Art / Essay / Muriel Rukeyser / Poetics / poetry / reading / Sound / Uncategorized / Writing

New Essay On Muriel Rukeyser

I am excited to share my essay, “She Sings the Body Electric: Soundscape in Two “Songs” by Muriel Rukeyser,” up and ready for reading at the Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive Scholarship Page (sponsored by the Eastern Michigan State University English Department and EMU’s Women in Philanthropy, founded and edited by Elizabeth Däumer). I hope … Continue reading

Art / Commentary / discussion / Essay / Relationships / Uncategorized

At Home with the Animals: Wood Block Paintings by Charles Smith

I had the pleasure of spending an exorbitant amount of time in one of my favorite used bookstores. Grey Matter is nestled just beyond the intersection of MA-9 and “the bridge.” Turn down East Street and you’ll find, hidden under the water tower, one of the best bookstores in Massachusetts. I was looking in the … Continue reading

Art / Essay / Get Out (2017) / Photography / Relationships / Variety (1983)

At the Movies

You argue, fight over nothing because “nothing” is unimportant. You tell your son, I’m going to the movies. He says, Take me with you. You say, I can’t. You exit through the kitchen door, your husband follows you out to the driveway. You exchange a continuous verbal shit storm. Nan (Nan Goldin) tells her friend … Continue reading

Art / Commentary / criticism / discussion / Essay / Literature / Photography / Sensuality / Uncategorized / Washington Post

(Non)Apologia.

But like a figure in a TV makeover show, it was an apple that its handlers could not leave alone. They altered its shape. They made it firmer and more juicy. They made it so it could be stored in hermetically sealed warehouses for 12 months. Along the way, they changed its color and hence … Continue reading

Art / Commentary / criticism / Imogen Cunningham / Photography / poetry / reading / San Francisco Museum of Modern Art / Writing

Body Talk: Poetic Space in Imogen Cunningham’s Triangles, 1928

A friend once told me there are three sides to every story. *** If three is a number of unity then why are the nocturnal arcs of her body far more connective to me than angles? Her body receives light with subtle gradations yet provides an unending Rothko depth. I too am soft, but not … Continue reading

Art / Essay / Grief / Lovers / Photography / Sadness / Susan Sontag / Uncategorized

On Sadness

Nude Woman and Grief by x1klima CEMETERIE, Engesohde, Hannover, Germany,Sony a7R, Sonar FE 55mm F1.8 ZA. Flickr. Creative Commons License.  The cab arrived shortly after 10:30 PM. I’ve never seen an airport so desolate. The security checkpoint does not open until midnight. I sit on my duffel bag, knees questioning the ceiling; for a moment I consider … Continue reading

Art / Commentary / Dean Burnett / Diane Ackerman / Discover Magazine / discussion / Essay / Kissing / Literature / Lovers / Sensuality / Sheril Kirshenbaum / The Guardian / Touch / Uncategorized / William Shakespeare

On Kissing: A Brief Inquiry On a Cherished Diversion

What is a kiss? Is a kiss a mere peck on the cheek or lips, or the sensuous nature of  parted mouths waiting to accept each others physical discourse? Perhaps a kiss is defined by the mouth touching any part of human skin, sheltering one spot with warmth and tenderness inducing excessive flutters in the … Continue reading

Art / Literature / Uncategorized / William Shakespeare

“The Joy is in the doing.” On Seeing Shakespeare’s First Folio

On Friday, May 27th I worked for a few hours then drove to Amherst, Massachusetts to visit the Mead Museum at Amherst College to see one of William Shakespeare’s First Folio’s. The Folger Shakespeare Library is celebrating “The Wonder of Will – 400 Years of Shakespeare” by bringing a First Folio to each of the … Continue reading