Monthly Archives: April 2025

The Dervish Is in the Detail

Posted on April 30, 2025 by JMN

Bret Stephens, conservative columnist for the New York Times, Jew raised in Mexico, fluent Spanish speaker, quotes (from memory) a poem called “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins at the end of The Conversation with Gail Collins.  In my reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

The Few. The Proud. The Marooned

Posted on April 27, 2025 by JMN

I do solitary battle with poetry. Yes, battle. I challenge the poem, it challenges me. Me and the poem, the two of us in mental combat. From the former Gulf of MexicoTo the shores of Zuiderzee,I have pondered verses bad … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

‘The Choice to Limit Our Exposure to the Virtual’

Posted on April 24, 2025 by JMN

“But how much survives will depend on our own deliberate choices — the choice to date and love and marry and procreate, the choice to fight for particular nations and traditions and art forms and worldviews, the choice to limit … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 5 Comments

‘I’m Sorry, I Only Do My Own Ideas’

Posted on April 17, 2025 by JMN

The larger, more established studios, he later recalled, did not take to his eccentric work, responding with blank stares and, in one instance, suggesting religious counseling. My title is illustrator Brad Holland’s comment in turning down an assignment offered by … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Descending to the Heights!

Posted on April 16, 2025 by JMN
Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We’re Quanta Spawned by a Polyvalence

Posted on April 12, 2025 by JMN

President Trump issued a separate executive order in January proclaiming that there are only two sexes. If the unitary executive wants to go all binary, then Him and Her it is. God knows, She has had her problems, starting with … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , | 8 Comments

‘Cuerpo,’ from La Bancarrota del Circo

Posted on April 9, 2025 by JMN

I asked azurea20 if I could post an English reading of her poem “Cuerpo” on EthicalDative, and she said yes. Below is the original Spanish text of her lyric published on her website, La Bancarrota del Circo, followed by my … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nor Tear nor Rant, But Cogent, Urgent, Plangent Tangent

Posted on April 7, 2025 by JMN

More I can’t:The title is my tear. How did you in yourHead say tear? As in go on a tear,Or shed a tear? One rhymes with fearAnd one with bear Market. That, my friend’s,Enjambment for you. Fake news flash! A … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , | 8 Comments

An Unbosoming: On Cohesion

Posted on April 6, 2025 by JMN

Wehr lists anatomical English equivalents for Arabic noun ṣadr, plural ṣudūr, as: chest, bust, breast, bosom. (Heart is an outlier, clearly metaphorical.) At a tender age I heard my grandmother refer to ladies’ “bosoms.” Context nudged me to associate “bosom” … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

‘the living can / be silenced the dead cannot’

Posted on April 3, 2025 by JMN

The writer who wrote the line in my title is ire’ne lara silva. Here it is in context: … they will make us all into virginmadonnas protecting mexicanidadbut our redred blood spilt on the ground does not knowhow to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments