Invisible Woman An Unconventional American Sonnet Invisible woman, so quiet, so careful, so cool, and so coy, the harvest moon blushes bright red at your consummate, poetic ploy. Undaunted, you pointedly knock on my Internet door to...
Our Unexpected Reciprocity A New American Sonnet I miss your presence and your messages, your pictures and your precious packages of kindness generously overflowing to find new ways of learning and of knowing that strangely stimulate my...
Matthew chapter 7 presents two more segments of the early teaching of Jesus to crowds coming to him from far and wide for medical treatment in the Capernaum area (on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee) shortly after beginning his public...
Section 1. Two Ways of Reacting to the Sermon on the Mount This summer we have considered the Sermon on the Mount (SM) as the teaching of Jesus for people who came to him for healing and treating “every disease and every infirmity among the...
Scripture reading today comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, the second of three chapters this gospel devoted to what Jesus taught on a Galilean hillside (known since the days of Augustine as "The Sermon on the Mount"). Matthew in this...
A. A Weak Start 1. You quit your old job before you finish looking for a new one; or worse, before you start. 2. You leave your old job before considering possibilities of other opportunities with your present employer, or trying to heal any...
On Thursday William Shakespeare comes into our view inside a workshop of this school we share with you, but it can enter into your prov-in-ces too if you will take the time to grab a book or two, or if you still are un-der-age or...
Writer's Workshop Note Thank you, dear reader, for visiting and reading my work. Here today the time does not exist for me to include a full Writer's Workshop as I have so often done in the past on these hub-pages. But as with all my previous work,...
Introduction 1. Like the winds of holy spirit, the unfathomable engines of poetry work their will without warning. 2. One day a friend is your life, your connection to Nature, but the next day, she is nowhere in sight. 3. We can find no one at...
We Share Together Whatever I give you, I also receive. For any happiness I have caused you, I am happy. For any trouble I have caused you, I am troubled. For any blessing I have caused you, I am blessed. For any pain I have caused...
Love Does Not Freeze in Winter's Breeze A New American Sonnet to Those, My Friends, with Christmas Blues and Year-end Woes When I peruse . . . my friends in throes of Christmas blues . . . and year-end woes, I under-stand . . . with...
Her Painful Picture Not a Listless Lecture A New American Sonnet for Someone I Cannot Forget Chary Cherry, ever wary of the daily dic-tion-ar-y, sent to me her painful picture: not fictitious listless lecture or contrived, derived...
Some Sweetly Passing Kisses Put in Jeopardy A New American Sonnet of Danger Dancing Near Regret I don’t like it any more, my dear, when you are here . . . . . with me contrary to your sullen spouse’s wishes. Every time a strange new...
Monday Morning True Triangulation A New American Sonnet To All the Friends I Can't Forget Somewhere in the terrible but true triangle binding Lasting-Love with brother Weekend-Worry and with is cousin Caring-Curiosity, Monday tantalizes...
How a 1950 race across Tulsa saved my life and has taught me how to live for sixty-three more years (and still counting) 1. As one of the sweetest privileges of growing older, one often has the opportunity to tell stories and give advice to people...
Though you insist, . . . we still resist, . . . because a summary. . . for living poetry . . . cannot exist!
Can anyone compose a proper summary . . . to cover this attempt in sonnet poetry . . . to cover sixteen minutes of sublimity?
Workshop Introduction 1. We all know love is controversial; so many different meanings, so many different definitions, so many different life experiences to put firm ground beneath our many different expectations. 2. The poetry of love is...
1. Introduction: Why read Shakespeare? We here read sonnet 18 with three interlocking tasks: first, to understand what it says and what it means; second, to understand how it pertains to Shakespeare’s lofty stature and importance, in other...
1. Henry and his family and friends will celebrate his 80th birthday on Saturday afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m., October 26, 2013, at the Whitney Lion's Club, 504 S. Bosque Street (Texas state highway 22) in Whitney, Texas, a beautiful lakeside...
Workshop Introduction How One Can Write New Poetry Each Day Responding Honestly with Realism Running Free without Obstructing Creativity 1. Today we all receive some e-mail correspondence that either makes us happy, or our feeling more...
