Category Archives: Anthology

My collected writings and those of family members.

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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What’s in YOUR Belly?

Posted on March 30, 2025 by JMN

The Arabic phrase under examination is this (with my transliteration): وَأَصْلِحُوا۟ ذَاتَ بَيْنِكُمْ ۖwa-‘aṣliḥū ḏāt(a) bain(i)-kum In the languages I can navigate, here are various translations. All but “Cortés” are from here: Englishsettle your affairs (Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear … Continue reading →

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I Need Some Writer’s Block

Posted on March 26, 2025 by JMN

Really, I should draw, paint and read more, write less. It’s a constant struggle to pipe down.  Poetry, for one thing, triggers me. Intending to read a bait of versifying, before I know it I’m a keyboard Roman candle ejaculating … Continue reading →

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When You’re Gagging on Humbug, Remember Someone Fondly

Posted on March 7, 2025 by JMN

The family must have had a matriarchal streak, for I was grandly mothered. Grandmother had a choir-dominating soprano voice in the native stone church. She knew her way around the hymnal. Could coax some harmony from the ivories of an … Continue reading →

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Coda to the ‘Strawberry Roan’

Posted on February 27, 2025 by JMN

Only once before have I presumed to “write a song.” I use scare quotes because I’ve really no idea how it’s done. This latest go-round involves new lyrics for an existing tune. I posted the first version here, and have … Continue reading →

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A Bath of Warm Syrup Cooked from Stalk Cut in the ‘Family’ Canebrake

Posted on February 22, 2025 by JMN

My car radio is newly parked on my local country-western music station. It’s giving me the opportunity to hear music tangled in my ranch roots. The music partakes of both the familiar and the strange. In certain respects I’ve changed … Continue reading →

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Looking and Listening Versus Seeing and Hearing

Posted on February 20, 2025 by JMN

I relish the tension that exists between certain verb pairs often used as roughly synonymous. This isn’t scientific, but here’s how I think of a couple of common verbs: “Look” describes the action of directing the eye to a focal … Continue reading →

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Are You Riding the Strawberry Roan?

Posted on February 3, 2025 by JMN

I assume “Scarborough Fair” is an old melody, though it’s sometimes hard to distinguish what’s echt and what’s ersatz in the matter of “traditional” airs.  Simon and Garfunkle did a defining version of the song for my generation. I like … Continue reading →

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