Intimate Wonder
Places of wonder abound. Or do they. This is something I wonder about. Does wonder have more to do with mood/temperament of observer or with design/purpose of place. By the way, I am leaving the question marks out on purpose. In order to convey the certainty of my lack of certainty. These are not rhetorical […]
The Most Miserable
Pictured above is the best book report I’ve ever read, about the actual best book I have ever read. Yes. I think. Coetzee’s “Disgrace” will have to make a more thorough appearance on here soon. Time is ripe for a reread. But, back to this current post, which is about Claudia Rankine’s “Don’t Let Me […]
Poems Heavy as Poached Game
Scenes from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Sharon Olds’ first book of poems “Satan Says.” In the background, Paola Pivi’s solo exhibit at the Miami Beach Bass Museum.
Confucianism’s Progressive Respect*
Confucianism is not a philosophy, not a social system, not a Way, but a religion at whose center is an all-powerful, loving God who engendered an order-seeking universe. This godly force is symbolized by the character Tien, which is often translated as “Heaven.” Confucius sought to translate the law of God into the law of […]
Mimetic, et al.
“Mimetic” is my Word of the Day. Synonymous (yes, at once!) with “echoic,” “apish,” “slavish” and “canned.” From John D’Agata’s genre-bending, lyrical, US-centered tour of the essay’s recent history: “The Next American Essay.”
A Zorse
A “zorse” is the word to use when speaking of the offspring between a zebra and a horse. Also, say this out-loud: Kanye is half cannon, half ballet. Half canonical, half prey. From Sarah Blake’s “Mr. West”
Fascination
The fascinating thing about fascination is fascination itself. Obsession works in similar ways. An obsession, a swallowing up of will by all encompassing drive, takes over in inexplicable ways. Callings exist beyond a mere sense of purpose. Why else would there be an entire book of poems on Kanye? Poem “God Created Night and It […]
A Starting List
This Common Era lap number 2,019 around our sun, I seek to confirm in action what I’ve been amassing over several years into a personal collage of religious beliefs. I identify my beliefs as religious because their aim is to traverse the moral bounds of a “correct” life to enable proximity to God. If I’ve learned […]
Exclamation
If you, too, were wondering, this is what forty exclamation marks look like: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From Sarah Blake’s “Mr. West”.
The History of “The History of God”
“The History of God,” written by former nun Karen Armstrong, has been sitting on my bookshelf for a decade. I bought it in a small bookstore in Mumbai, where I also purchased a book by the Nobel writer V.S. Naipaul, Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things” and a practical book of mantras. This bookstore […]
Do It Like the Poems Do it
Quick! Read this before the year is over. From Sarah Blake’s high-low masterpiece “Mr. West.”
Good Gossip
Just gonna call it: Naipaul dishing on Tolstoy smacking on Gandhi is the best thing I will read for the rest of this year. All three glorious days of it. From V. S. Naipaul’s “India: A Wounded Civilization.”
December’s Bright Detritus
From “The Book of Endings” by Leslie Harrison.
In Closing
About a week ago I finished reading Helen Macdonald’s “H is for Hawk,” a book ostensibly about falconry, but actually about grief and how it takes time and human contact to overcome it. Days after I read the passage above, which to me is the book’s crescendo despite the almost 150 unnecessary pages that follow, […]
Details
Good morning, from Audre Lorde.
Rarity
A vision of how wilderness has become the same as rarity. From “H is for Hawk,” a book to read in spread out installments so as to prevent contagion from its sustained melancholy. But, to read, nonetheless.
Ostensibly
I am posting this ostensibly to share the sustaining beauty of Toni Morrison’s writing, but actually to remind myself of sentence structure splendor when “ostensibly” is involved.
Sunday Funday
My plans for Sunday night put into action via Toni Morrison in “Sula.”
Loved vs. Beloved
As I get deeper into my reading of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” I marvel more and more at how the title shadows over the book’s content. The characters in the story are not loved; they are beloved. They are buried by love, by the demanding longing of great love gone. Not gone bad, but gone dead. […]
Master’s Class
Up until last week, the class I am taking on the work of Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison as part of the requirements for my MFA in Poetry was high on my ranking of literary experiences. Last week, though, something happened that I have since thought very hard about, that I have tried very hard […]