Wednesday, April 9, 2025

"Foxholes" -Review of Leonard Kress' New Poetry Book

 Foxholes- Leonard Kress

Poets have written about family members for too many years to count. They have also written about places to the extent that we think some places are more poetic than others.
In this poetry book, Leonard Kress finds poetry not only in family but also in suburban Philadelphia, the Fishtown, Harrowgate, and Center City sections of Philadelphia, Lithuania, and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Non-family members appear: neighbors, a future serial killer (unnamed but known to those who lived near him), students he taught in Ohio, classmates, former girlfriends, and musical icons from the 1960s.
Using various styles, Kress presents a winsome picture of people and settings from his life. A reflective tone permeates these verses, and the reader enjoys time spent with this delightful book of poetry.
Arthur Turfa, Saluda Reflections, Finishing Line Press, Epiphanies, Alien Buddha Press.


I will add a little more here. Leonard graduated between my brother Alex and me from Plymouth-Whitemarch HS in Plymouth Meeting, PA. His family lived about 1.5 miles from mine. His sister, Ellie, worked on the school newspaper as I did and graduated a year ahead of me.

Leonard and I lived or went to many of the same places and wrote about them. I will post links to his books and also mine.







https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnTGRkFWMAE1zUp?format=jpg&name=360x360

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My book lins:




Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Germany Decides to Re-Arm


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjyjlkewr2o


     Around thirty years ago, my National Guard battalion hosted about a dozen Bundeswehr soldiers during our Annual Training. The Pennsylvania Army National Guard (28th Division) had an exchange arrangement with the German Army. 

     Fifty or so years before that, the 28th Division fought the Wehrmacht in World War II. There was considerable grumbling from my battalion. One complaint was that these exchanges were not good because "we'll be fighting them again." I explained that the recently-reunited Germany was not a danger, but still an ally. Some believed me, some did not,

     Eight decades after V-E Day, the world is different, primarily due to Donald Trump and MAGA Isolationists. He brazenly speaks about obtaining territory of NATO members by any option, has a close relationship with Russia, has abandoned Ukraine (blaming them for the war), and a shocked NATO faces a new reality. 

     I've heard it all. How European NATO members do not pay their way, etc. How we have our own needs in this country, and soon. And now I see how we willingly alienate allies and turn them away from us if not against us in some way.

     Germany needs t increase its military. That will not be popular there, and budget cuts will have to be made. Berlin has no choice but to take these steps, and will have to maintain doing so for the foreseeable future, even post-Putin.





My books:

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Arthur-Turfa/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AArthur%2BTurfa

    https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county


Review of the William F. Buckley biography by Sam Tanenhaus

      In junior high, I admired Buckley. By the time I graduated, I did not, but I read his columns as long as he wrote them for vocabulary-...