Tag Archives: personal

Montserrat of the Heart

Posted on December 3, 2025 by JMN

When I thought I’d become a poet my head was as empty as a young male’s under-developed frontal lobe can be. In hindsight I can see it now. It was hiding in plain sight, the poetry, waiting for me to … Continue reading →

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I Have a Bone to Pick with the Food Chain

Posted on November 24, 2025 by JMN

In a neighboring town I glimpsed a lone cow in a chute back of a meat processing plant. She was staring fixedly at something unidentified off to my right, heedless of my passing. Only one outcome was left for her.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Orison for Rubble

Posted on October 1, 2025 by JMN

Depending on whether I’m going or returning, not long before or after my crossings of the mighty, tea-dark Brazos near the Arredondo bridge, I pass what appears to be a Christian church whose name has kerygma in it.  For a … Continue reading →

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This Is Now (Again)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by JMN

“He’s also piercingly smart about his place as a white observer in a Black art form.” (Jayson Greene, on Daniel Levin Becker) Before you-know-who was president, I encountered something called Twitter, ran with it for maybe six weeks. That was … 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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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

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 →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged | 8 Comments

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 →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Attack of the Cosmic Chuckle

Posted on September 6, 2024 by JMN

I heard that Iris Murdoch said (or wrote), “Everything that comforts is fake.” Then I read: According to the best theories available, matter — everything we can see and feel in the universe — should not exist. Every particle of … Continue reading →

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

Epistemic Hubris: Unwarranted Certainty (About Complex Issues)

Posted on January 15, 2024 by JMN

Greek words are a nerd’s downfall. I’m a nerd, therefore felled by epistemic hubris. Whenever I encounter “epistemic,” as in Maggie Jackson’s essay, I have to mentally re-solder its connection to epistemology, which I barely retain has to do with … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , | 8 Comments