Stephen Dobyns: My Town
This happens occasionally in my town. Maybe it’s a sort of nervousness or hysteria, even displaced fervor, as if fervor were a kind of cloud or the fog that rolls … Continue reading
Stephen Dobyns: Tomatoes
A woman travels to Brazil for plastic surgery and a face-lift. She is sixty and has the usual desire to stay pretty. Once she is healed, she takes her new … Continue reading
Jose Padua: One for the Morning and the Uninterrupted Dancing in my Head
This morning I’m looking for my copy of Reinbert de Leeuw’s super slow performances of the compositions of Erik Satie to play while I do the work I get paid … Continue reading
Sherry Hamby: Resisting technology, Appalachian style
When people hear “Appalachia,” stereotypes and even slurs often immediately jump to mind, words like “backwards,” “ignorant,” “hillbilly” or “yokel.” But Appalachian attitudes about technology’s role in daily life are … Continue reading
Video: David Brooks — “Trump and Afterwards: The Next American Culture”
. In this hour-long lecture, New York Times columnist David Brooks talks about the major trends in American culture over the last 50 years and how they have led to … Continue reading
Video: Operatico Politico — NRA Protest Song
. Operatico Politico gives us a new protest song for the March For Our Lives on March 24th! Please like and share widely! Lyrics and guitar chords here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/traditi… Email … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: This is the Bunny I Love
The Stellar Trolling of Mike Pence This week’s Canny Resistance Award goes to John Oliver, who deftly stole Mike Pence’s family’s homophobic thunder by, hours before the release of their … Continue reading
Molly Fisk: An Apiary Has Nothing to Do with Apes
One of the things I’m good at is linking people together. Not match-making, although two couples have married who fell in love during my poetry class. Usually it’s more practical: … Continue reading
Mike James: The Monk’s Couch
. Frank The Balloon Man Honestly, he hated children. Hated their laughs and the miniature gaps of their smiles. Hated the clutching need of their fingers. He hated the parents. … Continue reading
Jose Padua: How Does It Feel to Be Loved and All the Other Questions I’ve Ever Wanted to Ask the Armed Cheerleaders of the Corporate State as an Act of Defiance
That night one year ago, after dinner, I was in the dining room talking to my wife Heather when our thirteen-year-old daughter Maggie came in to ask me for help … Continue reading
Ellen McGrath Smith: The ascendancy of the word “Douchebag”
can be attributed to Twitter and other social media. Compared to other obscene slurs predating the Internet, “douchebag” enjoys much more frequency and vehemence. It’s fun and satisfying for the … Continue reading
Gary Snyder: Smokey the Bear Sutra
. Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: A Billboard Not Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A few years ago, my wife and I were driving in Franklin County, Missouri. I saw something off the road, and excitedly said to her, “Honey, look — look at … Continue reading
Audio: Hieronymous Bosch Butt Music
. A 600 year old butt song from Hell. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick has transcribed a piece of music hidden in Hieronymus Bosch’s 16th century painting The Garden … Continue reading
