Author: Mark J. Chmiel

Tears Are OK

I tell you a joke And no surprise You laugh You don’t censor your laughter Do you? No You only censor it If you realize It will hurt someone Your laughter is a natural outflow…

Kafka’s Axe

Dear Bella Levenshteyn, Was reading Kafka’s letters earlier today.  The passage caught my eye: “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading…

Samskāra

“She’s really got it bad.” I’ve never spent time with her. “She’s an addict. Big time.” Really? What’s she on? “Polarization— She can’t get enough of  it.”   Samskāra, Sanskrit, noun. A personality trait conditioned…

Communication

I know I arouse your disbelief Because I do not text But there’s a simple reason That I still use a cell phone to call you The most important thing I have to share I…

Prudence & Parrhesia

A library I once spent time in Is named in honor of Pope Pius XII He was nothing if not prudent And prudence is a virtue much of the time In 1948 When talking with…

Mechaiehs

Mechaiaeh… Pronounced m’KHY-eh, to rhyme with “messiah.” The kh sound is, of course, the way a MacTavish would roll it out. From Hebrew. Pleasure, great enjoyment, a real joy. … Mechaieh comes from the Hebrew…

Being Real

No one would really confuse a Catholic Worker type with a real ghetto person, and no one would really confuse you with a real impoverished hillbilly. You may identify with them, but they do not…

A Mentsh

For years I read him to get a bearing On the atrocities the U.S. enabled in Central America I wrote my Master’s thesis on him On Israel/Palestine and liberation theology When I met him at…

So Be It

Bella Levenshteyn After I sent you the Cardenal poem About bloody coltan cell phones You asked me what I think you should do Now that’s easy: Share your light