Denise Levertov: Clouds
as if death had lit a pale light
in your flesh, your flesh
was cold to my touch, or not cold
but cool, cooling
Tony Magistrale: When Viruses Collide: Covid-19 Meets Stephen King’s The Stand
Published in 1978, The Stand, a narrative that centers on a pandemic virus that decimates 99% of the world’s population, has perhaps hit a bit too close to home.
Walden Bello: The United States Has Entered a Frightening Weimar Era
The violent storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump extremists underlines the face of crises to come.
Tom Engelhardt: Saying Goodbye to the Con-Man-in-Chief
De-mining America After The Donald
Mary Kate Cary, Robert A. Strong: America’s newest voters look back at the 2020 election – and forward to politics in 2021
We each taught college courses on the 2020 campaigns while they were underway, and as a result had a sort of three-month-long focus-grouplike conversation with the newest American voters.
Nick Engelfried: Indigenous-led resistance to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline threatens Big Oil’s last stand
The nonviolent resistance by Native Americans in Minnesota is likely to be the next massive, sustained direct action campaign in the U.S. climate movement.
Paul Christensen: The Muse of Memory
Nothing stirs but the wind that rattles rain gutters and pulls on the hinges of blistered shutters. A pair of boots has been left out on a patio of gray flagstones, the mud still clinging to their heels like forgotten promises.
Sunnivie Brydum: 11 Better Ideas for a Country in Need of Social Change
Even nations with long histories of inequality and violence carry lessons for how to move toward what might be called a more perfect union.
Liz Kimbrough: Top Positive Environmental Stories from 2020
This year, species were brought back from the edge of extinction; interest in renewable energy surged; environmental monitoring technology improved; new protected areas were created; and a few Indigenous women leaders got some long-overdue credit and recognition.
W.S. Merwin: To the New Year
our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
Video: 11 years living off-grid in an earthship house
Hélène Dubé and her partner Alain Neveu from Es-Cargo have lived off-grid in Quebec, Canada for 11 years in a self-built earthship style home made of recycled tires filled with earth and large south-facing windows.
Anna Swartwood House: The long history of how Jesus came to resemble a white European
The portrayal of Jesus as a white, European man has come under renewed scrutiny during this period of introspection over the legacy of racism in society.
Joy Gaines-Friedler: Winter, Go Ahead
see the moon lay its Templar light
over everything
even the swing-set in its cold metal
