“Yet the collective life, which is also us, shimmers on.” Mark Doty

“All attempts to console ourselves, I believe, are doomed, because the world is more complicated than we are. Our explanations will fail, but it is our human work to make them.”
from “Souls on Ice” by Mark Doty
I just completed an essay, about my father. It is a draft, so incredibly far from finished, more incredibly [...]

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When my dead father comes to visit

from Don’t Let Me Be Lonely [There was a time]
by Claudia Rankine
Every movie I saw while in the third grade compelled me to ask, Is he dead? Is she dead? Because the characters often live against all odds it is the actors whose mortality concerned me. If it were an old, black-and-white film, whoever was [...]

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“I Belong There” by Mahmoud Darwish

I Belong There
by Mahmoud Darwish
Translated by Carolyn Forché and Munir Akash
I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows, brothers, friends, and a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls, a panorama of my own.
I have a [...]

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Womanhood –for Mother’s Day

For my mother, who has always worked harder than anyone else I know.
Womanhood
by Catherine Anderson
She slides over
the hot upholstery
of her mother’s car,
this schoolgirl of fifteen
who loves humming & swaying
with the radio.
Her entry into womanhood
will be like all the other girls’–
a cigarette and a joke,
as she strides up with the rest
to a brick factory
where she’ll [...]

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“Find those with whom you have rapport and proceed.” Liam Rector

From “Now” by Liam Rector
Time soon to take my place
In the long line of my ancestors
(Whose names I mostly never knew
Or have recently forgotten)
Who took their place, spirit poised
In mature humility (or as jackasses
Braying against the inevitable)
Before me, having been moved
By time through time, having done
The time and their times.
_______________________________________________________________________________
A Few Moments
by Tomas Transtromer (Translation [...]

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On Shoes, Skin and Honor

“The miracle of the world, the miracle of an accepting heart can only be paid for in blood and bone. No other currency is acceptable, especially for a writer.” Harry Crews
“We were poor kids on the outs, with only
bad skin to inherit”
From “Getting Over Cookie: A Made-for-TV-Movie” by Liam Rector
“They either ‘get’ the notion [...]

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