Tag Archives: language

Review of ‘Infinite Jest’ (Don’t Worry, I’m Jesting!)

Posted on November 9, 2025 by JMN

I haven’t finished listening to the novel on my new Audible subscription, but I see no reason not to review it. It’s twenty-seven Titanics of insanity steaming with breakneck slowness over an eternity of pages towards a who-knows-what species of … Continue reading →

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Enshittified* Cadence of the Unitaries

Posted on November 6, 2025 by JMN

“When she says, ‘We have failed you,’ she means ‘We, the Democrats,’ okay?”— Speaker Mike Johnson(Say What? Archive) We.Other. Smother. Blight. Slight. Smite.Are.Invert. Divert. Revert. Subvert. Pervert.Not.Condemn. Conflate. Confuse. Concoct. Conspire.Them.Suck. Wreck. Mock. Block. Duck.They.Judge. Fudge. Dredge. Dodge. Purge.Are.Garble. Wrangle. … Continue reading →

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Oh Besity! (Anthem)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by JMN

Oh Besity! With tendernessOur country stands for thee,Staunch rampart against slendernessFrom sea to shining sea. Oh Besity! Forsake us not,No di-et shrink our girth.Caloric excess be our lot,Our destiny from birth. Ours the fat and ours the cream,All exercise to … Continue reading →

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The Buck Stops… There (CAGA)

Posted on November 2, 2025 by JMN

“My message to America is, first, the fact that your government is failing you, right now. Poverty is not red or blue, is not a Republican or Democrat issue. If you are in a position that you can’t feed your … Continue reading →

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Amanuensis

Posted on October 28, 2025 by JMN

…chanting in unison, a mobof flightless birds, one timelesscomplicated psalmafter another…(From “Transfiguration” by Michael Dumanis, Poetry, September 2025) A poem reminded me of you, old friend.Judy, Judy, Judy.You came back from a summer’s Italyspeaking of the Italian boysthronging street corners,half … Continue reading →

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How Translations ‘Fail’

Posted on October 27, 2025 by JMN

(Update, Oct. 26, 2025. Some time after writing what’s below I’ve encountered Mitch Teemley’s citation of Psalm 37:23. What’s a good word for how the Quran and the Bible interact? I’ve no expertise in either, but I see signs of … Continue reading →

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Quickness, Sureness, Deep Intelligence

Posted on October 24, 2025 by JMN

Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have. (Denise Levertov) I had the unique experience of being exposed to a poem orally, recited by the poet no less, and of understanding her … Continue reading →

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What’s Rebarbative and Nugatory and Quacks Like a Duck?

Posted on October 20, 2025 by JMN

Ice BreakerKnock knock.Who’s there?Rebarbative and Nugatory.Rebarbative and Nugatory who?I know you are, but what about me? Quiz: Which is which?(A) Causing annoyance, irritation or aversion; repellent(B) Trifling, inconsequential, having no force, inoperative Follow the Instructions:(A) __________(B) ___________ AssessmentHow’d you do? … Continue reading →

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Right On! New Directions in Doggerel

Posted on October 13, 2025 by JMN

With its loping equine cadence, amphibrachic tetrameter holds morbid fascination for the doggerel-besotted. No one knows what it is until they hear it. Then they go, “Oh yeah. There once was a girl from Nantucket.” But they’re wrong, that’s only … Continue reading →

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A Poem Is a Sketch

Posted on October 9, 2025 by JMN

Disconcert. Defamiliarize. Distort. Disrupt. Draw, Stardust! A friend I’ll nickname Stardust, avid prose reader, has remarked that relatively few people have a taste for poetry nowadays. I surmise it’s always been so, even in this or that era when <name-your-Great-Poet> … Continue reading →

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