Barry’s BlueSky- Untitled May 18, 2024The Biggest Crisis A #PoliCartoon by me and Becky Hawkins.
- Untitled May 17, 2024#PoliCartoon: Fat Patients, Fat Patience #FatAcceptance
- Untitled May 17, 2024Thinking of that time that Degas painted the actress Ellen Andree sitting and looking pensive in a cafe, and Monet saw Degas' painting and decided to find the same actress and get her to pose in the same cafe so he could do his own version.
- Untitled May 17, 2024Copyright claims often go too far, crushing free speech and not allowing for the way artists are influenced by, repurpose, and even coincidentally echo, other art. Not this time, though! Jeff Dieschburg is a straight-up tracer who adds NOTHING original when he paints his copies of photos. [contains quote post or other embedded content]
- Untitled May 17, 2024#PoliCartoon: Defending Free Speech
- Untitled May 16, 2024The Existence of Trains Debate #PoliCartoon #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming
- Untitled May 18, 2024
Category Archives: Writing
Sa’di’s Most Famous Lines Hang on the Wall of the United Nations
I am a few days late with this post because we had some renovation issues to deal with in my house last week and they left me no time at all to write. The extra time, however, did help me understand better … Continue reading
I’ve Lived Until The End of My Desires
I’ve heard more than a few jokes about men who, after finding the proverbial genie in a bottle, manage to screw up their three wishes. The one that comes to me now involves a man who walks into a bar … Continue reading
The Viper Strikes, and Lives
I have been fascinated by metaphor since I was an undergraduate linguistics major, when one of my professors assigned parts of Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. In that book, Lakoff and Johnson argue that, as … Continue reading
I Can’t Think of a Better Reason to Write
You never know how people are going to find your work, and you never know how it’s going to touch them or why. Earlier this month, a man contacted me asking for a copy of the uncorrected proof of my … Continue reading
In Them Alone My Spirit Will Endure
Towards the end of his preface to Golestan, Sa’di—that’s a picture of me at his tomb in Shiraz–says: Long after we have crumbled into dust, and the grains of who we were are far-flung atoms, these words, well chosen and arranged, will live, … Continue reading
Say Nothing If You Cannot Say It Well
I think this week’s Sa’di Says speaks for itself: A seasoned speaker knows his craft demands careful thought or his words will go to waste. Follow his example. Say nothing if you cannot say it well; make silence the voice … Continue reading
Not Much Time Remains
I am posting this week’s Sa’di Says, “Not Much Time Remains,” in memory of my friend Adam Schonbrun, who died in February: I know life leaves me with each breath I take, and these last fifty years I’ve been asleep. … Continue reading
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My Companion’s Scent Seeped into Me
This week’s “Sa’di Says” is a brief poem from one of the introductory sections of Golestan: I held in my bath a perfumed piece of clay that came to me from a beloved’s hand. I asked it, “Are you musk … Continue reading
Writing a Poem is a Confrontation with the Unknowable
It’s been a long time since I believed in a god like the biblical one I learned as a child that I was supposed to love and fear, respect and obey. I’ve written a little bit about why I stopped believing, and I’ve written out … Continue reading
I Have a Tumblr…
It’s called Sa’di Says and I will posting to it excerpts from my translations of Sa’di, the 13th century Persian poet, which were originally published by Global Scholarly Publications in two separate volumes, Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan andSelections from Saadi’s Bustan. Both books have been out … Continue reading