-
Recent Posts
Archives
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
Categories
Meta
Twitter
Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.
Monthly Archives: February 2023
To Be or Not to Be That, Is the Question
You’ve been punctuated! In my title, moving the pause (caesura) signaled by a comma turns Hamlet’s proposition into something different. Whatever “that” may be, being it or not being it is what’s now in play. The New York Times publishes … Continue reading
Can This Be Poetry? It’s Direct, Clever and Fun!
Poetry, February 2023, celebrates William J. Harris (still living). Reading the issue’s portfolio of Harris’s poems gave me some laugh-out-loud moments. Here are two (in full): On Wearing EarsAs long as peoplecontinue to wearearsthere won’tbe muchpeace and quietin this world. … Continue reading
Diametric ‘Scape States
“He’s showing us in the natural world our own inner landscape,” said [collector Bernard] Lumpkin, who owns four Gavin canvases. “When you’re inhabiting a painting by Cy, you’re inhabiting a world which is simultaneously strange and familiar; real and surreal; … Continue reading
Verse from Two Directions
“I tire of being made to feel smart rather than pleased.”(Peter Schjeldahl) 1. Online One finds lineated speech flowing freely, touching on themes of love, nostalgia, rage, nature, disillusionment, mortality and healing. There’s earnestness, the odd hard edge, whiffs of … Continue reading
‘Cucumber Sandwiches. Season with Pepper Apparently’
My title is, in full, a text message received from a correspondent in early morning with no context. I read it silently then more attentively aloud. With growing alarm I realized it was a perfect dactylic pentameter. Rubbing sleep from … Continue reading
The French Are Okay with Being ‘The French’
“We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college educated.” (Tweet from The Associated Press Stylebook) How “the French” constitutes a “label” left many French people mystified. … Continue reading
The United State of the Whole Damn Nation
When I presume to wax oracular& prophesy immaculate vernacular,thund’ring from on high abominationat nucular & realator & joolery,remind me I’m not holier than thee. In the matter of what crosses our lipsunsaid it goes that each one of us sipsfrom … Continue reading
Five Quotes About …
“What I teach you is nothing. What you learn by doing over and over is where the learning begins.” (Simon Michael) “Writing poetry is much easier … Five Quotes About …
Don’t Get Me Started
On Squirrels I don’t defend creationism butsometimes it’s hard to getmy head around the notion thatone bit of protoplasm puton a bird suit, another a people suit,and don’t get me startedon squirrels. Have you ever notedhow one can scamper up … Continue reading
EthicalDative 
The Agony of Hamline and Macalester
“Art need not defer to religion. If that’s no longer obvious we’ve gone astray.” (Michelle Goldberg) (Michelle Goldberg, “A Left-Leaning College Didn’t Want to Offend, So It Closed Down Her Art Show,” New York Times, 2-13-23) The story of what … Continue reading →