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.

Quickness, Sureness, Deep Intelligence

Posted on October 24, 2025 by JMN

Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have. (Denise Levertov) I had the unique experience of being exposed to a poem orally, recited by the poet no less, and of understanding her … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 3 Comments

He Wants to Get Run Over by a Song

Posted on October 21, 2025 by JMN

“We keep moving. We keep putting one foot in front of the other and wanting to be here. It takes a lot for somebody to decide they don’t want to be here… The world’s kind of painful — but God, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

What’s Rebarbative and Nugatory and Quacks Like a Duck?

Posted on October 20, 2025 by JMN

Ice BreakerKnock knock.Who’s there?Rebarbative and Nugatory.Rebarbative and Nugatory who?I know you are, but what about me? Quiz: Which is which?(A) Causing annoyance, irritation or aversion; repellent(B) Trifling, inconsequential, having no force, inoperative Follow the Instructions:(A) __________(B) ___________ AssessmentHow’d you do? … Continue reading →

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‘What Is an Image?’

Posted on October 19, 2025 by JMN

The only constants in his oeuvre, which takes in every traditional genre… are change, relentless curiosity and, perhaps most of all, an insistent question: What is an image? (Emily LaBarge) [Gerhard Richter’s] painting “Tisch” (1962), has the daunting catalog position … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Eric Fischl and Other Eye Catchers

Posted on October 16, 2025 by JMN

[Eric Fischl] “Eric Fischl: Stories Told”Featured here are about 40 large-scale works by the figurative painter Eric Fischl, created from the late 1970s to today. The artist largely had to teach himself traditional painting styles, studying early modern artists like … Continue reading →

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Right On! New Directions in Doggerel

Posted on October 13, 2025 by JMN

With its loping equine cadence, amphibrachic tetrameter holds morbid fascination for the doggerel-besotted. No one knows what it is until they hear it. Then they go, “Oh yeah. There once was a girl from Nantucket.” But they’re wrong, that’s only … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Poem Is a Sketch

Posted on October 9, 2025 by JMN

Disconcert. Defamiliarize. Distort. Disrupt. Draw, Stardust! A friend I’ll nickname Stardust, avid prose reader, has remarked that relatively few people have a taste for poetry nowadays. I surmise it’s always been so, even in this or that era when <name-your-Great-Poet> … Continue reading →

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Inwardness, Tenderness, Political Rage

Posted on October 6, 2025 by JMN

***“I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. Poet covers it all for me… I want to do justice to my inwardness, my tenderness, my political rage.” (Tony Harrison)*** ***… como una mosca espía…… like a fly on the wall… [“a spy fly”!](From “Revuelo” … Continue reading →

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‘Tirdy-Tree and One-Tird % of the Land Is Trilled, the Other Two-Tirds Not So Much’

Posted on October 4, 2025 by JMN

My title is a headline from the Bulletin of the Apico-Dental Voiceless Fricative Foundation. “Many tink current trends are a trowback to the Tirties.” (Dr. Thurgood Thackery, A-DVFF President) c) 2025 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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Orison for Rubble

Posted on October 1, 2025 by JMN

Depending on whether I’m going or returning, not long before or after my crossings of the mighty, tea-dark Brazos near the Arredondo bridge, I pass what appears to be a Christian church whose name has kerygma in it.  For a … Continue reading →

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