Calming the Breath by Ko Un
Poised like an aging bear climbing a tree, hanging on tightly, I collect my breath. Poised like a bird stretching its neck out and pecking at food I collect my breath. Heaven and earth are…
After Reading Justin Kaplan’s Walt Whitman: A Life
July 2005 It was one month ago that I began to read Whitman in earnest, and, while I still have far to go in prose and poetry, an impression has been made, a fire has…
Share the Wealth with Imman Musa and Sharifa Barakat: Growing up Palestinian American
We would like to talk to you about our Palestinian heritage and some of the unique experiences we have had as Muslim Palestinian-American women living in the Midwest. Sharifa is a product specialist at Elsevier,…
Interbeing Song
“Bella Levenshteyn I look forward to you going to the Middle East: Because Wherever I look, there you are No matter where you are, there you are If I look at the leaves swirling, there…
United States of Cars
for K. M. Schwartz Be cool in your car Make out in your car Drink tequila in your car Listen to Led Zeppelin cranked in your car Go from point A to point Z in your…
Sumud
Another sunny Ramadan morning in Rafah We head out to meet some people in Block J It, too, had been battered during Israel’s Operation Root Canal A few weeks before we internationals arrived We attract…
Word of the Day
Saudade, noun, Portuguese, pl. Saudades 1. longing, yearning, ardent wish or desire 2. homesickness, nostalgia.… Estou cada vez com mais saudade de voce = I miss you more and more every day. Meu coração tem…
Share the Wealth with Julie Johnson–Creative Serving: Giving Back to St. Louis with Photography and Art
Julie Johnson is a photographer and public school teacher in North St. Louis County. She owns a card company called STL Heart Cards. She captures off the beaten path spaces, people, and experiences in St….
Faces
I wrote last year of the ‘third way,’ and of the daily living being the test of sumud. It is a test I failed, perhaps because I didn’t have the kind of hope necessary for…
Photography as a Way of Life
for Oliver, Cami, and Julie Sebastião Salgado, From my Land to the Planet Contrasto, 2014 I first heard the name of Sebastião Salgado from Mev in the early 1990s. She esteemed him more than any…