Correspondents
Proximity by Martín Zaldivar Hi Mark, … The last two years have been rough. New York City can be a very lonely place, and I miss my good friends, as well as the calmness of…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Darshan
The Power of a Photograph In the last couple of years I’ve read whatever books I could get my hands on Whose subject is Sri Anandamayi Ma (Her parents gave her the name Nirmala Sundari…
Singers/Musicians
5th Dimension, Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine June Carter Cash, Will the Circle Be Unbroken Krishna Das, Om Namah Shivaya Bob Dylan, Series of Dreams Sinead O’Connor, You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart The…
From Ho Xuan Huong Street to Ho Chi Minh City
Wilfred Burchett, Catapult to Freedom Nothing is more Precious than Independence and Freedom. Ho Chi Minh, 118 Ho: We will build our country ten times more beautiful. Ho Chi Minh, 199 Once again, Australian…
Reshma/1
Dearest Thuy by Reshma Rao I gave Reshma a book by a Vietnamese doctor, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram. After she read it, she sent me the following…
Share the Wealth with Mark Chmiel: Dear Love of Hedy
In this share, I plan on talking about one of the major threads of my recent “book” (published at my blog and on Facebook) Dear Love of Comrades, which I described to Rachel Sacks…
Blasts from the Past
Hold It All It must have been 1983, springtime: I asked former classmate Ray Pruitt what he’d been reading. “Last night, Kierkegaard, Proust, and Phil Berrigan.” Things Have Changed It was back in 1982 We…
Students/1
We Know In that spring semester courseThere were 40 studentsThe official limit was 35But I let more in Before starting The Book of MevI asked“How many of youHave known someone— A family memberA friend, a…
Travelers
Wishing You an Un-Great Experience Now that you’re headed to _________ And people are wishing that you’ll have a “great” experience I hope you have a un-“great” experience If “great” means photo-ops Looking good with…
Huzzah!/1
Dear Safety by Cami Kasmerchak I want nothing to do with you. I throw off your constrictive, binding shackles in order to pursue a fuller life. A life worth living. A life worth losing. I…