Good, Change and the Poet Laureate

poetry

  • Good, Change and the Poet Laureate

    We each carry the story of our birthplace in pieces of earth, water, sky and spirit. Though nothing appears to have changed here in this Indian town along the Arkansas River, it is always changing. Joy Harjo from her book Conflict… Continue reading

  • Good, Character, Parable, and the More Dangerous Liar

    One of the benefits of including a little poetry in these posts is the poems attract interesting, talented writers. One brief connection I have benefited from comes from a response to the previous posting about bad news exhaustion. I will… Continue reading

  • Good, Mortality, Poets and What Really Matters

    There are going to be dry patches in this period of history where one wakes up in the morning and it feels like there is nothing left to say. This wordless writer read about Andrea Gibson, a poet, this morning… Continue reading

  • Good, Deep History, and the Vatman’s Tears

    To create a moment in history like ours today, you need to ignore two things; deep history and the facts of the day. The facts are here for us to use and abuse. But history lies in the root system… Continue reading

  • Good, Death and Dying

    I will break the political trance of this Project for a moment in a commitment to highlighting courageous writing that dares to approach something resembling the truth. Truth, after all, was the first and last victim of this last couple… Continue reading

  • Good, Hubris, the Waxed Emperor, and the Mentor

    The myth of Icarus is a cautionary tale for all times.  Flying too close to the sun with wax wings has predictable results. This is very much a tale for our time. Myths are truth that instruct with undeniable, universally… Continue reading

  • Good and Cruelty’s Enjoyment

    I keep coming back to the conversation I had with an older man in a park in Chicago. One of those tentative explorations between two people enjoying the view. He asked me why I wouldn’t vote for the candidate he… Continue reading

  • Good and the Human Flaw

    Exploding pagers and two way radios triggered these reflections but they are only the tipping point of a long history of concern. When your skin-close personal possessions and accessories suddenly are outed as potential weapons of war some kind of… Continue reading

  • Good, People, War, Crime

    If you really want a prolonged war the first thing to do is to reduce people into categories. Create a box that looks like an egg crate and line those people up in neat abstract rows. Crimes of passion in… Continue reading

  • Good and Moral Humiliation

    The only thing good and greed share is their first letter g. The accumulation of great personal wealth beyond a certain measure should be humiliating, embarrassing and shameful. Pull back the blankets on today’s international tragedies and the disparity of… Continue reading