Remembering Shammai
Shabes morning I fix a period for reading My three “rabbis” recently deceased— Harold Bloom, whose extended family on both sides perished in Europe Every boy but one in George Steiner’s lycée lived after the…
A Public Reflection on Tonight and on Hope’s Beautiful Daughters (as Shared on Social Media) by Rachel Sacks
For six months I’ve gotten to read and learn and grow with a real sweet group of folks. Mark Chmiel is such a generous teacher, and the communities he builds, so loving and expansive. An…
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…
The Battle of the Gods
Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasir’s Prison Translated by Mokrane Guezzou Our goal is reformation and not sabotage, edification not destruction. Zainab al-Ghazali Nawal el-Saadawi may have met her match in Zainab…
Writing to Wake Up 2020: A Winter Course in Creativity and Community
Writing is essential to my life, like breathing. I can live without a husband but I cannot live without writing. By writing I become one with the world and with myself. —Nawal El Saadawi What…
Healers
How to Live Jesus had his students Dipa Ma had her devotees Joanie French has her students Jesus sat with people Dipa Ma sat with people Joanie helps people to sit without pain Jesus placed…
Solidaridad/3
It Was Love at First Haiku Maria told me to contact you When you were fresh back from El Salvador And perhaps needing another shoulder to lean on After re-entering this meshugah militarized greed culture…
Wartime during Life/2
November 12, 2007. Smithfield, NC. After Reading Levertov’s Poem on the 1972 Christmas Bombing for Andrew Wimmer and Suzanne Renard Haven’t you had a similar fantasySure, a different decadeA different civilization now being destroyedDifferent…
The True Secret of Writing (and Reading and Sharing)
In the Writing Our Own History course, I share some gleanings from my reading. For example, the following passages are from Natalie Goldberg’s book, The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. Maybe one…