Sandra McPherson: Far Away in Time, the Senses Return to Me as I Identify with That Tree
The way the lightning-split
willow was tugged,
wandy and half still alive,
It refused to uncork.
Tom Engelhardt: On the Precipice
In an ongoing gesture of self-destruction, humanity has been tapping what might be thought of as Pyromaniacs, Incorporated, to run the world.
Marc Jampole: Hiding the truth
For decades, the news media have been ignoring research that disproves their cherished myths.
Paul Christensen: Nutshells
The inside of a nutshell is chambered like the heart, with little ridges and flanges where the nut grew and prepared itself for falling into the waiting earth. That’s what I smell when I hold up a nutshell to my nose. It is the odor of anticipation, the willingness to be sacrificed to the sharp teeth of an animal worrying the shell until it breaks.
Abby Zimet: The Cruelty is the Point
Sweet mother of God. Racist and cruel doesn’t begin to cover the ongoing atrocities now daily committed – coincidentally, virtually entirely against brown and black people – by the sick demons running our country.
James Wright: A Blessing
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
Piper: Why I’m Currently Blocking the Largest Oil Export Channel in the U.S.
Twenty-two activist climbers from Greenpeace blockaded the Fred Hartmann Bridge in Baytown, Texas Thursday morning in order to shutdown what they called “the largest fossil fuel thoroughfare” in the country. Here is a letter from one of the activists on the bridge.
Miranda Cady Hallett: How climate change is driving emigration from Central America
Considering that wealthier countries pollute more but are often shielded from the worst effects, how can responsibility be assigned for the harms of climate change? And more importantly, what is to be done?
Conn Hallinan: Climate Catastrophe Comes for Europe
This year’s floods and heat waves are but a fraction of what awaits the continent—unless a growing climate mobilization succeeds.
Paul Christensen: Summer’s End
Summer is like old gold, dark with age. You feel its strength become mellow and pliable in the soft breezes. There is wisdom in the heat that still simmers along the edges of noon, as if it were trying to tell us that illness or aging are as natural as drawing breath.
Karen Friedland: Ahimsa
You could say
it was a vegetarian’s revenge
Chuck Taylor: Cutting
At first, I had no idea why the dogs were in the cages. I heard stories that the dogs were picked up running loose at night through many neighborhoods and delivered in old trucks to the hospital at night. I could tell that many of these dogs had been pets.
Richard Wright: Haiku
I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
Joseph Fasano: The Figure
You rise. You turn back to the room and repeat what you know:
The earth is not a home. The night is not an empty bridle…
