People
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts…
Category: World Literature
Poets to (Re)Read
Sunday 4 February 2018 Justin I came up with this list of poets to become acquainted or reacquainted with, a few classic, several moderns, and many contemporaries. A good way to do this is fine …
Never Undemanding of Ourselves
John Garrard and Carol Garrard, The Bones of Berdichev: The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman Wednesday 1 August 2012 Vasily Grossman represents an inspiring figure of engagement, and old fashioned Russian insistence on telling…
Creators
The escape through the belly of the beast seems designed to be put on a cinema screen. Fear of the dark, fear of getting lost, fear of drowning and of being shut in – all…
Endings/Continuings
The end of Yiddish, except as an academic pursuit or as a final nostalgia, is not at all Kafkaesque. Jewish history has many ironies and countless sorrows, as well as a panoply of cultural achievements…
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….
Doing Poetic Battle with the United States of Amnesia
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Time of Useful Consciousness* (Americus, Book II) New Directions, 2012 This is Larry’s next installment of pastiche… of his own work, as he continues the Americus odyssey through U.S. history. I wonder what…
Share the Wealth: Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)
#1 Welcome What are your associations about and/or experiences with Lawrence Ferlinghetti? #2 Owner of a Bookstore City Lights Spend five minutes browsing the site and notice what you notice. #3 A Publisher Allen…
Leaving No Room
The Wisdom of the Arabs Compiled by Sheila Bushrui Oneworld Publications, 2002 Here lately, friends and I have been reading and discussing the wisdom of the Stoics as well as St. Francis and His Companions….
Share the Wealth Sunday 7 March: A Celebration of Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)
Dear Friends, Please join our gathering as we share representative works of the San Francisco poet, painter, provocateur, and publisher, whose A Coney Island of the Mind is one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of…