Tag Archives: reading

‘There dwells in the glance an ancient hunger…’

Posted on July 10, 2026 by JMN

Translation to English of a poem in Spanish titled “Únicas/Únicos” by Azurea20 published at La Bancarrota del Circo on July 6, 2026. ONE / ONLYThere dwells in the glancean ancient hunger;a buzzing ofbees crownscogitationas one’s own lighttries to take rootin … Continue reading →

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Sadness on the Wing: A Celebration

Posted on June 24, 2026 by JMN

Diction front-loaded with shopworn sparkle (destiny adamantine jade infinite sunset horizon blossom heart gaze…) can reek of prefabricated verse, whereas speech treading on the heels of the quotidian can light your pants on fire. I ask myself what’s up with … Continue reading →

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Purulence, Pus, Matter? Anointed or Kohl’d?

Posted on June 11, 2026 by JMN

I was sleepless, and I passed the night keeping vigil, as if my eyes had been anointed with pus, […] That’s Arberry’s reliable translation of line 1 of the sixth-century elegy on the death of her brother Sakhr by the … Continue reading →

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Rae Armantrout Appeals to My Inner Toddler

Posted on May 21, 2026 by JMN

I want to say Rae Armantrout springs a cavalcade of huggable schwas on me, but rumpled or purple or bubbly would describe them, too. As long as they’re duple bumpy words. Joints grind likeshot brakes. Food ignitesin our stomachs. But … Continue reading →

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‘The Things That You’re Liable to Read in the Bible…’

Posted on December 2, 2025 by JMN

“… They ain’t necessarily so,” goes the song in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. “If we could stop coming at the Bible postured as though we’re the ones that own it… to prop up, whether it’s theologies, whatever makes us comfortable, … Continue reading →

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‘Something Endlessly Inspiring and Strange’

Posted on November 29, 2025 by JMN

While Shakespeare’s plays must have stemmed from some personal experience, they take the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” and, through an act of artistic creation, fashion them into something endlessly inspiring and strange. (Drew Lichtenberg) Inspiring and … Continue reading →

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Portrait of the Reader as an Exigent Mug

Posted on November 27, 2025 by JMN

“Boundless extension of torment, incredible intensity of suffering, unceasing variety of torture. This is what the Divine Majesty, so outraged by sinners, demands.” (From “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce) I’ve been hearing a milestone … Continue reading →

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Never Too Many Books

Posted on November 21, 2025 by JMN

… Peter-Ayers Tarantino[’s aesthetic] recalls that of maximalist bibliophiles of centuries past, including Marcel Proust and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was formed during a life on the road. In the Abstract Expressionism section, Tarantino extracts, almost without looking, a thick … Continue reading →

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And One More Thing…

Posted on November 17, 2025 by JMN

I adore compression and spareness, and Infinite Jest, finished at 7:29PM on 11-16-25, is bloated and prolix. It tells you something that it’s a novel with footnotes. Hundreds of them. During the periods when I ground my teeth, it tracked … Continue reading →

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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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