Category: Book of Mev

Meditations

Written in the Margins of Ginsberg’s “Why I Meditate” There are 10,000 reasons to meditate (at least) There are 10,000 beings to save (for starters) There are 10,000 demented states of consciousness to purify (carpe…

The Reading Life/2

By the Blue Light of a Cell Phone by Katie Consamus Dr Chmiel, I just flipped on CNN after getting home from rehearsal and immediately thought of our encounter on New Year’s Eve as I…

An Actor

Sealing the Deal A couple of months after The Book of Mev came out, I did a reading and signing at at Left Bank Books in Saint Louis’s Central West End. I asked one of…

Mentshes/2

“I Belong to Chomsky” Spring 1994 was blooming in the Bay Area. We participated in a Good Friday  demonstration at the Lawrence Livermore nuclear laboratory with Steve Kelly and our Pax Christi friends.  The following…

Micro-Affections

Her Favorite Photograph Out of the blue She texted me First, there was a photo: Then Lena Laserstein Wrote underneath it: “My favorite photograph” Being ever so curious I wrote her back: “Why do you…

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…

Milosz’s ABC’s

Milosz’s ABC’s Translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine Listening  last night to Natalie Long talking about Poland and mentioning Czeslaw Milosz  reminded  me of reading his ABC’s back in 2001.  Around  that time…

Facing The Facts/4

Reminiscence from Sister Marian Cowan, Mev’s spiritual director It was with deep pain that I recall the two calls in which Mev informed me of her brain tumor and subsequently asked me to be present…