Virginia Woolf on our relationship to illness, its potential spiritual value, and the mysterious intelligence of the body.
Tag: language
June Jordan – Poem for a Young Poet
A poem expressing the desire for love and connection, going deeper into the shared essence of being that underlies difference.
Body Like a Rag, Mind Like a Mirror – Guo Gu Breaking Through Boundaries
Chan teacher Guo Gu on silent illumination, punk music and his teacher Sheng Yen's legacy.
Surviving Intact – Norman Fischer on Zen, Language and Growing Old
Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer on where and how poetry and Zen practice meet and interact.
Elizabeth Bishop – In the Waiting Room
A formidable description of epiphany: when the poet's world goes from a mundane waiting room to a radically altered sense of identity.
Esso Station
BY SUSAN DI RENDE It was the summer of 1959. I was four years old, sitting in the back of my parents’ Rambler driving down Route 60 past motels, restaurants, and gas stations.
Jennifer Hollis – Baby Boy Hollis
Jennifer Hollis' poem sits on the threshold of motherhood, at the moment of transition when the personal and intimately known is sent out into a world keen to lay claim to it with a designation.
To Name and Describe, You Must First See
Writer and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass is a call to awakening to ecological consciousness and an awareness of our interconnectedness with nature.
Every Book is a Failure – George Orwell on Truth in Writing
"One can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a window pane." - George Orwell In his 1946 essay, Why I Write, George Orwell set out what he saw as the main motivators for writing: they were, sheer egotism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political purpose.… Continue reading Every Book is a Failure – George Orwell on Truth in Writing