On Twitter awhile back, I saw a challenge: “Describe your job in four words. I answered: “I talk to ghosts.” I mostly meant as a gonzo-historian, something I specialized in long before the Internet : the smell of microfilm rolls of decades-old newspapers still in my nose. Now, give a woman JSTOR ass and goodContinue reading “Leo Tolstoy, Phil Ochs, Joan of Arc and other ghosts”
Category Archives: poetry
For the 50th (?!) anniversary of Kent State
The day before the Kent State anniversary, I heard NPR talking about that day. And I thought of some people they’d not interviewed: Vietnam veterans also seared by the shootings, and Phil Ochs singing “Who’s the Criminal Here?”
so many ways to try to save Private Manning
The performers last night at the Inis Nua Theatre, who traded off the role of “Bradley Manning” among them as they shifted eras and roles, were terrific – engaging, comic and tragic by turns.
Iraq and a hard place
All this Manning talk has distracted me from writing about this amazing mural, powered by the singular organization Warrior Writers. They’re poets, essayists, performers and visual artists of all stripes, mostly from what their director calls “veterans who’ve served since September 11.” Together with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, they produced this testimonial a half-mileContinue reading “Iraq and a hard place”
is this true?
… if it concurs with the experience of someone you know – or maybe you. From Shannon Meehan’s excellent piece in today’s Home Fires: Killing enemy combatants comes with its own emotional costs. On the surface, we feel as soldiers that killing the enemy should not affect us — it is our job, after all.Continue reading “is this true?”
“the erroneous belief that they have rights”
Certainly not those guaranteed by the First Amendment, with its pesky talk of free speech. This just in from Iraq Veterans Against the War: The U.S .military plans to extradite stop-lossed Iraq war vet to Iraq for court martial over protest rap song Fort Stewart, Ga. – The US military plans to extradite a stop-lossedContinue reading ““the erroneous belief that they have rights””
Unstuck in time again, in a good way
It’s been forever, I know. I should have at least updated my other shop’s cheers as Sotomayor became a Justice, especially the soulful essay about how she, a wise Latina herself, felt during that confirmation ceremony. But given the demands of that other shop (go look! Make comments!) and that I’ve been writing the lastContinue reading “Unstuck in time again, in a good way”
for more Mount Airy news….
go here, from now on. As the book’s publication year approaches, I need to give more energy here to its concerns. But I did want to let you all know how the move came out! I’ve mentioned, methinks, that I’ve had a longstanding not-so-secret crush on the City of Brotherly Love (and sisterly affection) forContinue reading “for more Mount Airy news….”
for memorial day
Stumbled on this by accident, from an Emerson College film student. I’ve seen/read a lot this MemDay weekend and written a little, and posted our friend Millay again at WVFC. But this old song – I think it was part of my soundtrack for my play “Too Many Martyrs” – tore the scab off justContinue reading “for memorial day”
the Mount Airy thing with feathers
As Woody Allen said many years ago:”How wrong Emily Dickinson was. Hope is not the thing with feathers. The thing with feathers is my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.” What hope has is claws. If you told the girl from that Times article that she would soon be living inContinue reading “the Mount Airy thing with feathers”
I Ain't Marching Anymore 