Michael Simms: American Ash (text and video)
Old warriors rarely
say anything about
people they killed or
horrors they saw
Sydney Lea: Hole
He says even in the joint they didn’t have no trouble
gettin product
and once when they couldn’t, why, a bunch of them
shot up whatever, fools
that they all was
Meg Pokrass: Puppy Breath
I had his phone number, the guy from the A.A. meeting. I held it in my hands. I was terrible on the phone, but he would never call me. He said he couldn’t approach women. It was up to me.
Lynn Emanuel: Some Notes on Intoxication and Simile
If my mother had not been an alcoholic, I might not have been a poet.
Charles Fox: How Jung’s collective unconscious inspired Alcoholics Anonymous
There was just one hope, Jung said: occasionally alcoholics could recover after experiencing some type of religious conversion. However, he cautioned, recoveries due to a life-changing ‘vital spiritual experience’ were relatively rare.
Robert Walicki: If a Tree Falls
A tree falls does anyone care if it makes it into this poem? A poem bone deep and raw, broken into bark and hanging on to the edge of a … Continue reading
Joel Harrington: Why a 14th-century mystic appeals to today’s ‘spiritual but not religious’ Americans
The percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religious tradition continues to rise annually. Not all of them, however, are atheists or agnostics. Many of these people believe in … Continue reading
Liz Brazile: The Power of Sharing Stories
As Joe Clemons was growing up, he used to listen to family members share stories. Some stories were imaginative and rousing, while others were more monotonous. Nevertheless, hearing accounts of … Continue reading
Susan Cheever: The Real Bill W.
Almost 50 years after his death, the AA founder’s complicated life is more instructive than ever in an increasingly tumultuous world. Bill Wilson was no saint. He smoked like a … Continue reading
Vox Populi 