Look and Listen #12: Maya Angelou, We Wear the Mask
In honor of Juneteenth, Maya Angelou’s poem, “We Wear the Mask.” She was a masterful reader, dancing on the edge of emotion. May we all learn how to listen and …
Quote for Today: Erik Pevernagie
Things as they appear every day and as they are engraved in our memory, facts and occurrences as they are perceived by senses, create an intricate labyrinth in the …
40 days of Poetry: Day 30: Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski
Day 30: My dear friend Maureen McCarthy suggested this beautiful poem, Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski. It’s about remembering the good things, which are often small …
Quote for Today: Miles Harvey
A map has no vocabulary, no lexicon of precise meanings. It communicates in lines, hues, tones, coded symbols, and empty spaces, much like music. Nor does a map have …
Quote for Today: Alexander McCall Smith
Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, …
40 days of poetry: Day 18: Peas by Annie Schmidt
Day 18: Peas by Annie Schmidt, translated by J.H. and J.W. Prins. It’s funny how memory changes the nature of our experience. Our elders are very dear to us.
Quote for Today: Herbert Muschamp
A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who …
40 days of poetry: Music Swims Back to Me: Anne Sexton
40 days of poetry: Day 13. Today I’m reading Music Swims Back to Me, by Anne Sexton, about her experience being institutionalized for mental illness. Simultaneously clear and murky, it …
Quote for Today: Jill Christman
Those books, pasted together by my grandmother, year after year, replaced the cognitive exercise of memory for me. Sitting on a section of wall-to-wall carpeting, drinking the bubbling red birch …