Szym and Rez (NPM, 4.6.22)
Wislawa SzymborskaABC I’ll never find out nowWhat A. thought of me.If B. ever forgave me in the end.Why C. pretended everything was fine.What part D. played in E.’s silence.What F. had been expecting, if anything.Why…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
4.4.22, National Poetry Month
Contemporary war is a bureaucratic and capitalistic enterprise that requires its bored clerks, soulless administrators, ignorant taxpayers, contradictory priests, and encouraging families. If we understood that a war machine is a pervasive system of complicity…
You Can Write Poetry!
Diane di PrimaOLD AGE: The Dilemma most of what I’m writing not that interesting but the act of writing itself more compelling than ever ********* Dear Siobhan Thank you for your snail-mail, but I…
The Prescient and Prophetic Allen Ginsberg, 1956
America you don’t really want to go to war.America its them bad Russians.Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians. The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to…
Emily Dickinson Writes a Poem for Assange, Snowden, & Greenwald
Much Madness is divinest Sense –To a discerning Eye –Much Sense – the starkest Madness –‘Tis the MajorityIn This, as All, prevail – Assent – and you are sane –Demur – you’re straightaway dangerous – And handled…
Share the Wealth with Caro and Johnny Dolan-Dominguez: One Mile Per Hour
In July 2019, we got engaged, quit our jobs, and loaded our bicycles and camping gear onto an Amtrak headed west. For the next four months we rode 4,000 miles through the Sierra Cascade mountains…
A Great Form of Self-Care
For those who have access to Facebook, check out my student Rosie’s project on Meditation in College!
Hall of Fame
My beloved partner Joanie has been selected to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame this coming April!
Another Long Classic
In 2021 thirteen of us spent seven months to read and discuss the long novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. I’m interested to see if anyone would be up for reading The Gospel of…
State of Emergency, January 2003
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations: Essays and ReflectionsEdited by Hannah ArendtSchocken Books, 1988 The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that “the state of emergency” in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We…