John Markoff, technology journalist at the New York Times, invited Gary Snyder to write about technology, in this case his Macintosh computer. Says Markoff, “Mr. Snyder might not seem the best person to ask to reflect on the milestones of the digital age. He is 79 and lives in the Sierra foothills in Northern California…Word […]
Poetry
Experiencing the Experience
That the Science of Cartography Is Limited —and not simply by the fact that this shading of forest cannot show the fragrance of balsam, the gloom of cypresses is what I wish to prove. When you and I were first in love we drove to the borders of Connacht and entered a wood there. Look […]
Throwing up a Curse That Comes Back a Blessing
Umbrella Weather To be drawn out of doors by the first sign of rain on the window, to be happier drenched than dry, to go out in weather that others come in from, warrants a stare from passing faces, and i know what it means: there goes someone with serious problems. Problems I have, and […]
Fanny Howe
Blue river, icy sunk where something but nobody fell Now theology is necessary for the way there are these holes & questions Père Noël, whose presents like questions come from the mind: Let me be helpless & hopeless this coming year let me know God and not feel fear Winter tones are rose & glass […]
One More From Rachel’s Hand
Dak Thok Monastery, Ladakh At the Zen Mountain Monastery A double line of meditators sits on mats, each one a human triangle. Evacuate your mind of clutter now. I do my best, squeezing the static and the agony into a straight flat line, but soon it soars and dips until my mind’s activity looks (you […]
- In Memoriam
- ...
Meanwhile’s Far From Nothing
So sorry to read about the death of poet Rachel Wetzsteon. She was the poetry editor at The New Republic as well as a member of the faculty of William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J. Her death has been deemed a suicide. She was 42. The Times obituary described her as a “prominent poet whose […]
Adrift
The road to the Salts’ house, Fairfax County Everyone along the eastern seaboard has their own Saturday storm story, and I’m no different. I went to Washington DC to see my it’s-been-too-long nieces and nephews on Friday. I ended up having to wait until Sunday afternoon to finally make it to the Salt house. Our […]
The Thing Is
The road to High Head Castle, first built in the Middle Ages and then destroyed by fire in 1947. The thing is to love life to love it even when you have no stomach for it, when everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands and your throat is filled with the […]
When the Land is Calling
Doomsday The dark that’s gathering strength these days is submissive, kinky, silken, willing; stretched taut as a trampoline. World events rattle by like circus trains we wave at occasionally, as striped, homed and spotted heads poke out their windows. Feels like I’m wearing a corset, though I haven’t a stitch on. Burn the place setting […]
Wealth in Other Forms
Best description of reading poetry I’ve found was in a review of Amy Gerstler’s latest volume, Dearest Creature, from the Sunday Times Book Review. Written by a fellow poet David Kirby, it is clear he knows of what he speaks: “Look, a poem either sends you a bill or writes you a check. You can […]