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.

patience

Posted on July 17, 2024 by JMN

FURTHER AWAY– Don’t care ! I’ve got plenty of time ! patience The pen and wit of Gilles Labruyère are a daily marvel. This one in particular connects me with a favorite topic: signs that point somewhere. The quintessential sign … Continue reading →

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

The Mythopoeic Potency of Realization

Posted on July 14, 2024 by JMN

Preface, Disclosure and Update, July 14, 2024I wrote most of the little essay that follows (see below) only two days ago. It’s a bit of nonsense penned tongue-in-cheek with a dollop of irony. Satirical humor is my way of having … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Blast From the Past: My Favorite Correction in Journalism

Posted on July 12, 2024 by JMN

A link encountered recently in other reading led me to this obituary in The Times’s archive. You will discern from the excerpts what left me biting a grin. (Respect and love for the memory of Jerry Garcia. He would’ve grinned … Continue reading →

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Raise Your Hand If You’re Up for a ‘Variety of Irreconcilable Points of View’

Posted on July 10, 2024 by JMN

Rooky move: I responded to the first page of Meghan O’Rourke’s essay “On Ambivalence: To Be, but to Be How?” (Poetry, June 2024) before I had finished reading it. I caught the wave generated for me by her allusions to … Continue reading →

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The Ire of Texas Is Upon You, Rude Words

Posted on July 8, 2024 by JMN

“Appeals court tells Texas it cannot ban books for mentioning ‘butt’ and ‘fart’” (Maya Yang, The Guardian, 6-9-24) In a report released last October [2023], the American Library Association found that Texas made the most attempts in the US to … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 5 Comments

‘You Can Make Something and You See It. But Then You Have to Spend Your Life to Get the World to See It’ (June Leaf)

Posted on July 2, 2024 by JMN

Painter and sculptor June Leaf died on July 1, 2024, aged 94. “She is that rare thing in painting today: a poet with a taste and a talent for complex images.” (Hilton Kramer, 1968) In Paris, Ms. Leaf told Hyperallergic, … Continue reading →

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The ‘Jolly Bunch of Pen-Pushers’

Posted on June 29, 2024 by JMN

For me the skills of cartoon and caricature are from on high, which is why I relished this article about Philip Guston. It told me much I didn’t know. He was the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Montreal who … Continue reading →

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Un-Contained

Posted on June 25, 2024 by JMN

The text is Marvin K. White’s “From Containment to Expansion: A Tenderloin Meditation in Two Parts” (Poetry, July/August 2024). Part 1 contains 82 the’s, 41 does not contain’s and 41 pairings that span the elemental (sun-fire), the metaphysical (circle-infinity), the … Continue reading →

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Nick Ferrari Hobnobs With Toffs at the Garrick Club

Posted on June 21, 2024 by JMN

Just the other day I spied Reginald-now-Lord Fairfax at his usual perch in the smoking room of the club. I greeted Reggie, ordered a brandy, and inquired after his father-in-law Rufus-now-Lord Driscoll, whose alleged dalliance with a domestic has triggered … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged | 4 Comments

‘The Bright Light Done Come, and There Was No More Whippin’s’

Posted on June 19, 2024 by JMN

June 19, 1865, inaugurated Juneteenth. My title is from the words of a former slave in Texas about its effect on her and her family. (Quoted on “The History and Meaning of Juneteenth,” from “The Daily,” New York Times Audio) … Continue reading →

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