1. Introduction The writings of Shakespeare have arguably exerted more influence on the development of language and life than any other comparable literature in the history of modern European and American civilization. Still today, Shakespeare...
WHY KISSING DIFFERS SO FROM LAND TO LAND, AND HAND TO HAND A New American Sonnet I simply for the life of me can never understand why kissing differs so from land to land, and hand to hand. The reddish lips remain in roughly the...
An Introduction Invitation to Participate in Writing Too On every Thursday William Shakespeare comes into our view inside this workshop and its projects that we share with you so you can enter them inside your own prov-in-ces too if you...
The You That is You is the You That I Love A Mountain Journey The you that is you is the you that I love; the me that is me is the me that you love. The view that we view is the view from above; our lives come from Life for they're...
The Time and Truth We Need An American Sonnet Forgiving, patient Time, in time, will solve all passing pregnant problems and delays. True love's mag-ni-fi-cent-ly stern resolve preserves for us its rights, its nights, its days, ...
Tuesday Workshop: Unexpected occasions for writing poetry 1. Here I am this week visiting with friends in the small mountain towns of northwestern North Carolina. 2. Stimuli for new poetry come from unexpected sources. 3. Appreciatively...
1. This workshop discusses one kind of real-life situation that can serve as context for serious poetry that seeks to address real-life issues. 2. We will start by discussing some actual situations that lead business consultants, for example (or...
Workshop A: Writing Communicates in a Social Context (Tuesday, July 16, rev. July 23 and Sept. 16, 2013) A1. The ideally perfect work of art, so earnestly desired by every serious artisan, does not require, nor can it greatly benefit from, any...
1. This course is a participatory course, an invitation rather than a lecture, a starting point rather than a conclusion, because the enduring philosophies of the future cannot be dictated, but only created, as people themselves see a need for them...
1. What must an individual person do to begin participating more effectively in the various creative processes of the larger world community? To be more specific, how does one go about applying for "world citizenship"? 2. The answer, of course, is...
1. There are literally thousands of criteria by which people think of themselves and organize themselves into separate groups. Some groups form within families and economic earning units, competitive religious beliefs, economic or political...
Welcome to this extra session of our course presenting suggested reading for writing a book report or review related to a philosophy of Personal Creation and World Citizenship. Most serious students of a subject new to them want help finding...
1. Just as individual persons share decisively in the creation of their own individual worlds, so do groups of people also share decisively in the creation of the world in which they, and their members, live and function. 2. Starting with two...
Dear Neighbor, We have all been bombarded with enough political advertising. But I write you here not to tell you how to vote, but to encourage you to make the best decision you can on Tuesday with your unique background, knowledge, and...
1. In the context of the individual as artist or storyteller looking for sound knowledge about the requirements and materials for interacting creatively with life, what do we mean by philosophy? And what do we mean by science? 2. Certainly not...
A. Project background and purpose 1. This ten-session course introduces in broad outline the heart, the philosophy, of all the work of The Max Havlick School, by presenting materials first developed by Max in the shelter of his staff positions at...
1. The most important problem, when first introduced to another person and the unique world system that they, and they alone, represent in all its many facets, is to discover what goals that person is trying to achieve in life, what questions they...
Max and Fay Havlick invite you and all our other friends, whether on the Internet or elsewhere, to share with them the 2nd annual Vow Renewal Ceremony starting Friday, July 6, 2012, the day of their 26th wedding anniversary, and extending through...
Yesterday (Feb. 5, 2012), Fay and I marked the 13th anniversary of our Matthew Studies Class at the First Baptist Church (American Baptist) in Oak Park, Illinois. Fay taught the first class Feb. 2, 1999 on the subject "Women in the Gospel of...
Welcome to my discussion of "Second Thoughts" on Exodus 15:1-16, the text for January 29, 2012 in the Uniform Series outline used in mainstream church Bible classes. Fay taught our weekly Matthew Studies Class. To understand her method, you need...
Today's New York Times (Friday, Jan. 6, 2012, p. A23) contains Kathryn Harrison's fine memorial to French heroine Joan of Arc in this 600th year of her birth (east of Paris, exact date in 1412 unknown). I recommend anyone interested in current...
