Comfort and Consolation
What I saw then was this fairly obvious faculty of art: that it goes on, it lasts a bit longer that our frail human lives—it offers comfort. The vision is more enduring than our persons—it…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Anne and Emma
–Anne Milne, 3.26.2015 Be in Love with Yr Life writing course DeMun Avenue/Clayton
Pass It On
A work of art is something you make, something you give to other people. It’s an object for use, and people can make many different uses of the same work. Susan Sontag
No Hatred … Archbishop Oscar Romero
I ask you faithful people who listen to me with love and devotion to pardon me for saying this, but it gives me more pleasure that my enemies listen to me. I know that the…
It’s a Book about Living and Loving and Losing and Being Human through All of It by Cami Kasmerchak
Dear Dr. C, This is a long time coming, but I’ve put off writing this because I want to say it right. Then again, if I’ve learned anything from you and Natalie Goldberg, it’s that…
Share the Wealth This Sunday: El Salvador and Spoken Word with Te Martin
This Sunday, I’ll be sharing writing and reflections from my semester in El Salvador. I’ll read some of my poems and stories and share how Salvadorans have encouraged me to work for justice here in…
Seeing is Believing
1. Two years later, when I went to the United States to explain the suffering of the Vietnamese people and to plead for peace in Vietnam, I saw a woman on television carrying a wounded baby…
One-Liners Randomly Culled from My Marked-up Copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing down the Bones
I have taught over 100 courses since 2001, and I assigned Writing down the Bones in almost all of them. I never tire of hearing the students read aloud her chapters, which contain lines like the following……
Thinking of You and Anna Politkovskaya
You came back from El Salvador with the preferential option lodged in your heart Had to endure Catholic Social Teaching deadness You had to be ready for ridicule* You know there’s no safe, neutral, objective…
Chicago Postcard Poem from AML in DC
TODAY (1-6-2015) so I don’t forget how God was everywhere –Woke up to my 6th 1st snow of the year Mark Chmiel –SNOW…