Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Descending to the Heights!

Posted on April 16, 2025 by JMN
Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

‘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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is Divine Wet Work an Anomaly or a Feature?

Posted on March 22, 2025 by JMN

After the first death there is no other. (From Dylan Thomas’s “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.”) A euphemism I retain from immersion in spy thriller fiction is the term “wet work.” In … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Did Someone Mention Drugstore Cowboys?

Posted on March 20, 2025 by JMN

The Lone Ranger rides again! That was my first take on the photo. Then it stirred my childish you-haven’t-earned-your-Stetson attitude. I was sure the article would nudge me toward curdled cowboy hat bête noire-ism. But wait: As he cavorted across the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Atlas Shrugged and Put on a Hat

Posted on March 12, 2025 by JMN

“If you don’t like country music, get outta the way! Cause we’re KBUCK and we’re gonna keep comin’ atcha!” (A radio station, name disguised) In Arabic, ignorance is expressed with a verb, not a predication. It’s not a state you … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | 7 Comments