Thank you to all who join us today (Christmas 2011) on this first internet meeting of the Matthew Studies Class that my wife Fay and I have co-taught at 9 a.m. every Sunday for 13 years in Oak Park, Illinois at the First Baptist Church (American...
My thanks today (Monday, Dec. 26, 2011) to all of you attending this joint session of the Realistic Employment Workshop and my Writers Workshop -- the faithful few, or the desperate few, depending on how you see yourself. The response to my...
The Background Story Welcome to everyone attending this new session of our Writers Workshop (Friday evening, Dec. 16, 2011), and especially to those of you who have entrusted me with their work for reading and review. Several times earlier I have...
Workshop A: Responding Sentiment to a Fellow Poet A1. After many months not hearing from my Internet friend Northwest Star (whom I've never met in person, and likely never will), shortly after 12:00 p.m. midnight of Thursday, December 1st, she...
The Realistic Employment Workshop advises anyone seriously seeking employment to attend a job fair in their area on a regular basis. You will most likely not find the perfect employer waiting for you there with a donut and cup of coffee, but you...
With so many of our unemployed neighbors currently needing a job ("any job," they often say), some have asked me, "Max, why do your Realistic Employment Workshops put so much emphasis on the word 'realistic'?" In other words, why do I recommend...
If you have not already read carefully our original hub describing this subject, "Realistic Employment Workshops, with Ongoing Support for Career Success: Introduction," please do so now before going any further, as we here presume that you do at...
Many thanks to the inquisitive fellow Hubbers who asked for more detailed information about our Realistic Employment (RE) Workshops. I see no reason why we should not publish the details on HubPages and make them available to interested Hubbers all...
You can overcome all obstacles to find the right job and career path when you (1) adequately understand yourself and your situation, (2) learn how to discover where best for you to seek work now, (3) develop new skills enabling employers to like...
Background Many of my readers already know I experiment with various ways to adapt traditional literary forms to characteristically American manners and styles. I find the sonnet particularly interesting because it still maintains its prestige as...
How to Interpret World Events Raises a Key Issue for Christians and Devout People of any Religious Persuasion 1. The weekly newsletter of a prosperous church in Villa Park, Illinois (in September 2011) opened with a comment and quotation no doubt...
How is Honest Written Correspondence Possible Today without Unwanted Personal Consquences? My wife will often teach our Sunday morning class while I am busy somewhere else. As soon as we have time to talk again, she tells me at great length...
Our individual lives contain many new opportunities that expectantly wait for us to see them and accept them. Thus, in effect, a new world dawns before everyone of us every day with new horizons never before seen. Such dawning occurs universally,...
True Paste, Four Takes 1 True love show-cased, its taste em-braced, with hate mis-placed, out-paced, re-placed, and lust un-laced, bare-faced, dis-graced. For haste is waste when chaste is paste. 2 Get ready, Do-ro-thy Par-ker, I’m...
The Disconnected Ones Naivete at my age can hardly be excused, yet I confess I still feel puzzled and amazed to find so many otherwise intelligent and talented people disconnected from meaningful, socially productive activity -- unhappy, bored,...
Caring Friendship is a Sacred Re-cre-a-tion My friend anywhere: Messages enlighten. New horizons beckon. Old rough edges soften. Sundays sometimes happen. Today your sharpest staff came poking at my door until...
We Celebrate the Birthday of Percy Bysshe Shelley, August 4th 1. On August 4, 1792, Percy Bysshe (bish) Shelley was born into a wealthy family near Horsham, Sussex (30 miles south of London). 2. Less than 30 years later, he died when his small...
Workshop A (July 2011): Editing Shakespeare for One's Friends A1. Welcome to this Tuesday Workshop for Writers and Teachers. A2. Please feel free to raise questions or make comment on any portion of this material. A3. Idle curiosity has many...
Special People Who Wake Us Up Each person we meet in life is special in some way, not just within themselves but also within us as well. The simple complex needs of daily life do not allow us time to think about, much less to pray over, each one...
Workshop A (July 2011): Human Behavior Provides Inexhaustible Raw Material for Ironic Writing A1. One quiet spring morning in 1972 a twenty-something reporter for the local newspaper came in my front door at Maximilian's Bookshop in Gardner,...
