Activating the Dead
When people who know one another have lived in the same landscape for a long time, they are surrounded by reminders of the dead in one another’s faces and in the landscape itself. In such…
An Ashram for Modern America
Eknath Easwaran, With My Love and Blessings: The Teaching Years 1966-1999 In Photographs & His Own Word Nilgiri Press, 2000 For Chris and Andrew As we contemplate what an urban-rural ashram could look like, an…
Japaneseness
In the 90s, phrases like “global village” and “global economy” were increasingly common. The technologies that have emerged since then allow us incredible possibilities of connecting and learning. Think … besides anime, what do we…
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…
Put Your Body Where Your Mouth Is
In a time when it is the fashion to propose amendments to the Constitution, I would like to propose an amendment requiring (1) that when war breaks out the president and all consenting members of…
The Power of Footnotes
1. My idea of the ideal text is still the Talmud. I love the idea of parallel texts, with long, discursive footnotes and marginal commentary, texts commenting on texts. –Noam Chomsky, Mother Jones interview, 1987…
Perennially Good Advice
“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above…
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…
Today’s Gratitude
I received an envelope full of treasures like this from artist Cris Airaghi in Seattle.