Paul Christensen: Turning 73
I turned 73 today. I look it. My hair is shaggy and white as old snow, my moustache a bit rough over my upper lip from the electric clipper I … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Rain
It’s raining out, a cold, soaking rain that has been mumbling in the rain gutters all morning and afternoon. The light is full of polished steel gleams, though flat and … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Vigilance at Sea
My wife and I once sailed on the Mariel, a Chinese-made freighter with five cavernous holds loaded with lemon peels soaked in molasses, bought from an orange juice factory in … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Muses I Learned From
My mother was moody; my father was not. Therein lies my emotional education. Who was right? My father was the great stone face at the table, an unflappable, exquisitely tuned … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: In the Dead of Winter
The coldest air yet of this erratic winter has settled down over the house and the little stand of trees beside us. I came out this morning to get the … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Paradox of Diversity
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the history of American immigration is all about bringing in scab labor to keep down wages and to force established workers … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The First Snowfall
The first snow of winter here in central Vermont has now fallen. It came late this year, late by several months, according to the TV weather watchers. I’m glad it … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Oppression, Repression, and the American South
Freud’s Hydraulic Jack They say Freud found one of his principal metaphors about neurosis from the newly invented hydraulic jack, in which a chamber is filled with fluid and is … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: On Solitude
I remember a teacher calling my name through a fog of meandering thoughts, and seeing all the faces in class turn to look back at me as I sat there … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Subjectivity and the West
Subjectivity is the measure by which we accord dignity and gravitas to someone else. Without it, a person is just a thing, an object, and one may abuse it, ignore … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Prophecy and Poetry
In 1800, it was possible to imagine what might be turning Europe into a new direction, away from the lingering powers of medieval institutions like the monarchy, the Catholic Church, … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Walmart, Walt Whitman and me
I admit it. I sometimes go down to Rutland, Vermont to the Walmart Superstore. My friends are all good liberals and the conscience of Middlebury ways, so I know reconsiderations … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Death of Learning
I remember the first time the thought occurred to me that higher education may be dying in the U.S. It was around 1985 and I had just received tenure and … 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 →