Milosz’s ABC’s
Milosz’s ABC’s Translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine Listening last night to Natalie Long talking about Poland and mentioning Czeslaw Milosz reminded me of reading his ABC’s back in 2001. Around that time…
Month: April 2020
Reminder to Self
When you encounter those who are wicked, unrighteous, foolish, dim-witted, deformed, vicious, chronically ill, lonely, unfortunate, or handicapped, you should think: “How can I save them?” And even if there is nothing you can do,…
“It’s the Old Thoreau Tradition”
This morning I was reading a 1972 interview with poet Allen Ginsberg and came across the following exchange… YLP: I was surprised to see the importance young Americans grant now to the Do It Yourself…
Share the Wealth with Natalie Long… Agrarianism, the Divine, and the Presence of Absence: Reflections on a Trip to Poland
We are living in historic times. The pandemic afflicting the human species is not only a test of the resiliency of people around the world, but also an invitation to examine the insufficiency of existing…
After Sanders Makes His Endorsement, I Turn to Some Great Reminderers
Those who live by compassion are often canonized. Those who live by justice are often crucified. –John Dominic Crossan, Scripture Scholar, USA Don’t mourn. Organize. –Mother Jones, labor activist, USA The madness of violence must…
Conscience Thunders
for Matt Miller Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 Simon and Schuster, 2006 The following are passages from this third volume of a gripping, recent history of the US….
This Is What She Said So Often
“Marko, I just want to be a good person.” Mev Puleo
Share the Wealth with Cami Kasmerchak–Year of the Photograph: A Project to Give Myself Permission to Be Me
At the beginning of 2019 I decided to take the year to explore my passion of photography more deeply through the self-proclaimed “Year of the Photograph.” At the time, I was living in Seattle, WA…
Two Ways of Looking at a Plague…
Ernesto Cardenal, Zero Hour And Other Documentary Poems New Directions, 1980 Dear Chase & Liz, The Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal died on March 1. I’m going back over his works this spring under quarantine. I…
The Urgent Necessities When You’re Stuck in One Place
I understand that I can have visitors twice a month—the second and fourth Sunday. However, I understand that everybody—white and colored—can have visitors this coming Sunday. I hope you can find some way to come…