Workshop: Evolution of the American Sonnet 1. The American sonnet has recently emerged with a slightly less restricted format than the traditional sonnet form derived from renaissance Italy (14th-century Petrarch) and Elizabethan England...
Workshop: Retrospective comment on the birth and continuing fruition of a two-way muse relationship (written from Ashe County, North Carolina, Saturday, September 21, 2013) 1. Almost two years after I wrote this short poem "Two Bugs Outside My...
How May We Account for Differences in Independently Written Vows? On July 6, 2011, Max and Fay finally arrived at the 25th anniversary of their wedding perfomed in 1986 by Bro. Charles Gilbert after a Sunday night service at the Riverside...
Consultant Finds the Roadblock on a Client's Road to Success The consultant's task of helping people with informed advice combines both reward and frustration in a complex package. In a recent consulting project, I found myself using stories from...
1. Welcome to this session of the Tuesday Writer's Workshop, a regular feature of our focus every Tuesday on adult continuing education in English and American language and literature. We try to consider issues of concern to a wide range of writers,...
Poems Are Different, Just Like People Poems are different, just like people. Some get happy, some get sad. Some get scrappy, some get mad. Some get snappy, some unclad. Some get sappy, some just bad. Some get yappy, some skedad. Poems are...
Occasional Verse We frequently hear that most poetry, if not all, wears autobiographical undergarments identifiable upon intimate, invasive inspection, but one kind of poem displays its author's life with all the shamelessness of fashionable...
Why Should Snow Be White? "If God, or Nature, works with joy," the young man asked, almost a boy, "then why should snow be white? Can it survive by just reflecting light?" "Oh yes!" the old man promptly said, "because the light speeds on ahead...
Half-moon Tonight Half-moon tonight, "Are you all right?" Half-moon tonight! Through blinds closed tight, it's shining right in my eyes bright! Half-moon tonight, asleep not quite. All sins washed white, so what's the bite? Half-moon...
This reflective poem first occurred to me on September 9, 2010 upon leaving Houston, Texas, where I had just helped bury with military honors my younger brother, Donald G. Havlick, a life-long defense attorney, who after 75 years and 151 days,...
So Many Promises So many promises are ours, but which ones shall we keep -- the ones we made in daylight hours, or those we made asleep? Which promises to sanctify, which ones, indeed, to spurn, Nature herself will specify sufficient time to...
Workshop for Writers: Persistent Editing Pays Off As the last two lines of this poem state, I wrote the rough draft on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8, 2011. A partial version was one of the first items I published on HubPages shortly after joining in...
This Senior Class Poem of 1951 appears on page 4 of the Tulsa Central High School newspaper for Friday, May 18, 1951, which a former classmate, Rosella Orf Morton of Tulsa generously sent me on March 10, 1996. I read this class poem before an...
Note: On Sunday, April 28, 1974, Max Havlick wrote the poem “Please Knock” to post Monday morning on his office door in Pierce Hall, Center for Earth and Planetary Physics, Division of Engineering, Harvard University, not to restrict his boss...
When Fay and I started to think about celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, we were surprised to find many of our friends reaching a similar milestone, but without any plan to renew their vows. Local ministers seemed uncertain about proper...
Workshop for Writers: Unexpected Secular Encounter with Church Music Provokes an Experimental American Sonnet Beginning writers in a workshop setting often wonder where they will get the ideas and materials for their next writing project -- the...
Workshop Introduction 1. Welcome to this session of our Tuesday Workshop for Writers and Teachers, presented free on HubPages as part of a Tuesday program in English and American language and literature (flexible for use by persons attending with...
Workshop Introduction 1. Welcome to this Tuesday Workshop for Writers and Teachers where we discuss issues relevant to the processes of writing and teaching basic language skills as we read from the wonderful resources of English, American, and...
People consumed with success in one specialized area sometimes routinely fail to recognize and pursue a hidden natural talent they possess in another. People trained for high achievement in music, for instance, would hardly think of doing...
You Have My Permission to Write You have my permission to write a poem whenever you might have something that you want to say and can say in no other way. When your inspiration’s on fire your pencil in hand will not tire while your heart...