“Until the Break of Day”: Some Thoughts on Friendship By Andrew Lazo Following Holly’s lead, I’ll start with my own translation of Rosario Catellenos’s haunting poem: It is needful, from time to time, to find companionship. Friend, it is not possible neither to be born, nor to die except with another. It’s […]
Last weekend my husband Kevin and I drove down south of Boston to enjoy a live performance by Steve Bell, Canada’s folk-gospel troubadour and treasure. Since Kevin and Steve were already friends, we arrived at the venue early enough to have a nice visit and a bite to eat before the performance. Although I had […]
Appeal to the Lonely One At times it suits us to find friendship. Friend, it is not possible to be born, or die, without the other. It is well that friendship removes from work that feel of punishment, and from joy the illicit airs of thievery. How can you be alone at the total hour, […]
All In Good Time… A Review of Sweet Comfort Band’s “The Waiting Is Over” by Kevin Belmonte The better part of 30 years is long time to wait for new music from a storied band. And when it comes to a group like Sweet Comfort Band, it is only the truth to say they’ve been […]
[The following post originally ran in April 2013 on Dr. Holly Ordway's excellent Hieropraxis.com.] This Little Light of Mine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine Let it shine I have joy-filled memories of singing that song […]
Cousin and Stranger Languages: Reflecting on ‘Appeal to the Lonely One’ by Rosario Juanita Castellanos by Dr. Holly Ordway Is there a connection between land and identity, between one’s family roots and one’s sense of the right ‘fit’ with language? I think there may be. Genesis says that God made Adam from the dust of the […]
Nancy Tupper Ling is a poet, mother, wife, librarian, and children’s author (My Sister, Alicia May with Pleasant St Press, 2009 and The Double Happiness Box with Chronicle Books, 2015) — not necessarily in that order. Published in a variety of poetry journals, Ling was honored to win the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize for a […]
Day 28: Wild Wilder than yellow of forsythia in Spring Day 29: A foreign language “Gine d’ bech tday, mam?” No, got enough sun yesterday, I replied pleased with myself for finally understanding English Day 30: Opposite of Basho’s frog “Into the ancient pond - A frog jumps - Water’s sound!” (translation by D.T. Suzuki) […]
The Moon Draws Near: Cold Comfort from Meng Hao-jan By Andrew Lazo Emily Dickinson claims, “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know […]
Day 24: A word inside a word Within me a bell keening night’s death knell at dawn’s rising Day 25: A very short ballad What if I were blond again, she wonders at her red-haired reflection Day 26: Erasure Don’t ask of me such violence: it’s not in me to […]
