Ginsberg Variations

“Catch yourself thinking.” —Allen Ginsberg, “Cosmopolitan Greetings” Catch myself gossiping. Catch myself kvetching. Catch myself zoning out. Catch myself sneering. Catch myself smirking. Catch myself looking away. Catch myself signaling. Catch myself signing off superciliously….

Ferlinghetti Florilegium

endless the ever-unwinding watchspring heart of the world shimmering in time shining through space as if they were watching some odorless TV ad in which everything is always possible Where are Whitman’s wild children, where…

The Good News of Translation

1. Thanks to __________, I  Was Able to Read_______’s  _________  [Language]   Richard Fein, Yankev Glatshteyn, Selected Poems [Yiddish] Hillel Halkin, Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman [Yiddish] Nili Wachtel, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Meshugah [Yiddish] Martha…

Mentshes/5

Sign Up by Lindsey Trout Hughes Hi, Mark! I hope this note finds you well. I saw your post last week about the spring writing course. I asked Katie Consamus over coffee if she’d like…

Poets/2

I Am by Laura Aranda I am on my way I am haven’t yet arrived and the in the in-between I am that bliss you find in a mountain rainstorm in a solitary blade of…

Taking Refuge in Po Chü-i

Enough already of Useful Idiots, Counterpunch, flare-ups at The Intercept Political yammering by self-appointed soothsayers This Friday night I fade far away from news of assorted American Psychos And am welcomed by Po Chü-i Who…

Mentshes/3

  What You Understand Depends on Where You Stand For Brent Fernandez and Brett Schrewe Night Flight to Hanoi is an account of Jesuit Daniel Berrigan’s odyssey in late January and early February 1968, when…