Doug Anderson: The Fierce Economy of Eros
In creative writing classes I often have students do an exercise where they write the most down and dirty sex scene they can. I tell them that I won’t look … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: A Spiritual Practice
The word “spiritual” is problematic and yet we use it as a place holder for those things as yet untouched by metaphysics, and I dare say untouchable, or those things … Continue reading
Phyllis Chesler: My Jewish Feminist Problem
Why my sisters can’t think straight about Israel. These days, Israel is far too dangerous a word to pronounce in a Western intellectual or social setting. Say it—and you risk … Continue reading
Rebecca Solnit: Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart
The Climate for 2015 It was the most thrilling bureaucratic document I’ve ever seen for just one reason: it was dated the 21st day of the month of Thermidor in … Continue reading
Patricia A. Nugent: Why Some Jews “Do” Christmas and Some Christians Don’t Follow Their Messiah
My Jewish friends send Christmas cards. They decorate Christmas trees and exchange gifts. They bake Christmas cookies. They even attend midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. When asked why, their … Continue reading
Siegfried Sassoon: “Finished with the War — A Soldier’s Declaration”
In July of 1917, mid-World War I, following a period of convalescent leave during which he had decided to make a stand by not returning to duty, celebrated poet Siegfried … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: On Inspiration
“I can never imagine how someone would fall in love with poetry and stop reading poems. But I think that people often talk themselves out of responding…” This video is … Continue reading
Patricia A. Nugent: This Feminist (Still) Loves Lucy
I still love Lucy. The I Love Lucy Show is one of the few sitcoms from my childhood that can still make me laugh out loud. As a devoted member … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Rediscovering our world through poetry
Morning rumination: Hive mind, large and small. Some years ago, having been trained in the tight modernist lyric, the poem that adds up to the neat conclusion, usually with an … Continue reading
Jen Marlowe: Broken Homes and Broken Lives in Gaza
Rubble. That’s been the one constant for the Awajah family for as long as I’ve known them. Four months ago, their home was demolished by the Israeli military — and … Continue reading
Rebecca Solnit: Anywhere But Here
Las Vegas and the Global Casino We Call Wall Street “Oh my God, I’m in hell,” I cried out when the car that had rolled for hours through the luscious … Continue reading
Patricia A. Nugent: The Good, the Bad and…the Scared
There are bad cops. Trigger-happy. Vengeful. Crooked. Prejudiced. There are also bad teachers and bad priests. When the public trust is broken by “bad apples” in any helping profession, … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: Report From Ground Zero, St. Louis
I’m reminded of a photograph I once saw of Hiroshima. Not the explosion, but the day after. That’s what today feels like in my St. Louis neighborhood. A few … Continue reading
Dawn Potter: The Marketing of American Individualism
On the morning after our most recent election debacle, I received a note from a bewildered Canadian friend: Not my place to comment, at least publicly, on another country’s political … Continue reading →