Greetings, and welcome to my blog. Please check back occasionally to read my most recent musings. More from the mind of that mystical Celtic Bard of Maryland, “The Poet-Provocateur” ....
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Who are the Cowards?
January 28, 2020
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It is 1963.
A Man is born.
A Buddhist monk is ablaze from self immolation.
Western eyes are stunned and aghast.
Must he do this to protest persecution?
Can he not fight back with all his might?
It is 1941.
A Child is born.
The infirmed, afflicted, and those contrary
to status quo beliefs are led naked
to death pits to be executed in mas...
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The Sylvan Palace
December 27, 2019
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Trees endure, and during their life and after their death, bring life back to many.
As a steady stream of autumn rain descends from the sky,
A crashing sound suddenly permeates the stillness of the early evening air.
A grand senior tree has fallen.
Not just any tree, but one with special meaning to a father and son.
On a sloping hill, reaching...
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What He Knew
August 31, 2019
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The old man knew he would be the last of his kind.
He had traced his German and Irish heritage back several centuries.
He even knew of their life’s trials, misfortunes, and pandemics.
He had walked in their battlefield footsteps, and stood beneath their Presbyterian altar.
His father did not know. His mother did not know, nor his brother.
No b...
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What I Will Miss
August 24, 2019
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It truly is the little things in life that fulfill us with the greatest joy. Our senses drink in the daily sights and sounds of the beauty that surrounds us and fills our soul with the wonders of life. So it is how the daily activities of our canine companions enrich our lives with their love and constant devotion to us. When they leave us, we real...
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The Corruption of Beauty
February 01, 2018
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The celebrated and renowned 13th century, Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas, pontificated that the “Characteristics which define beauty are wholeness, harmony and radiance.” Seven centuries later, the American poet/environmentalist, Robinson Jeffers, eloquently chanted that "The greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and thin...
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Light In August
August 26, 2017
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As a photographer, I have always appreciated good light. But exposure to a copious amount of light is also soothing to the soul. When we are outdoors, communing with our natural surroundings, I am not certain that out of all the ways our senses are being stimulated, that we fully understand how important exposure to sunlight is to our joyful mood....
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The Influence of Ansel Adams
October 23, 2016
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Many nature and landscape photographers of today have been influenced by the images of the American West created by Ansel Adams (1902-1984). I too have drawn inspiration from Adams' works taken of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and the Yosemite Valley. Adams most famous is an image taken in 1941 titled "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico", known to...
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The Ascent to Mt. Whitney
September 03, 2016
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"The best camera is the one that you have with you" are words of photographic wisdom that were never more true than on Labor Day weekend, 1970. On that bright Saturday, I was ascending the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on my way to the top of Mt. Whitney at 14,505 feet, the tallest mountain in the continental USA.
Mt. Whitney (Source cannot be attr...
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Maddie, Sweet and Loyal Companion
June 21, 2016
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She had me as soon as she flashed those beautiful baby blue eyes at me while curled up in my lap as a 6-week old pup. In two more weeks, I would soon begin a 14-plus year relationship with a special canine that only a few dog owners ever will truly understand. After decades of Weimaraner ownership, I knew instinctively that this pup had a very peac...
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The Consecration at Gettysburg
June 18, 2016
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On that crisp March day of 1967, as he looked up from the heavily wooded battleground of which he was traversing, a precocious college student, William Frassanito, could not believe what he saw. After five hard years of dedicated searching, the split rock he longed to locate stood unmistakably before him. This discovery would soon unlock an 104 yea...
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The Beginning of the End
April 27, 2016
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As I am writing this, I hear off in the near distance the roar of diesel engines from heavy duty machinery and the crashing of large trees falling to the ground. In my very first blog post, The Folly of Unchecked Development, I expressed my views on the importance of land conservation. Well, the inevitable is happening at this moment. The area that...
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The Bravery at Gettysburg
April 16, 2016
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General Cadmus M. Wilcox watched with pride as his Alabaman soldiers made their way down the slope toward a dry creek bed known locally as Plum Run. The Yankee-blue line was rapidly disintegrating before them and fleeing to Cemetery Hill where only Union artillery lay poised to defend the last stand of General Meade's Army of the Potomac (AOP). But...
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The Struggle at Gettysburg
February 13, 2016
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The 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, also known as the Collis Zouaves, were a distinguished Army of the Potomac (AOP) regiment with a long battle record during the American Civil War. They fought at all the major battles in the eastern theatre: Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg 1, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. The...
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The Honored Dead at Gettysburg
January 09, 2016
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Make no mistake, the Civil War era is filled with many fascinating military characters. The most gifted fictional writers could not have invented a more colorful character than the Confederate General, Stonewall Jackson. But for the Union, not many, if any, are more intriguing and compelling than the grim warrior, Edward E. Cross, Colonel of the 5t...
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The Devotion at Gettysburg
December 05, 2015
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Nineteenth century America was a nation of immigrants. This first installment of my five-part serial blog essay begins with the story of one of those ethnic groups - the Irish Americans. Orr is an Irish surname. My ancestor James Orr emigrated to the colonies in about 1758. At least three of my great-grand uncles and multiple cousins with that surn...
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The Poet-Provocateur
”The Man who sees well beyond the day-to-day Bullshit”
© D W Orr