Catherine Anderson: Diana’s Arrow
Nearby, I saw oak leaves
had settled like a helmet of ash on a statue
of Diana—protector of children,
women, all living things—the deity
whose arrow never misses.
Jimmy Pappas: Invitation to join Michael Simms on Zoom, Monday, Dec. 15, 7pm ET
Join us when Michael Simms presents DIRTY REALISM on Monday, December 15 at 7 PM ET.
Murray Silverstein: Dante in Auschwitz, Ulysses in Hell
The storm that swirls in God’s dark heart,
our poor boat tossed, and sank, my crew & I all lost.
Linda Stern: At the Jetty
You climbed the jetty leading to the sea,
and I hung back to let you try your skill
at navigating life apart from me
though you were not so far I could not still
reach for you if you slipped and fell.
Edward J. Curtin Jr: A Luminous Tapestry of Truth
The martyred heroes’ tales recounted in this book are sorely needed now when the survival of our planet is at stake.
Joan E. Bauer: Lovers and Other Strangers
We’re all strangers. But after a while,
you get used to it. You become deeper
strangers. That’s a sort of love.
Abby Zimet: Pity the Nation/ Whose Shepherds Mislead Them
Amidst plunging polls and righteous rage at his Epstein Memorial Ballroom, the inept manchild faces growing resistance, sublime to ridiculous, to his nascent kingship.
Cesare Pavese: Notes on Certain Unwritten Poems
The poem he will write is like a door, it opens out to his ability to create; and he will go through that door—he will write other poems, he will exploit the ground and leave it exhausted.
Emma Grover: Finding Sappho | Four translations in conversation
In this article, I review four translations of Sappho produced over the past six decades.
Fred Shaw: Debunking the Right’s Obsession with Antifa
Rutgers University History Professor Mark Bray shares why he and his family fled the U.S. over safety concerns amid the Trump administration’s broad attacks on Antifa.
David Kirby: In Praise of Chaos
Picasso says, Inspiration exists but it
has to find us working. The more you work,
the more mistakes you make. If you make
enough of them, it’s considered your style.
Michael Simms: Baron Wormser (February 15, 1948 – October 7, 2025)
Although history will have the final word on who among us is read by future generations, I’ll put my money on Baron. His writing represents the best of the American spirit.
Baron Wormser: On a Sentence by Albert Camus
Sometimes, the illness of our world, the death-in-life that turns nature into nothing more than the source of raw material, seems so boundless that throwing the lasso of language on it seems impossible.
Baron Wormser: Distressed
Since grade school when I was hunched under my desk during an air-raid drill, I have been distressed by the specter of the atomic bomb.
