Keeping Their Language Alive
Joseph Leftwich, Great Yiddish Writers of the Twentieth Century The writer wakens you, the reader, he rouses you out of your indifference, he shows you the things you had not seen before, he makes your…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Share the Wealth with Gabriela Keator: The Spiritual Path of a Barista
Merriam-Webster: “n: coffee brewed by forcing hot water through finely ground darkly roasted coffee beans” Gabriela Keator: “n: a vocational calling. A thing that sparks immense joy” For the majority of my life, I forced myself…
Share the Wealth with Elizabeth Burkemper on Tuesday 6 July … Bovine Bodhisattvas: My Springtime of Cows, Poetry, and Compassion
With luddite pipe dreams, I struggle in general with living in an increasingly technological, frenzied, and noisy world, and in specific with taking my first year of graduate classes on Zoom. In the midst of…
Making an Impression
Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Oneworld Publications, 2007 This is a profound meditation on truth, unpalatable as it will be for many supporters of an expansionist Israel. Pappe cuts through the decades of Nakba…
Epigraphs
This page is part of my book, Dear Love of Comrades, which you can read here.
There’s a Million Ways to Be (You Know That There Are): A Summer Writing Class Based on “Harold and Maude”
Harold : Maude.Maude : Hmm?Harold : Do you pray?Maude : Pray? No. I communicate.Harold : With God?Maude : With life! I invite you to join us for an unusual summer writing experience. Many people are…
This Is It !
My friend who is a Buddhist said once after coming out of a meditation retreat, “The colors were so much more vibrant afterward.” Her meditation teacher said, “When you are present, the world is truly…
Share the Wealth with Jessica Flier: Words Matter – & Why I Write
In my life I’ve struggled with considering myself “a writer,“ but according to one of my favorite writers, if you write, you’re a writer. So I suppose I am! The other thing that strikes me in this…
Reading/743
Both M. and Akhmatova had the astonishing ability of somehow bridging time and space when they read the work of dead poets. By its very nature, such reading is usually anachronistic, but with them it…
Zosima-isms/2
Which of the two is more capable of upholding and serving a great idea—the isolated rich man or one who is liberated from the tyranny of things and habits? Let us preserve the image of…