Sharon Doubiago: The Rape
This is a letter I received from Jack Retasket. The words are entirely his. — S.D. — 9:54 pm, April 15, 2006, Two Rivers Correctional Institution, Umatilla, Oregon It is spring, … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: About the contest industry and bat-shit craziness
A presumption of dandelions Another damned winner to celebrate while we poison dandelions and hardly know how to honor daffodils. Never mind the Lenten rose breaking through the snow, we … Continue reading
George Monbiot: Fowl Deeds
The astonishing, multiple crises caused by chicken farming. It’s the insouciance that baffles me. To participate in the killing of an animal: this is a significant decision. It spreads like … Continue reading
David R. Loy: Healing Ecology
What Can Buddhism contribute to our understanding of the Ecological Crisis? As a complex religious tradition, or group of traditions, Buddhism has a lot to say about the natural world. … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: “Wolf Hall” and the Grandeur of Anonymity
. Silence plays a greater role in poetry and music than sound, its grandeur being its anonymity. Let me introduce living proof. He is the prince of silence and his … Continue reading
Video: How bad architecture has ruined American life
In James Howard Kunstler’s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Dark Side of Prose
I’ve been thinking about newspapers lately, and their most recent avatar, TV news, both the network and the cable kind. What intrigues me most about this use of prose is … Continue reading
Sharon Doubiago: I Am My Brother’s Keeper
[ed. note: This is the preface to The Visit by Sharon Doubiago, published by Wild Ocean Press] Jack Retasket is a Native American/Canadian Shuswap-Lillooet (Statlmx) survivor of Kamloops Indian Residential … Continue reading
Barbara Elovic: Hillary Isn’t My Candidate
Hillary Clinton is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination, a development which many progressives are cheering. Believe me, I would love to see a female president, but Clinton’s history raises … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: Nouns in their Habitats
New Pilgrims at Tinker Creek: I read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for the first time when I was about fourteen years old. I don’t remember now what I … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: Portrait of my X
I met him nearly twenty years ago in an early morning college yard and in all this time he has changed very little. Nothing about being alive exasperates me more … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: My Mother’s First Husband
My mother’s first husband, who was the first mentally ill person I ever met, rents storage spaces all over D.C. He saves in crate after carton after crate: paper towel … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: What Makes Us Lose Our Minds
You find out about people like Nigel in little bits and pieces, anyway. It happens while you’re wondering whether the hills might in another country look like white elephants until … Continue reading
Greg Laxer: Letter to the American Dead of the Vietnam War
Veterans For Peace, an organization of which I’ve been a member since 2013, has called for veterans (as well as civilians) affected by the Vietnam War to write a letter … Continue reading →