Tag Archives: poetry

Reading ‘Reading Ulysses in Montana’ in Texas

Posted on May 15, 2025 by JMN

Delving Yardbarker is the nom de guerre of the creator of “Reading Ulysses in Montana.” As with Luvgood Carp, it gives me pleasure each time I say “Delving Yardbarker.” Sonorous, compressed, quirky, inventive, mischievous, literate, subversive, diverting, intriguing, outrageous, prolific, … Continue reading →

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

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

‘Cuerpo,’ from La Bancarrota del Circo

Posted on April 9, 2025 by JMN

I asked azurea20 if I could post an English reading of her poem “Cuerpo” on EthicalDative, and she said yes. Below is the original Spanish text of her lyric published on her website, La Bancarrota del Circo, followed by my … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | 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

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 →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

How Disparate Writings Intertwine

Posted on January 27, 2025 by JMN

“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history.” (Donald Trump, from Second Inaugural Address) Mr. Trump dictates revelation for his irrupting dispensation. There are impromptu connections one makes in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘I Don’t Belong to Any Religion’

Posted on January 13, 2025 by JMN

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned that I don’t belong to any religion. (Friedrich Zettl) I always read Mr. Zettl’s blog, Zettl Fine Arts, with great interest and profit, no less his latest entry. It takes no more than his first … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

‘When All Three Pounds of Me Came Earthside…’

Posted on January 11, 2025 by JMN

The tiny speaker in Megan Denton’s “A Girl and Her Fireplace” (Poetry, December 2024) is off to a shaky start. Born on a new moon, one minute after my sisterand one pound less, my ribcage was full of roosting songbirds … Continue reading →

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