It is difficult to speak of abstract forces without personalising them, or investing them, magically, with consciousness and will. When we (by this I mean you; I never do this) refer to the markets as ‘growing jittery’, or ‘recovering’, we (you) indulge in the same thinking that saw maidens being sacrificed to appease volcano gods. … Read more
Studies show that if you get married and then divorce, your happiness will dip below what it was before you married. One might conclude that pursuing the perfect relationship to fulfil your happiness is, at best, a risky business. Ninety-five percent of ‘the Feel Good Hormone’ serotonin is produced in your gut, a scientific fact … Read more
We have not slain our enemy, the cancer cell, or figuratively torn the limbs from his body … In our adventures we have only seen our monster more clearly and described his scales and fangs in new ways – ways that reveal a cancer cell to be, like Grendel, a distorted version of our normal … Read more
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), U.S. President between 1933 and 1945, was born to enormous privilege. He came from one of the most aristocratic families in America. A distant cousin, Teddy, had even been elected President. In his youth FDR was a bon vivant and ladies man, who strayed from Eleanor, his saintly but still formidable … Read more
The problem with writing about the U.S. Democratic Party, whether analytically, historically, or even as a matter of praxis, is that it has all been said or tried before. Want to run party candidates on a left-wing (or progressive, or whatever?) platform? Recall the so-called Alliance Yardstick, when the Farmers’ Alliance in 1890 held Democratic Party … Read more
Storrington Place of storks and green- clad chalk. Are the Gypsies still perched on ‘The Warren’? Camargue Flamingo heaven, white horses, black madonna. Heart’s grey forgiven. Camargue Red dust on the shoes of Gaditans carrying Sara-la-Kali. Storrington At the age of eight: the camp fire by their wagon shed heavenly light. Jamie McKendrick was … Read more
A cormorant dives to feed, then perches, its wings spread to dry. There are fish, there is a break in the clouds. A freighter embarks, laden with necessary goods, including toys, much as a researcher presents his findings. This world is henceforth one in which these things have taken place, and the gates that would … Read more
The following is a short retelling and interpretation of a number of Irish sagas, including two, ‘The Second Battle of Moytura’ and ‘The Wooing of Étaín’, from the golden age of Gaelic literature in the early middle ages. I – The Second Battle of Moytura Cath Maige Tuired (‘The Second Battle of Moytura’) c. 875 … Read more
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”20″ gal_title=”Featured Artist of the Month: Moira Tierney”] The beach is one of the few places you’re going to see New Yorkers immobile, supine, sleeping in the sun … everyone piles onto the F train to Coney Island, or the Q to Brighton Beach, or the A to the Rockaways, with the coolers … Read more
Anthony Caleshu’s forthcoming book, from which this pair of poems is taken, is titled, A Dynamic Exchange between Us (Shearsman, 2019). He is the author of three previous books of poems, including The Victor Poems (Shearsman, 2015), and Of Whales: in Print, in Paint, in Sea, in Stars, in Coin, in House, in Margins (Salt, 2010; named a ‘book of the year’ … Read more