Hart Crane: Chaplinesque
For we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts.
Abby Zimet: Ceasefire Delegates Insist Palestinian Children Can’t Eat Words
‘Never again’ means ‘never again, for anyone, anywhere, ever.’
Lynne Thompson: In this version, a teardrop
Tell them, tear, you are finished and
they should chuckle like old men who
stand between stanzas and a widow’s
Social Security check.
Jeff Cohen: Fired by MSNBC for Giving Voice to Iraq War Opposition, Phil Donahue (1935-2024) Was Courage Personified
The TV show host, who died Sunday at the age of 88, made his mark on our society. He fought for the underdog with style and grace and a sense of humor.
Chard deNiord: Songbirds Fly North at Night
I’m flying like a sparrow in my sleep
with only a pen to guide me
Susan Harley: The US needs a ‘Robin Hood Tax’
A tiny Wall Street sales tax could fund huge improvements for the rest of us.
David Kirby: Mandela
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison,
no one had seen him in public since 1962,
so his followers were shocked to see
a stooped old man with white hair
Julia Brown: What is gene editing? How does it work? What are the ethical implications?
With their primary goal to advance scientific knowledge, most scientists are not trained or incentivized to think through the societal implications of the technologies they are developing.
Sally Bliumis-Dunn: Ouija
my palm beneath your palm
along the arc of your pregnant belly
as though my hand were the planchette
on a Ouija board
Stuart Sheppard: Buying Fragments of God | The Crazy Art World of the 1980s
Perhaps the most valuable contributions this memoir offers are the irreverent, yet illuminating, insights regarding specific artists and works.
Charles W. Brice: Twerski
Or did Twerski and the patient
dance, as Hassids do—dance until exhausted by
ecstasy, until the intransigent one, worn out
by serenity, surrendered to sobriety?
Francesca Albanese | UN: Israel’s escalating use of torture against Palestinians in custody a preventable crime against humanity
Torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but only represent the tip of the iceberg.
Larry Levis: François Villon on the Condition of Pity in Our Time
We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust.
There’s not one tear left in all of us.
I know, for I am François Villon, murderer
Tom Engelhardt: The Candidate from Hell
As president, he would undoubtedly prove to be a first-class global heat machine and voting for him would be the slow-motion equivalent of putting an atomic weapon in the Oval Office.
