Category Archives: Anthology

My collected writings and those of family members.

The Future Walks on Baby Feet

Posted on May 16, 2025 by JMN

Here’s my English reading of “Contar Cuentos” (Telling Stories), a poem written in Spanish by Azurea20 published at LA BANCARROTA DEL CIRCO on April 27, 2025. TELLING STORIESMy memory invents you,strips you nakedtells itself stories,closes your eyes,obliterates your mouth,discovers verbs … Continue reading →

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Reading ‘Reading Ulysses in Montana’ in Texas

Posted on May 15, 2025 by JMN

Delving Yardbarker is the nom de guerre of the creator of “Reading Ulysses in Montana.” As with Luvgood Carp, it gives me pleasure each time I say “Delving Yardbarker.” Sonorous, compressed, quirky, inventive, mischievous, literate, subversive, diverting, intriguing, outrageous, prolific, … Continue reading →

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Which of These Dialogs Features a So-and-So?

Posted on May 3, 2025 by JMN

Dramatis Personae: Niamh, a lass. Oisín, a lad. Niamh: Have you had supper?Oisín: So I ate before leaving the house. Oisín: What was Waterloo?Niamh: So Wellington defeated Napoleon there. Niamh: How many capitals has Mongolia?Oisín: So I’m aware of only … Continue reading →

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The Dervish Is in the Detail

Posted on April 30, 2025 by JMN

Bret Stephens, conservative columnist for the New York Times, Jew raised in Mexico, fluent Spanish speaker, quotes (from memory) a poem called “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins at the end of The Conversation with Gail Collins.  In my reading … Continue reading →

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The Few. The Proud. The Marooned

Posted on April 27, 2025 by JMN

I do solitary battle with poetry. Yes, battle. I challenge the poem, it challenges me. Me and the poem, the two of us in mental combat. From the former Gulf of MexicoTo the shores of Zuiderzee,I have pondered verses bad … Continue reading →

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We’re Quanta Spawned by a Polyvalence

Posted on April 12, 2025 by JMN

President Trump issued a separate executive order in January proclaiming that there are only two sexes. If the unitary executive wants to go all binary, then Him and Her it is. God knows, She has had her problems, starting with … Continue reading →

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‘Cuerpo,’ from La Bancarrota del Circo

Posted on April 9, 2025 by JMN

I asked azurea20 if I could post an English reading of her poem “Cuerpo” on EthicalDative, and she said yes. Below is the original Spanish text of her lyric published on her website, La Bancarrota del Circo, followed by my … Continue reading →

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Nor Tear nor Rant, But Cogent, Urgent, Plangent Tangent

Posted on April 7, 2025 by JMN

More I can’t:The title is my tear. How did you in yourHead say tear? As in go on a tear,Or shed a tear? One rhymes with fearAnd one with bear Market. That, my friend’s,Enjambment for you. Fake news flash! A … Continue reading →

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An Unbosoming: On Cohesion

Posted on April 6, 2025 by JMN

Wehr lists anatomical English equivalents for Arabic noun ṣadr, plural ṣudūr, as: chest, bust, breast, bosom. (Heart is an outlier, clearly metaphorical.) At a tender age I heard my grandmother refer to ladies’ “bosoms.” Context nudged me to associate “bosom” … Continue reading →

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‘the living can / be silenced the dead cannot’

Posted on April 3, 2025 by JMN

The writer who wrote the line in my title is ire’ne lara silva. Here it is in context: … they will make us all into virginmadonnas protecting mexicanidadbut our redred blood spilt on the ground does not knowhow to be … Continue reading →

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