Pema Chödrön: A Story about Fear
The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons.
George T. Conway, III et al: We’ve never backed a Democrat for president. But Trump must be defeated.
We are in extraordinary times, and we have chosen to put country over party — and former vice president Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.
Video: Franny Choi recites “Split Mouth”
My mother’s tongue is a snipped string, a stripped stinger…
Steve Sweeney: Vietnam ships 450,000 protective suits for U.S. health care workers
A statement from the U.S. embassy in Hanoi confirmed that the first batch of supplies arrived in the U.S.’s national strategic stockpile on April 8.
Karen J. Greenberg: While Rome Burns, Trump Gets What He’s Always Wanted
In unsettling ways, the crisis is working for him as previously untenable policy options are becoming essential to curtailing the coronavirus.
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers: The Decade of Transformation is Here
Remaking the Economy for the People
Danny Sjursen: The Unaccountable Nation
Imperial hyper-powers, particularly in their late-stages, often employ foot soldiers across vast swathes of the planet, and eventually either lose control of their actions or aren’t concerned with their resultant atrocities in the first place.
Francesca Bell: Taking Stock
There will be strawberries
and hand grenades
and the feeling
in my belly
when your touch
explodes me.
Audio: “Invictus” recited by Morgan Freeman
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]
Nemesis is knocking at the door.
What are poets for, in such an age? What is the use of poetry?
Ben Martin: COVID-19 and Philip Roth’s Nemesis
The practice of medicine demands answers, yet to practice medicine in the United States is an invitation […] to be swallowed by suffering that eludes meaning.
Joel Christensen: Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales
As someone who writes about early Greek poetry, I spend a lot of time thinking about why its performance was so crucial to ancient life. One answer is that epic and tragedy helped ancient storytellers and audiences try to make sense of human suffering.
Majid Naficy: Corpse of the Revolution
I do not wait for poetry
But go in search of it
Because my wings are broken
And I am left far from my nest…
Khury Petersen-Smith: Ending the Myth That Trump Is Ending the Wars
Trump has sent more new troops to the Middle East than he’s bringing home from Afghanistan.
