Sanctity Whenever I have been amid the dark hills that have no sorrows and have listened to the birds sharing their wisdoms with the stars I know again that even the rasped syllables of breath have little to offer us compared with that silence that has no grievances, compared with the slow progress of […]
Two Versions I want to shout my love from the treetops like a caged gibbon I want to broadcast it on all the networks, even Facebook and let all my creditors know so that they can place a lien upon my heart My lover prefers to keep our love private like an ecrypted password […]
Poetry Love It must be wonderful to be so obsessed with poetry that you live it, breathe it, consider every moment without it a moment wasted want to do nothing else but write it, read it, recite it to your friends and lovers it must be wonderful to have only this one mission for […]
Ambition I lie on the bed in my bathrobe with the cat. Outside, a misty rain. So many things to be done in this world, so many injustices rectified. Somewhere, in a lab filled with crescendos of test tubes, frenzied scientists sit on the cusp of curing misery. I wish I were among them. […]
Tale of Two Ts: What the Philosopher Can Teach the President, Teil 2 Todorov also had something else to teach our present Tweeter-in-Chief. “He always refused to make superficial comments — or to react immediately after an event,” Olivier Postel-Vinay, founder of the French magazine Books, recalled after the philosopher’s death on Tuesday. “He used to […]
Tale of Two Ts: What the Philosopher Can Teach the President Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian-French literary theorist and historian of ideas with whom I was superficially acquainted while living in Paris some dozen years ago and who wrote dozens of books, died on Tuesday in the French capital. He left behind a diverse body […]
The Apprentice 67 years without you so long an apprenticeship to love wading through koans and tea ceremonies like a zen novice who has taken the eightfold path to the four noble truths each of them whispering your name I have entered the dharma of your arms and here I am now with only one […]
New Year’s Day, 2017 for Agnes Everything I have always dreamt of is nearby. I look up at the sky and the clouds rearrange themselves into the shape of your face. I listen for the sounds of winter birds and hear your voice. Even the scent of bread baking in the oven is yours: lips, […]
Now That I No Longer Doubt Now that I no longer doubt I have found everything I want and everything I need why bother going on gazing up at the sky in search of miracles? The other day, I looked into your eyes and there it was: all God’s creations in a single being. […]
Donald Trump and the Rewards of Hubris Morgantown. Perhaps I have read too many Greek plays, but it seems to me that, thanks to the recently-inaugurated 45th President of the United States, we have now entered what might be called the Era of Hubris. For those not acquainted with the term, hubris is […]
For a Friend, Who Has Lost Her Son for Marilyn Levine There are wounds too deep to ever heal completely, questions that will remain questions all their lives, like widows walking dark streets at night. But he had a face, your son, and a beautiful smile. He had laughter, too, even amid the pain, […]
For Adrian 21 January, 1989- 24 December, 2016 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4 There is no right age for dying: 14, 27, 52, 89… we are always too young to die. Only memory and laughter can defeat death. So I remember you: splashing […]
Pain My body never really knew what pain was until it knew pain. The soul has its hurts too, but the body, when it knows pain, timidifies the soul. Emanuel Ax can play Brahms all he wants, Yo-Yo Ma can play Bach, Hillary Hahn Beethoven, it doesn’t even matter who’s playing Schubert: everything harmonizes […]
Für Agnes I’ve had enough of wedded misery It’s you I wake to, in the blessed air Now, at last, its time for you and me Was blind too long, but now I clearly see The sunlight streaking through your lovely hair I’ve had enough of wedded misery The choice is clear: to […]
For You You are far away. How could I not know it, longing for your body as I do?— the softness of your kisses and your flesh, the solace of your shoulders. Distance is a kind of God we pray to without an answer and so I pray: Grow shorter, miles; less vast, […]
Inner Peace None can deny, nor can anyone replace The moments of repose found in a chair The joys of simply staring into space Are lovely as your lover’s lovely face That serve to satisfy what is found there That none deny, and nothing can replace The unrepentent, looking for a […]
Claudius at Yom Kippur My words fly up, my thoughts remain below Before Cantor Kornfeld and Rabbi Strauss My father told me that I had to go I have my doubts, where others seem to know I am the infidel, still facing south My words fly up, my thoughts remain below I’ve been […]
Calling My Dead Friends Yesterday I called Saki and Charlie and John on their old phones, though they are long gone, just to hear again the sound of their voices, the way I might listen to an old Bix Beiderbecke record or watch a film with Hedy Lamarr. It felt good just to […]
