Tag Archives: spirituality

Words of a Stabbing Victim

Posted on January 18, 2021 by JMN

On Sept. 20, 1958, while signing copies of his first book “Stride Toward Freedom” in a Harlem department store, Dr. Martin Luther King was stabbed in the chest by a young woman. The weapon, a letter opener, grazed his aorta. … Continue reading →

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Joy Hiding in Plain Sight

Posted on November 3, 2020 by JMN

Retired doctor Jeff Kaufman often visits an American elm that escaped the devastation of Dutch elm disease because of its isolation. The 150-year-old tree stands near the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, 95 miles from Egremont, the nearest urban area. … Continue reading →

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Amen Thyself

Posted on October 25, 2020 by JMN

Amen Thyself Kids are we of One High God or other.There are no atheists around a campfire.Praise the spook that hankers for a crown. An unborn baby drowned with its mother,Tipped from a rescue boat into the flood.Scream a prayer … Continue reading →

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‘Blurred Stupid Dulled’

Posted on October 13, 2020 by JMN

Hilma af Klint inspires a certain perfervid evangelism which is diluted in this article by careless editing. The article cites a beautiful film by Halina Dyrschka about the visionary artist’s astonishing work. The beguiled film maker contracted [sic] MoMA to … Continue reading →

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What Makes a Poem ‘Hard’?

Posted on July 17, 2020 by JMN

“Syntax” is the answer to the fudgy question. It’s hard to reach image and reference through muddy syntax. In narrative and exposition, context comes to the rescue; in poetry often not, because a poet revels in flare-gunning lap dance moon … Continue reading →

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Poesis in the Age of Wienie Grease

Posted on May 27, 2020 by JMN

I’ve discovered that what’s called poesis, said to be the making and shaping of poems — they must be shaped as well as made! — is not straightforward. For one, you have to follow your feelings rather than steer them. … Continue reading →

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Art Is God-Light

Posted on May 23, 2020 by JMN

In my language, the one I recall now only by closing my eyes, the word for love is Yeu. And the word for weakness is Yếu.How you say what you mean changes what you say.Some call this prayer. I call … Continue reading →

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Just a Closer Walk: Things Figured Out

Posted on May 19, 2020 by JMN

Dark matters don’t lend themselves to nosegay piety. I sniff something of my allergy to vestments and gospels in Sonny Rollins’s tolerance, at 89, for honoring the elusive there where it lies. He has, by his words, shunned the laughing … Continue reading →

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The World We Mustn’t Live In

Posted on August 29, 2019 by JMN

Two thoughts slam me at once. They can’t be correlated, but mustn’t they? The first thought is that we live in a tired, busy world; a world of busy tiredness; a world of tired busyness. Such is our world: tired … Continue reading →

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What We Are Just

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

In this essay Sara Nolan affirms with wit and grain her sense of the “godliness of the everyday” brought home by the birth of babies of any species. I glimpsed it with sugar ants. We are just creation playing its … Continue reading →

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