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.

‘The Round Jubilance of Peach’

Posted on August 17, 2023 by JMN

Can a person swear for joy? It’s what I do. My reflex on encountering a poem that triggers a rush of involvement on first reading is to let fly a putatively disobliging epithet. It’s a reverb from the salutary shock … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

When History Fails the Test of History

Posted on August 15, 2023 by JMN

“No one ever draws a lesson from history that they didn’t want to draw in the first place.” (Alistair Campbell) “Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat the exam.” (A Professor) (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 2 Comments

OCCD

Posted on August 13, 2023 by JMN

Some persons, of whom I may be one, are beset by the brevity demon. Obsessive-Compulsive Concision Disorder is an aggressive form of self-effacement, a weaponized modesty that clamors furtively for slivers of bandwidth under cover of a solicitous compunction over … Continue reading →

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The Poem of al-Khansā’

Posted on August 12, 2023 by JMN

Al-Khansā’, born near the end of the 6th century A.D., is renowned for elegies she composed for her slain brothers Mu^āwiya and Saẖr. Line 5, midway through the poem, is notable for the brusque transition to aggrieved resignation leading into … Continue reading →

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‘La France, c’est la langue française’ (Fernand Braudel)

Posted on August 10, 2023 by JMN

“Oui, j’ai une patrie: la langue française.” (Yes, I do have a homeland: the French language.) (Albert Camus) Sometimes — and I don’t expect to make friends with this statement — all you have the energy for in this life … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Ocean, On Writing

Posted on August 9, 2023 by JMN

“It’s very hard to write well accidentally.” (Ocean Vuong) (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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Picasso’s ‘Man with a Lamb’ (Sculpture)

Posted on August 8, 2023 by JMN

… With this body of a humble, fragile man who, like an offering, carries a lamb in his arms… Picasso deliberately joined the camp of the sick, the degenerate, the precarious (the Jew, the Romani, the disabled, the homosexual, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 2 Comments

Late-Breaking from on High

Posted on August 7, 2023 by JMN

It may be that God doesn’t talk only to Their anointed few; I’ve had word from that Rascal myself. Here’s what I believe They said: I DIDN’T CREATE LIGHT WITH A THIRD-PERSON COMMAND AS YOU HAVE PROPOSED IN YOUR LITTLE … Continue reading →

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‘The Tongue Has No Bones.’ Yeah!

Posted on August 6, 2023 by JMN

There’s no mistaking a language which can uncork a grave accent, an acute accent, a circumflex accent and a dieresis, all in the space of a single written utterance, as not-French. As I coax these diacritic delicacies from my keyboard … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 3 Comments

Christian Wiman: ‘Ars Poetica’

Posted on August 5, 2023 by JMN

2.These lost and charnel thoughtsless thoughts than bits of stunI suddenly find myself among;that are the me I am when I am notsleeked to reason and pacific despairspeak to me of a pain that saves,some endmost ear to shrive the … Continue reading →

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