Civil discourse
A powerful woman on powerlessness
Harper invites us to imagine the complete and utter powerlessness of people on the slave block, particularly of mothers. Defenseless, unheeded, bitter, frail, shrinking, mournful, desolate. The adjectives heap misery on misery.
More
Black Beauty
February is Black History Month, and I have six poems queued up to celebrate it. Each poem shines a light on parts of U.S. history not emphasized in my own history education, which unfortunately was of the Social Studies ilk. (Social Studies, boring and artificial, caused huge gaps in my knowledge of world history and […]
More2020 Countdown, day nine: the loneliness of being right all the time
With only nine days left in 2020, I’m here to celebrate the end of toxic politics in 2021! Just give me ten minutes to land my spacecraft on planet Earth and the festivities will begin. Alas, hate-filled political divides aren’t going anywhere. But before we enter into any poisonous conversations over the holidays, […]
More
Diagnosis in, treatment up to you
What the Doctor Said by Ray Carver He said it doesn’t look good he said it looks bad in fact real bad he said I counted thirty-two of them on one lung before I quit counting them I said I’m glad I wouldn’t want to know about any more being there than that […]
More