Elle, PhD is Waiting in Louisiana
Elle, PhD is has ventured to answer Langston’s still prescient question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” If you know about small communities in the South, you know that Jena is not an aberration of racial progress but rather a manifestation of festering tensions that have never gone away. What’s amazing about Elle’s blog post [...]
Poem
[DSCN7989.jpg, originally uploaded by BenTG.] I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane, The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories, The news would pour out of various devices Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen. I would call my friends on other [...]
“Land of The Free and Home of The Brave?”
by MarshaRose July 4, 2006 The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, wrote the lyrics in 1814 after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. It became well known [...]
Speaking Of Suheir Hammad
The press release in my last post quotes Palestinian-American Poet Suheir Hammad, who went to New Orleans as a visiting volunteer. Hammad also has written a moving poem about NOLA, called “a prayer band,” which Elisa has posted at Two Feet In.
Oh What A Beautiful City
Pete Seeger continues to be a big favorite for my toddler. Standing in the chair in front of our stereo, he pulls the Pete Seeger CD of choice out of the stack, gets the disc out of the case, opens the CD player drawer, places the disc in, closes the drawer—and finds his favorite songs [...]
Last Week Was An Interesting Week
Two Fridays ago (4/8), my mother called to tell me she had just talked with a retired journalist, named Jeff Prugh. Apparently Jeff had come across my posts on the Roosevelt Tatum story, and he wanted to talk with me. Between my father’s name and the mentions of Delmar, NY in the Tatum series (I [...]
New Poetry Chapbook: We All Sell The Shadow, by Jonathan David Jackson
My dear and talented friend Jonathan has just published a chapbook of his poems. Jonathan has a website where you find an announcement of the chapbook, two sample poems, and other related items. [Update 7/9/05: Jonathan David Jackson's website is down; links to it removed for now.] Jonathan and I attended the Johns Hopkins Writing [...]
In The Mood of Elegy
My friend Lisa died in her late 30s the day before yesterday, suddenly, of a brain aneurism. My friend Larry’s mother died this morning of cancer, in old age. Lisa was ill with rheumatoid arthritis since her 20s, but no one expected this.
I was practicing yoga tonight. My practice has been very steady for a couple of years now, usually without more than a couple of days off in any given week. Because of travel and other circumstances, tonight’s practice was the first time in seven days.
In a simple kneeling pose (adomukha virasana) I curled my toes under to push up and raise my tailbone vertically and settle back into downward facing dog (adomukha svanasana). Before there was any verticle movement at all, just in the simple act of bringing the pads of my feet into contact with the floor, I felt a wave of emotion, as if this somewhat more precise than usual repetition of a ritualized physical action was affirming something vast and elemental.
When people we love die, we need to affirm the good we mean to strive for. We feel guilty for getting diverted, for losing sight of our right intentions.
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