Writing to Wake Up

1. Natalie Goldberg: I also place on the altar a photo of Allen Ginsberg in a yellow wood frame, sitting in a white shirt, cross-legged, his face captured in an uncanny smile. He is our…

The Typewriter Is Holy

Later this summer at Cafe Ventana, I’ll be facilitating a reading group of the new book, The Essential Ginsberg.  I was just rereading Bill Morgan’s history,  The Typewriter is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat…

He Would Have Never Gotten Tenure

The thing is to get under the students’ skin and arouse enough enthusiasm that they get under their own skin.  This means allowing yourself to be yourself in class. My own best teachers were WC…

Dear _____________________

Dear Netanyahu, Thank you. You’ve reminded me of my capacity to experience immense rage. Candidly, Mark Chmiel Dear Frenchwell, Thank you for passing on the wisdom and skill of your Israeli genius-teacher. You practice right…

Summer Goal: Cleaning up the Basement

To pitch 200 pounds and 30 years and umpteen teetering stacks Of nostalgia, Weltschmerz, and saudades (“Les jours s’en vont je demeure“) Into the recycle bins and trash dumpsters of Saint Louis By noon, 8.22.2013…

The Delight of Short Chapters

That is why I want to use short chapters, each with verselike heading, and very many such chapters; slowly, deeply, moodily unfolding the moody story and its long outreaching voyage into strange space. And to…