Danielle Mackey
I’ve known Danielle since 2006 when she took a SLU Social Justice class with me after she’d studied abroad in El Salvador, which, it is safe to say, transformed her life. Since then, we’ve spent…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Exploring di Prima
Dear Poet. I finally got my Walt class together… maybe you could join us as a guest speaker at some point, tell us what you thought of him. But if you are indeed interested/curious about…
Shame
1. “When we came to the camp, Hamzat led the khan into the tent. And I stayed with the horses. I was at the foot of the hill when shooting began in Hamzat’s tent. I…
The Dear Love of Comrades: Reading and Writing with Walt Whitman–A Summer Class
As I was reciting some Whitman poems this morning and noticing my mood improving, I realized: I want to invite friends to read Whitman this summer. There was never any more inception than there is now,Nor…
Sangha of Poets
Dear Friends, As we are reading Nhat Hanh’s poems for our June session, I thought I’d share a few poems by other Zen poets in the weeks ahead. Here is one by Han-Shan, who lived…
Tolstoy Summer
✓ A Confession and Other Religious Writings (Penguin) ✓ The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus (Harper Perennial) ✓ Hadji Murat (translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky) ✓ The Kingdom of God Is within You…
Neeta and Neil
Neeta Shenai took my Social Justice class at SLU in fall 2005; Neil Munjal did the same in fall 2006. It has been a great pleasure to stay in touch with them as they have…
Walt, Various
1. I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.–Walt Whitman 2. In 1968 Susan Sontag visited Hanoi for two weeks. In her account of her experiences, she seemed a bit surprised the…
Share the Wealth with Emma Prince and Laura Weis: The Joys of Archivists
Emma, a certified archivist, founded Backlog after losing a university archives job early on in the pandemic. Before founding Backlog, she applied to 500+ jobs tangentially related to library science. Not ready to leave archives, she founded Backlog to…
Letter/1522
Robert Henri Makes me think of you! You’re a book-openerA soul-opener A seerAn enlightener A listenerA dare-angel A possibility-generatorA disturber of the official line An embodiment of the operative lineOf Love first Thank you for…