Tag Archives: language

Model and Prototype for the NONSEQUI-KU

Posted on September 9, 2023 by JMN

I’ve created a verse form I call the nonsequi-ku. It consists of a title over a cinquain. The title must be in trochaic pentameter, and must cast only spectral light on the burden of the cinquain. The cinquain must be … Continue reading →

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‘Free Speech Is Hard Work’

Posted on September 7, 2023 by JMN

One stumbles upon insight gold. Here’s a line from the title poem of Egyptian poet Iman Mersal’s book The Threshold: One long-serving intellectual screamed at his friend / When I’m talking about democracy / you shut the hell up. It’s … Continue reading →

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The Poem of ^Umar ibn Abī Rabī^a

Posted on September 5, 2023 by JMN

^Umar ibn Abī Rabī^a, son of a wealthy merchant of Mecca, lived ca. 643-719 A.D. His legend is that of a womanizer, his verses said to be “the greatest crime ever committed against God.” 1 If only Hind would keep … Continue reading →

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The Bull in ‘Minotaur’

Posted on August 21, 2023 by JMN

Consider this opening of “Minotaur” by Douglas Kearney: MINOTAUR The best part,how we make topart the beastfrom its self. The illusion fostered by the abrupt entrée en matière is that of a conversation suddenly caught on a hot mic. The … Continue reading →

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Where Has All the Rhyming Gone?

Posted on August 18, 2023 by JMN

By all accounts poetry was the first literature of the sundry peoples. It predated writing, so rhyme, rhythm and alliteration helped rhapsodes and minstrels hold it in their heads. In contemporary lyric rhyme is absent (thank goodness), alliteration rare; rhythm … Continue reading →

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‘The Round Jubilance of Peach’

Posted on August 17, 2023 by JMN

Can a person swear for joy? It’s what I do. My reflex on encountering a poem that triggers a rush of involvement on first reading is to let fly a putatively disobliging epithet. It’s a reverb from the salutary shock … Continue reading →

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The Poem of al-Khansā’

Posted on August 12, 2023 by JMN

Al-Khansā’, born near the end of the 6th century A.D., is renowned for elegies she composed for her slain brothers Mu^āwiya and Saẖr. Line 5, midway through the poem, is notable for the brusque transition to aggrieved resignation leading into … Continue reading →

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‘La France, c’est la langue française’ (Fernand Braudel)

Posted on August 10, 2023 by JMN

“Oui, j’ai une patrie: la langue française.” (Yes, I do have a homeland: the French language.) (Albert Camus) Sometimes — and I don’t expect to make friends with this statement — all you have the energy for in this life … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Late-Breaking from on High

Posted on August 7, 2023 by JMN

It may be that God doesn’t talk only to Their anointed few; I’ve had word from that Rascal myself. Here’s what I believe They said: I DIDN’T CREATE LIGHT WITH A THIRD-PERSON COMMAND AS YOU HAVE PROPOSED IN YOUR LITTLE … Continue reading →

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‘The Tongue Has No Bones.’ Yeah!

Posted on August 6, 2023 by JMN

There’s no mistaking a language which can uncork a grave accent, an acute accent, a circumflex accent and a dieresis, all in the space of a single written utterance, as not-French. As I coax these diacritic delicacies from my keyboard … Continue reading →

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