Homer’s The Iliad plays a critical role in Ada Palmer‘s amazing Terra Ignota series, so while I wait for the last book to come out I thought it might be fun to familiarize myself with some of her source material. Knowing only the bare basics of Greek history and mythology, I found this a strange but engaging journey […]
Attics are awful places, Teeming with dust, dirt, forgotten faces, When I enter, bent double, the uncertain floor Feels false and I want to run Away. Such things collected, here and there, Brought to the edge of narrow spaces We force our lives through, shafts of light Betray openings in history that close In solitary […]
Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. When I got vaccinated back in the spring, I thought I was done with the COVID-19 pandemic, at least personally. Well, as it turns out, the pandemic wasn’t done with me! The vaccines, we were told, were our ticket out of the months […]
Absent rings and broken trees, We’ve got our fair share of these. Empty seats and missing words, Taking flight they’re all a blur. When we recall the fall and all the lightened thing within us stalls. When we replant this hymnal rant our next most precious thing just can’t. Separate strides and rotting leaves, We’ve […]
Three hundred pounds of geodes, Brought back from wilderness, Each with its own secret, Some savory, some sweet, Some blatant, some discrete. Cut them open, one by one, Spill Earth’s contents, cut and run, Build a map of what you found, Out there, Give nature’s mystery a new home, Shut away, Hidden from everyone but […]
Anyone who turns their attention to the world of modern psychotherapy will quickly start finding references to Gabor Maté all over the place. He has made a special contribution to how mental health professionals approach trauma, addiction, and––as his book Scattered Minds demonstrates––attention deficit disorder (ADD). Like many others before me, I was excited to explore Maté’s […]
Safety scissors, paper scraps, Fleeting faces, torn up maps, If you cut me out of this, I’ll be friendly, you won’t miss. Stuffed up kitties, paper skin, All these faces look like kin, If you say what you would like, Loneliness will never strike. Sunlit shadows, end of day, Caught you thinking, go away, If […]
Lots of writers use science fiction as an imaginary playground for suggesting ways that artificial intelligence might reshape human experience and civilization. Few, however, are ambitious enough to devote an entire novel to exploring the internal, conscious perspective of an AI living in a human-dominated world. For this alone, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun deserves our […]
Language is a brushing broom, Sweeps intent and dusts desire, When it first reaches us, so far away, Yet within, the only force we know, Rushing forth from cradle’s cover. Language is a learning lamp, Gathers fuel and sets ablaze, Dark discoveries of limit and loss, Every chance of loyalty and love, Empty echoes on […]
When I was a boy, my heart broke double, Splintered edges and rough tools, The smell of home made strange, The sound of love distorted, Underwater, Drowned. When I was a boy, that same sound saved me, Caught me in calm moments, Made me whole again, fleetingly, As I waited to be dragged, Underwater, Drowned. […]