Author: John Battle
-

Spring 2026
This is my sense of spring: wandering in the woods and along streams. It took nine hours to upload it because it is high resolution. I have asked that it be exhibited at Artworks in Big Rapids. It is about trilliums, then rippling water and blossoms on a wild cherry tree, and, finally, some still…
-

A family logo
Copilot helped me make a family logo. I think this is pretty good. It is not the same as the family crest I designed last year; it is a simple emblem. Nick and I have worked on different things to put up on the side of his barn; this is based on that project, which…
-

The Waste Land
by T.S. Eliot This poem has taken an important place in modern literature; I do my best with it; I mispronounce a few words, but I do not think that, in such a long work, it requires me to correct the recordings. If you read the poem while listening, you will notice that, toward the…
-

I read Tintern Abbey Ode and other works.
This is a slideshow with Poetry. Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth, Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant, 14 Haiku by John Battle, The last lines of Lieutenant Lasset, a teleplay by John Battle. Tintern Abbey opens at 00:00 with: “Five years have passed.” Thanatopsis opens at 11:17 with: “To him who in the love of Nature.”…
-

When You Are Old, and The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats, and Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
These are some of my favorites. I listened on YouTube the other day to Anthony Hopkins delivering Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. It was a recording from only seven moths ago. Perfection was achieved once more in the world. I looked up my vacation photos from a trip I took to New…
-
People Like My Pizza Sauce
Here is how to make it. Buy a large can of plum tomatoes: This one is $7.99 at Gordon Food in Grand Rapids. This brand—Alta Cucina—of whole, peeled, plum tomatoes has just the right tang for my taste. Get hold of a head of garlic. Buy a bunch of fresh basil. I bought some at…
-

Clem Battle Family Pictures
This is close to the final edition. I can add some names if I get help identifying Canadian relatives. Thanks, John
-

I Read T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Since my freshman college Lit course, Prufrock has been one of my favorite poems. My high school English teacher, Mrs. Layton, quoted the lines about the yellow fog swirling about the house, but in freshman Lit, it was included in our course anthology. I thought: This is about middle-age anxiety. When I got to middle…
-

I Read Shakespeare’s Monologues and Soliloquys
This is a link to my YouTube slideshow (nature pictures and family) with Shakespeare monologues and soliloquys. You don’t have to be a classic literature fan to enjoy these. I deliver lines in a way that is real and in-the-moment—only a bit more important seeming than a shopping list. I know that when I read…
-

Jeffrey Epstein
Aw Gee, at least somebody is out there having fun every day, doing and saying wild-ass shit all the time. I know psychopaths. I am a normal person, and I consider them to be subhuman. I do not use that term lightly—I know what it means. I know it is the curse of all curses,…