Author Archives: JMN

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About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

‘We’re More Than the Sum of Our Camera Rolls’

Posted on June 14, 2026 by JMN

“I simply think that we have not yet got over the Romantic epoch. Romanticism is far from dead. Exactly like fascism.” (Gerhard Richter, 1973) … He began to paint directly from photographs: family album pictures, clippings from newspapers or encyclopedias, … Continue reading →

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Purulence, Pus, Matter? Anointed or Kohl’d?

Posted on June 11, 2026 by JMN

I was sleepless, and I passed the night keeping vigil, as if my eyes had been anointed with pus, […] That’s Arberry’s reliable translation of line 1 of the sixth-century elegy on the death of her brother Sakhr by the … Continue reading →

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Footprints

Posted on June 8, 2026 by JMN

A crater is meteor footprint.A volcano is lava footprint.A canyon is river footprint.A valley is mountain footprint.A twister is wind footprint.A flood is cloud footprint.A desert is sky footprint.A ruin is war footprint.A war is man footprint.A man is God … Continue reading →

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Fabulous, Difficult Individuals Aren’t ‘Divas’!

Posted on May 31, 2026 by JMN

“Every time you misuse ‘diva,’ Maria Callas smashes a wine glass in heaven.” (Christopher Muther, quoted here) (c) 2026 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 7 Comments

Posted Here This Day in 2018

Posted on May 28, 2026 by JMN

This is the SYSTEM the FATHERS built. These are the COURTS that rule in the SYSTEM the FATHERS built. These are the JUDGES who bench the COURTS that rule in the SYSTEM the FATHERS built. This is the PREZ who … Continue reading →

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Hail to Thee, Mouse-Like Bird! Wren nor Tit Thou Never Wert!

Posted on May 25, 2026 by JMN

Adam goofed. The bird called wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) is neither a wren nor a tit. A wrentit… is a secretive, sedentary, mouse-like bird endemic to North America, primarily found in western coastal regions of the U.S. and Baja California. It’s … Continue reading →

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Democracy, We Hardly Knew Ye

Posted on May 23, 2026 by JMN

The [2026 U.S. Supreme Court] case that felled the Voting Rights Act was Louisiana v. Callais… The day after the Callais ruling, Gov. Jeff Landry took the unprecedented action of suspending the state’s U.S. House primary — in which tens … Continue reading →

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Rae Armantrout Appeals to My Inner Toddler

Posted on May 21, 2026 by JMN

I want to say Rae Armantrout springs a cavalcade of huggable schwas on me, but rumpled or purple or bubbly would describe them, too. As long as they’re duple bumpy words. Joints grind likeshot brakes. Food ignitesin our stomachs. But … Continue reading →

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A-B-C-D-D-C-B-A

Posted on May 16, 2026 by JMN

every need fights to makeits voice heard, to befulfilled with a gentle touch (from K. LINES THAT AIM TO BE) K’s lines, encountered after I had spewed the below caustic grump at the demons of my own distractedness, furnished an … Continue reading →

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Mid-May on the Littoral

Posted on May 14, 2026 by JMN

It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates.(Philip Roth on American life in the 1960s) I fear I’ve morphed into a carping nag.Crafting invective merely fêtes the boor,vomitous bilge the thing that feeds his root.It’s to priss froufrou-like at the galaof distress, … Continue reading →

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