Monthly Archives: May 2020

They Says It

Posted on May 31, 2020 by JMN

the tru-est words they says is that there are no per se true words for it for ev-‘ry thing has a no-thing if a sin-gle per-son ut-ter it they is the ip-so fac-to ut-ter-er of it if a sin-gle per-son … Continue reading →

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Poetry Barasingha

Posted on May 30, 2020 by JMN

My dog with the candy name goes off at the drop of a hat. When the washing machine rumbles a cycle-change from the tenebrosity of its cave, I wish I could say Taffy ululates, but it would overdress the event. … Continue reading →

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Poesis in the Age of Wienie Grease

Posted on May 27, 2020 by JMN

I’ve discovered that what’s called poesis, said to be the making and shaping of poems — they must be shaped as well as made! — is not straightforward. For one, you have to follow your feelings rather than steer them. … Continue reading →

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Respect for the ‘Bloody’ Irish

Posted on May 25, 2020 by JMN

“You have to keep them as your friend,” [Trump] said while presenting the traditional shamrock bowl to the Irish prime minister at the White House last year. “You don’t want to fight with the Irish. It’s too tough — it’s … Continue reading →

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Memorial Day, 2020

Posted on May 25, 2020 by JMN

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Memorial Day, 2020.

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Farse Alarm

Posted on May 24, 2020 by JMN

View from a manhole; damage dam-break; dom of dommage; taurine feces fence; chicanery chiclet; rush-to-fudge; jeerleader; freedom-loafer; warlard; crested mask-mocker; pharmacological jiggery-poker; spatchcocked eaglet; church-grade yellowcake; count no-count… No matter how you pencil-whip it, Wharton-school it, or word-smith it, the … Continue reading →

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Art Is God-Light

Posted on May 23, 2020 by JMN

In my language, the one I recall now only by closing my eyes, the word for love is Yeu. And the word for weakness is Yếu.How you say what you mean changes what you say.Some call this prayer. I call … Continue reading →

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Is Art Complex?

Posted on May 22, 2020 by JMN

“Great art is, by definition, complex…” (David Zwirner, “Art Is How We Justify Our Existence,” 5-22-20) Says who?* A thing, by definition, doesn’t define itself; its definition is a human construct — like art itself. Religions are complex. Christianity, for … Continue reading →

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Just a Closer Walk: Things Figured Out

Posted on May 19, 2020 by JMN

Dark matters don’t lend themselves to nosegay piety. I sniff something of my allergy to vestments and gospels in Sonny Rollins’s tolerance, at 89, for honoring the elusive there where it lies. He has, by his words, shunned the laughing … Continue reading →

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Nor Reason Not to Think

Posted on May 18, 2020 by JMN

This late-February news item, which is ancient now in pandemic time, struck me as emblematic of a longer-running rhetorical contagion infecting mass communication: the incitement by vested or corrupt interests to a leap of ignorance rather than to informed prudence. … Continue reading →

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