Villanelle of East and West Kaczynski and Orban, Trump and Le Pen Each with a mission, each with an ego Can’t put the old world together again Try as they might with the sweep of a pen Four of them now, once an unlikely trio Kaczynski and Orban, Trump and Le Pen […]
NEW YEAR’S VILLANELLE IN THE TIME OF TRUMP The world must now prepare for Donald Trump We are the disillusioned and surprised And what of dignity? Down in the dumps Along with decency, which took its lumps And kindness too, which suffered a black eye The world must now prepare for Donald Trump Who leaves […]
Lessons in Humility from Donald Trump, part 2 Though I lived for a year in politically conservative and economically un-affluent Clarksville, Tennessee, a place populated, in 2004, by Bush-Cheney signs and billboards announcing that JESUS SAVES, and where most of my students who found new apartments felt they had done so, to quote at least […]
Lessons in Humility from Donald Trump, part 1 Morgantown, WV. I never thought I would say this, but I have learned something about, of all things, humility from Donald Trump this week. I learned that– despite having lived in no fewer than nine of our states and taught at ten of our universities– I didn’t […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE So would I want my own son, when he grows up, to try LSD? Respecting in him, as in myself, the need and divine right to find his own truth in this life, to ask his own questions and to seek his own, highly individual […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE There seems to be no „beginning“ or „end“ to any of this. The day, I „know“ somewhere, is moving on, must be winding towards evening. But each new „event“– each movement from outside to inside, from food to music, contemplation to touch, pond to lawn– […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE I do not eat. I devour, relish, savour. A piece of bread „arrives,“ miraculously it seems, just as I begin to desire it, from the loving, ministering hands of my wife. Peanut butter on some kind of whole grain bread. And it is every grain […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE Yet this sort of fear– the kind that comes from a mature, conscious, and personal choice to enter and confront, even if only temporarily, both the beauty and terror of „seeing“ more than we usually see, is, I believe, of a far different order than […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE Throughout human history, shamans, poets, religious figures and ordinary citizens have sought out visionary, ecstatic experience. Among Indian tribes and other so-called „primitive“ peoples, what is known as the „vision quest“– an experience marked by pilgrimage, fasting, and/or the use of hallucinogenic substances– has long […]
A DREAM OF THE EARTH: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE IN MID-AGE I had last taken LSD almost fifteen years ago, at the age of twenty-seven– on October 27, l976 to be precise– in Babcock State […]
Orgasms Some of us have many Others few Some are quite content With one or two Some can make beds tremble Or else just shake Others aren’t enough To keep their hosts awake No matter how you like them They can be A small glimpse of The soul’s eternity Planted in the body Just to […]
Homage to Hugh Hefner So many bad things to be said of him: the brazenly objectified women the absurdity of that scarecrow body in its silk pajamas, the soullessness of much of his sex, the general vulgarity of everything he stands for. Yet where in the hearts of most men isn’t there a […]
Ten Couplets from The Satyr’s Biography 1. No one could say she had a beautiful tush But a bird in the hand sure beat two in the bush 2. The quantity rose as the quality slowed He soon shot his wad from an empty load 3. He was often […]
Going to the Movies Alone There will be no one to love tonight after Selma when the credits have rolled and the lights undimmed and I will go home to my defrosted pork chop with canned apple sauce and our sweet cat Pillango no doubt waiting for me in the driveway and I will watch […]
A Crack in Everything Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen, „Anthem“ There is, we know, a crack in everything: The love that’s perfect, and the meal that’s made That’s how the light, and then the […]
Happiness This soft chair in which I lie this slight breeze blowing through the acacia and the leaves of the horse chestnut the laundry rippling on the line and this cup of coffee with milk and sugar so sweet the air itself full of birdsong and promise and this heart of mine so content with […]
Possibilities Is it possible to be in love and wise at the same time? Stephen Dunn, „Beliefs“ It may be unwise of me to tell you I love you. It may be– who knows?– tempting the Gods. But I’ve always been a man who takes risks, which is why, soon, I will go […]
Michael C. Blumenthal in einem Artikel der Gazette-Mail: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/gazette-op-ed-commentaries/20160717/michael-c-blumenthal-the-test-of-our-intelligence-and-our-heart
