The Russians
It should come as no surprise that black folks would immerse themselves in this Russian literary tradition that is so profound in its willingness to raise unsettling questions. They say when you go into James…
Category: World Literature
“Action Needed, Goethean Action”
Allen Ginsberg, Journals: Mid-Fifties 1954-1958, edited by Gordon Ball During winter and spring of 1996 I went on a binge of poet Allen Ginsberg’s books: poems, letters, photos, journals (I was taking a break from…
Exciting Curiosity
Robert D. Richardson Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire University of California Peress, 1995 In the summer of 2017 I had the immense pleasure of reading Richardson’s stunning biography of the U.S. sage, and noted…
Share the Wealth with Jenny Lowe: An Appreciation of Leonard Woolf
Most educated people have read or at least heard of Virginia Woolf, the brilliant modernist writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group whose works include To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and A Room of…
Anne Waldman on The Art of Writing, Reading, and Sharing—Winter Class/Arco-Online 2020
Imagine you are not alone. Consort with other writers. You are in a League of Writing. You are part of a conspiracy to lift the discourse and practice of writing higher. Think of your writing…
Three Incitements to Read a Book of Poems by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
1. Winter Haiku Winter’s on its way. Maple leaves all cross the street together. 2. Recognition The same God Who sent the prophets And inspired the Qur’an has me work at a job I hate…
A Phenomenologist of Impermanence
In this world of ours where everything withers, everything perishes, there is a thing that decays, that crumbles into dust even more completely, leaving behind still fewer traces of itself, than beauty: namely grief. –Marcel…
“Help Win War–Beat Fascism”
Woody Guthrie, New Year’s Resolutions, 1943
Dedication
Nathalie Vanderlinden takes a passion for Proust to a new, public level! Though Proust had a Jewish mother, he seems to me neither Christian nor Jewish. His wisdom is his own, and though it has…
Trying To Be One-Pointed
In the autumn, on retreat at a mountain temple Although I try to hold the single thought of Buddha’s teaching in my heart, I cannot help but hear the many crickets’ voices calling as well….