I recently finished a course with my friends Dianne Lee and Martín Antonio Zaldívar-Barragán, “Reckoning with Russia, War, and Ourselves.” We read and discussed Tolstoy, Kuznetsov, Alexievich, and Politkovskaya. I invite you to check out…
Last night in Our Good News class, Dianne Lee read Wild Geese to us. This led me to think it would be worthwhile to invite fans of Mary Oliver to do likewise this Sunday night:…
No wonder, as Martin, Dianne and I have been making our way through Anatoli Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel, that a phrase that I first heard in 1987 has…
This Is What I Can Do When it comes to righteous indignation Reshma makes Arundhati Roy seem timid At a public reading of The Book of Mev I made sure she went last and read…
My Psychic Powers Acknowledged in This Morning’s Email “How is it that you always know What I need to hear Even when we are 950 miles apart?” When I Listen and Re-listen to Your Messages…
Recollection In October 2003 We were in Nablus Awarta, Ramallah Being alert in the olive groves Dashing across the settler-only roads Learning a thing or two about sumud In Louisville the minister and civil rights…
The Chasm between Them and Us Kadya Molodovsky, A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg’s JournalTranslated by Anita Norich The accomplished Yiddish writer Molodovsky wrote this novel in serialized form in 1940-41, knowing obviously…
Appreciation is the sacrament. —Allen Ginsberg Another class is finished…the autumn one entitled “Facing the Future: Resources for a Rebirth of Wonder” “Rebirth of wonder” comes from lines in a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem— “I am…
Dipa Ma’s greatest gift to me was showing what was possible—and living it. She was impeccable about effort. People with this ability to make effort are not disheartened by how long it takes, how difficult…
12.14.17 Dear Dianne, I think this is the 4th time I’m reading Meshugah. It was originally serialized in the Yiddish Daily Forward. Because I’m reading it with you, and because Hedy is on our minds,…