Category Archives: Anthology

My collected writings and those of family members.

‘I Said Hello. Then You Said You Said Hello’

Posted on August 13, 2024 by JMN

I’m guessing you think there’s a typo in my heading. I know! The use of repetition in “The Renaissance,” a poem by Trey Moody (Poetry, May 2024), was a hook for me. The thirteen-line poem starts here: I said hello. … Continue reading →

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Survival of the Fiercest

Posted on August 4, 2024 by JMN

Various scriptural matter I read has the theme of the “test” through adversity. Failing the test consigns a person to The Fire — agony until the end of time. Flood, drought, pestilence, persecution, war, Vance, all manner of affliction are … Continue reading →

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The Few, the LOUD

Posted on August 1, 2024 by JMN

The elbow room in ivied halls of bard raptureHas the vastness of atomic space.Let ring lute! — Recorder, mandolin and dulcimer.Let move your lips with mine while reading silently.Let BE our noise! Be louder than it sounds! A sub-segment of … Continue reading →

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‘Tested in the Wrack Wrack of the Parlance’

Posted on July 20, 2024 by JMN

… I want to say / this is how it started: / there was a mystery / it begged / to be stroked(Alexis De Veaux, “For my love at the time of our ceremony,” Poetry, July-August 2024) “YxzY” by Ronaldo … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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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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 →

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Raise Your Hand If You Know What ‘Paratactic’ Means

Posted on June 12, 2024 by JMN

In an essay, Meghan O’Rourke writes the following: Ambivalence is, like so much poetry, paratactic. (Poetry, June 2024) Ambivalence is a state of mind characterized by mixed feelings. Parataxis is a rhetorical move. It daisy-chains independent clauses, leaving it to … Continue reading →

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Paradise Flown

Posted on June 6, 2024 by JMN

“People are not always great at predicting their own behavior.” (Kristen Soltis Anderson) The founding myth of the civilization teeming beneath my bird feeder says a mature Cardinal fancied an underage squirrel. From their unnatural union sprang a creature with … Continue reading →

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