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 Case for Old Bulls

Posted on September 6, 2020 by JMN

“New research challenges the assumption that bulls become redundant in elephant society after breeding.” New evidence suggests that male elephants do have social lives, and that older males may act as leaders for younger ones.…For example, from 1992 to 1997, … Continue reading →

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Notes on Poetry from India (1)

Posted on September 6, 2020 by JMN

In the September 2007 edition of Poetry, R. Parthasarathy edited an “Indian Poetry Portfolio” accompanied by his essay titled “Indian Poetry Today.” I note salient points from that essay here. India’s National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) recognizes twenty-four languages, … Continue reading →

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Friday Morning

Posted on September 4, 2020 by JMN

I’m struggling. My remote interlocutor in life of the mind is keeping me afloat insofar as having a rational dialog with someone. But that dialog is private. Of the muchness on my mind, I’m conflicted as to which of it … Continue reading →

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Pinched Dawnings

Posted on August 31, 2020 by JMN

“I feel that poetry has the power to pinch one’s heart to such an extent that the reader thinks twice and thrice before he or she interprets it.” (Sonam Tsering, Silent Songs of Sonsnow) (Multivalence)STATIONS OF THE MASQUE (Assertion)Dawnings oxygenate … Continue reading →

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The Gargoyles’ Grin

Posted on August 30, 2020 by JMN

In 1915, Wallace Stevens offered Harriet Monroe, founder of Poetry (the magazine), several poems that included Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock. “She returned them… finding them ‘recondite, erudite, provocatively obscure… all with ‘a kind of modern-gargoyle grin to them,’” writes Stevens … Continue reading →

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Shackles

Posted on August 28, 2020 by JMN

Jacob Blake, the Black resident of Kenosha, Wis., who was shot by a white police officer, is shackled to his hospital bed [my bolding]… [He] remains paralyzed from the waist down… The police were arresting Mr. Blake on Sunday afternoon … Continue reading →

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Poetry and Drawing

Posted on August 25, 2020 by JMN

The essay is “On Drawing” by poet Michael Burkard (Poetry*, July/August 2020). Mary Hackett was “a self-taught artist who spent much of the year in Provincetown [Massachusetts].” Michael Burkard writes of striking up a friendship with her while on an … Continue reading →

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Prosodic Moments in Poeisis

Posted on August 23, 2020 by JMN

In English, the difficulty of perceiving even brief isosyllabic lines as rhythmically equivalent is aggravated by the inordinate power of stressed syllables… The mashup of mystification about versifying that’s available online furnishes what I call Prosodic Moments — when phraseology … Continue reading →

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Poetry Frisson

Posted on August 21, 2020 by JMN

The poem is “That Other” by Joyce Carol Oates (Poetry*, July/August 2020). Reading this miniature is like encountering a firm pack of beach after jogging on dry sand. The poem is accessible while allusive, and wry. It crystallizes for me, … Continue reading →

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The Pain of Poetry

Posted on August 20, 2020 by JMN

My correspondent in life of the mind states my state of mind neatly and plainly in the matter of phosphorescent gargoyle exhalations swaddled in effulgent gossamer — I mean to say prosody. Now I remember why I, and doubtless others … Continue reading →

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