1856

By Sidney Blumenthal

A book that reveals the genius of Abraham Lincoln, his political and socially based perspectives, his help in creating a new political party, the Republican party, his views against the anti-immigration party and , his views on what America is are amazing and prescient in view of today’s America, its politics and its evolution of cultural life.

Also see Blumenthal’s, “A Self-Made Man” also about Lincoln, his beginnings and the first in a sweeping multi-volume history of Lincoln,

September picture of the month

September poem of the month

Blind

They walked out of the snow

with slouched backs into the tram,

literally; the blind leading the blind,

a gentle tapping

pointing out their way,

and sat down next to each other

their backs tipping over and their canes

alongside their outstretched legs,

and as they sat finding comfort

easily by touch and sound

their distance to other passengers

was felt in a calm hunger

for knowing where they were

as if their eyelids, like the horizon

understood distance and shape

but could not be pressed further

than beyond that end

to which their probing hands

only reached for each other

not for help, but for play

as their bodies enjoyed

the movement, enjoyed

the expected juggling about

and then laughed and she

came closer to kiss

his closed eyes

knowing that darkness

does not always erase

memories and that memory

is never better than imagination.

Steven Pelcman

Poetrymagazine.com USA  2013