Solidaridad/3
It Was Love at First Haiku Maria told me to contact you When you were fresh back from El Salvador And perhaps needing another shoulder to lean on After re-entering this meshugah militarized greed culture…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Wartime during Life/2
November 12, 2007. Smithfield, NC. After Reading Levertov’s Poem on the 1972 Christmas Bombing for Andrew Wimmer and Suzanne Renard Haven’t you had a similar fantasySure, a different decadeA different civilization now being destroyedDifferent…
The True Secret of Writing (and Reading and Sharing)
In the Writing Our Own History course, I share some gleanings from my reading. For example, the following passages are from Natalie Goldberg’s book, The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. Maybe one…
Students/2
Before Class In the School of Revolutionary Mindfulness When students arrive early to class No smart phones are anywhere to be seen In the minutes before class begins Students and teachers are sitting Breathing calmly…
An Alphabetical List
The following is an alphabetical list of topics and/or possible chapter titles for a book I was working on in 2011. At this stage, it was autobiographical. It eventually morphed and became the novel, Dear…
Mentshes/3
What You Understand Depends on Where You Stand For Brent Fernandez and Brett Schrewe Night Flight to Hanoi is an account of Jesuit Daniel Berrigan’s odyssey in late January and early February 1968, when…
With Presence, Alertness, Patience, and Care
John Brehm, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy When asked by a student if there was a secret to writing haiku, Buson replied, “Yes, use the commonplace to escape the commonplace.” When the student…
An Actor
Sealing the Deal A couple of months after The Book of Mev came out, I did a reading and signing at at Left Bank Books in Saint Louis’s Central West End. I asked one of…
Poets/1
Viva Tang Ten thousand and two texts A thousand and three tweets 644 Facebook status updates 87 cell phone messages save or delete Enough already! Take a deep breath Leave behind the technology And go…
Solidaridad/2
What You Understand Depends on Where You Stand for Ellen Rehg Mev looked up to Ann ManganaroCo-founder of Karen Catholic Worker HouseSister of Loretto medical doctorCompañera to Father John Kavanaugh When Mev went to El…