The Way It Looked in 1969
Now the age of 101, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has composed poetical works about most U.S. presidents since the administrations of Eisenhower in the 1950s. I recall with appreciation his poem “Tale Tale of the Tall Cowboy”…
Month: July 2020
Morning and Night
After finishing Hilberg’s trilogy this morning, have spent the evening with the poets: Eluard, Cardenal, Heifetz-Tussman, Glatshteyn, and Brecht.
A Hierarchy of Human Life?
Nawal El Saadawi, The Essential Reader In his poem “Cosmopolitan Greetings,” Allen Ginsberg urged: Stand up against governments, against God. This expresses the life and work of Nawal El-Saadawi. I am African from Egypt, not…
Totally Alive
A book I am most looking forward to reading is not due to be published until November 10th of this year. The title: Sarasvati’s Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda–Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary. …
Paying Attention
A year ago, I was recommending that friends read a short, invigorating book by Rebecca Solnit, entitled, Hope in the Dark. This year, I will recommend an amazing tour de force of paying attention, in…
Seventeen Years Ago
Tomorrow Belongs to Me This is total war… If we just let our vision of the world go forth And we embrace it entirely And we don’t try to piece together clever diplomacy But just…
Share the Wealth with Carol Mock–Beauty Draws the Eye: Daylilies and the Limits of Finitude
Carol Mock has been growing daylilies since 1996, when she wandered into a garden club sale at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The club was (and is) called the Greater St. Louis Daylily Society. She purchased…
Ahavat Israel: Wiesel’s Hasids, Dreamers, and Sages
Elie Wiesel, Sages & Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Portraits and Legends Summit Books, 1991 This work concludes Wiesel’s collections of portraits and legends of the figures from the Judaic tradition who have helped him…