Robert Cording: Reading Poems with David
Over the phone, David begins to read
and Mary, in old age, in a nursing home,
returns to life in David’s voice, voicing
her words, her questioning
of her own bafflement
Sydney Lea: Hush
Does it make any sense to say I heard dead silence? No matter. I’ll simply declare that I’ve never known such quiet in the sixty years I’ve roamed these woods and hills.
Robert Cording | Notes: August, 2020, Whidbey Island
Some days all of America—the whole messy idea of it—
seems to be right here, the military meeting
the idyllic so casually.
Adam Patric Miller: Last Lesson
teaching will gut you—
but in a nourishing way
like scraping out a cantaloupe
with a big silver spoon
Adam Patric Miller: Next Year’s Words
I scroll down and am stunned to see a large ad sponsored by The Jewish Agency for Israel featuring a former student who is going to share his “powerful story of strength, sacrifice, and service” fighting as “a lone soldier” for the IDF.
Baron Wormser: The Loss of Literature
Literature challenges the very idea of right thinking, which is one reason tyrants have suppressed literature, though that suppression is ably carried out by any zealous group of chiding, censorious know-it-alls.
Adam Patric Miller: The New Normal
The answer to the threats, the bullets, the bombs, the bombast of our politicians, is contained in the act of educating young people to think for themselves and to see the fragile humanity of people.
Stuart Sheppard: The War Against Aesthetics in Contemporary Literature
We are increasingly being told that it is not important how well a poet writes; rather, the crucial issue is what a poet says.
Adam Patric Miller: America’s Natural Born Son
Is his name really Colt Gray? The name sounds like fiction. Glancingly, I looked at pictures and a white woman’s face comes into my mind with the age 53. A … Continue reading
Desne A. Crossley: Old Fist, Daniel and My Mom
Beneath the mildly disruptive playfulness, he was a bright kid waiting to be encouraged.
Lex Runciman: Two Poems for Two Poets
Madeline, mother of poems, bright flowers
This day wild on your desk, bless you your sky
That does not let go. Your St. Ursula of bilocation
And irony, bless us here and bless us again there.
Baron Wormser: After Poetry Month
The poet tries to be canny while practicing an uncanny art.
Rachel Wahl: 6 ways to encourage political discussion on college campuses
Students in fact want to have difficult conversations across divides, but they need support from faculty and other facilitators in order for these discussions to go well.
Bob Kunzinger: Moral Absolutism | Do Not Kill Children
Starvation is rampant and the conditions in Gaza have been called by Save the Children one of the “slowest, cruelest deaths” on record. It is a holocaust…
