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.

Worse Than God Made Us

Posted on July 5, 2021 by JMN

… Cada uno meta la mano en su pecho, y no se ponga a juzgar lo blanco por negro y lo negro por blanco; que cada uno es como Dios le hizo, y aun peor muchas veces. (Sancho Panza, “Don … Continue reading →

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Corn Fusion

Posted on July 4, 2021 by JMN

“Poems should be written rarely and reluctantly, / under unbearable duress and only with the hope / that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.”(Czeslaw Milosz) I get Ian McEwan and EwanMcGregor mixedup why I askmyself is … Continue reading →

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UK Sculptor: Hard Row to Hoe

Posted on July 3, 2021 by JMN

It will be [a shrine], but not for art lovers. Or for anyone who is easily embarrassed. Perhaps not even for Diana’s sincerest believers, for the statue group’s emotive symbolism is undermined by its aesthetic awfulness. In style it breathes … Continue reading →

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Write Infrequently, If Possible?

Posted on July 2, 2021 by JMN

… Unlike many great twentieth-century writers, who saw truth in despair, Milosz’s experiences convinced him that poetry must not darken the world but illuminate it: “Poems should be written rarely and reluctantly, / under unbearable duress and only with the … Continue reading →

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Travesía (14)

Posted on June 30, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN [Translator’s note: This is the second segment of the ninth and last part of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Two segments remain.](9)Sound out, voices of … Continue reading →

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How to Act

Posted on June 29, 2021 by JMN

“You talk and I listen; then I talk and you listen. That’s how it works.” (90-year-old actor Robert Duvall on the art of acting, interviewed by Stephen Colbert, June 2021) Duvall’s peer Clint Eastwood is credited with expressing his technique … Continue reading →

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Slant-Wise Talk

Posted on June 25, 2021 by JMN

Saying things that are graspably cockeyed is my kind of self-expression. Doing so skirts peekaboo obscurity and affectation constantly, but sometimes it feels like it’s working and those moments make me feel interesting. “Even your most serious problem,” [Stephen Dunn] … Continue reading →

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¡Salve, Profesor!

Posted on June 24, 2021 by JMN

I connected me and a dot out of the blue last night. A bouncy man I remember only as “Dr. Rubio” who taught the Latin class of my cohort at the University of Barcelona cropped up in a scholarly note: … Continue reading →

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On Edges and Errors

Posted on June 23, 2021 by JMN

Two descriptions in this article about Cézanne are helpful for me. One concerns Camille Pissarro’s treatment of edges: Pissarro was the subtlest of the leading Impressionists, devising ways of giving distinctive presence to each part of a painting, by, for … Continue reading →

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Corrigendum and Addendum

Posted on June 22, 2021 by JMN

Referencing https://ethicaldative.com/2021/06/20/the-quixote-funny-and-sad, in translating Martín de Riquer’s phrase “… Una diatriba para acabar con algo que hace mucho que se acabó…” I left out “hace mucho.” I should have written: “… A diatribe devoted to ending something which ended long … Continue reading →

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