I Remember by Nima

Nima, one of my former students, took a “Writing as a Spiritual Practice” class with me and one evening we explored the theme of memory. Now a fourth-year medical student, Nima wrote this recollection of…

For Amal and Amal

The enemy is all about erasure Tactics: derision and denial Insults and salt in the wounds When you’re a student of history It’s no surprise— That’s what the powerful do So tell them over and…

Sealing the Deal

Long ago, I did a reading and signing of The Book of Mev at Left Bank Books in the Central West End. I asked one of my former students, Magan Wiles, to read the very…

One Day

When you are twenty-seven And at last done Done DONE with medical school We should do a marathon/festival of words Reciting poetry to each other Then writing off of the lines of Neruda, Szymborska And…

Exit-Interview

She’s spent four years at SLU And is moving on I’ve spent fourteen years at SLU And am moving on We had class together fall 2008 Her tender sophomore year We’ve met ten or twelve…

I Heard

I heard that Lenka is the best correspondent in the Western hemisphere, the kind whom you want to reread twenty times. I heard someone give a phenomenological analysis of a 25 year-old evangelical Marxist’s zeal….