Terry Murcko: A Truckload of Imaginary Dynamite
For protesting the conditions on the shop floor,
Jumped by company goons and beaten half to death,
He recovered and returned to give those goons more
Than they gave, picked up his pay, and calmly left.
Tracy Fessenden: Decades after Billie Holiday’s death, ‘Strange Fruit’ is still a searing testament to injustice – and of faithful solidarity with suffering
Sixty-five years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died at Metropolitan Hospital in New York.
Barbara Hamby: Ode to Knots, Noise, Waking Up at Three, and Falling Asleep Reading to My Id
Why does everything seems so impossible
in the middle of the night? I wake up at three
with my mind in a knot
Jeffrey C. Isaac: Republicans’ Feigned Outrage Must Not Be Allowed To Buoy Trump
The danger of Trump and of Trumpism is more real today than it was 24 hours ago.
Assassination attempt on Trump in Western Pennsylvania
A gunman opened fire at former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, injuring him and causing him to be rushed offstage in a dramatic scene just days before he’s set to be nominated as the Republican presidential nominee.
Rachel Hadas: ‘The immortal Gods alone have neither age nor death’: Wisdom from Greek tragedies for Joe Biden
It’s useful to think about the potential strengths, as well as the vulnerabilities, of age.
Ariel Dorfman: Judgement Day for America’s Worst Supreme Court Justice
Lady Macbeth Has Words for Clarence Thomas and His Wife Ginni from the Other Side of Death.
Heather Davis: Spare No Detail | Three Poems about Gaza
Imagine a smart phone with crystal clear transmission
set in every corner of Auschwitz in 1943. Surely, we
would have saved them, every one.
Andrea Mazzarino: America’s War on Terror and the Wasting of Our Democracy
The rapid pace of Gaza’s descent into famine is remarkable among conflicts.
Mandy Fessenden-Brauer: Two Poems About the Orchards of Gaza
Although it’s one of the most densely populated areas in the world, Gaza’s always had a distinct rural quality. Everyone grew something, some in agricultural areas away from their homes. Even in the very crowded refugee camps there were small atriums with a tree and potted plants.
Charles Davidson: The Supreme Court and the Death of American Democracy
By granting presidents “absolute” and “presumed” immunity before the law, the high court crowned the occupant of the office of the presidency with unfettered dictatorial powers.
Edward Harkness: Left-handed Set Shot
Poems, stories, travel tales: he taught intelligence.
His art was life, how to dance with it, how to play,
how to take or not take the shot.
Patricia Spears Jones: Discontented Summer
Every picture tells a story but which story and who makes the picture
Abby Zimet: From Founding Fathers Kermit and Gandalf to Mugshot $2 Bills | Make Crass Stupidity Embarrassing Again
Nazis, yahoos, hacks, thugs, soulless partisans and ahistorical morons are today’s GOP. Have we bottomed out yet (please)?