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…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
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…
Share the Wealth with Rose McCarty This Sunday 8 March
Come learn more about what the frickity frick is going on in this picture and what is it like to can fish in Alaska during the summer! There will be some fun tales, some props,…
To Hold the Heft of Your Words in My Hands
OK. I Confess: I’m afraid I won’t live long enough To hold in my wrinkled hands A nasturtium-colored book entitled The Collected Writings of Bella Levenshteyn (v. 1, much less v.1-7) But on the bright side…
Face to Face
“If only we could see ourselves through the eyes of the people who adore us…” –Courtney Barrett, Improv Wisdom Writing class, Spring 2014 You Right now Are deeply present Blessing me I Right now Am…