• Preemption

    I’ve been slowly weening myself from the hope of a proper academic career over the past several months. Academia barely exists today, and due to what may still perhaps be a case of sour grapes, I’ve come to the insight… more ›

  • Times Roman

    Below are some of my photos from a recent trip to Rome. This collection is of architectural ruins and art/historical objects that I found compelling. Colosseo I Colosseo II Bernini’s Elephant (Obelisk OutsideSanta Maria sopra Minerva) Memento Mori I Memento… more ›

  • Giovanni’s Room

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  • Roman Holiday (In Ostia down by the formless sea.)

    To prepare in advance for my time in Rome (at Italian cafes), I’ve spent the past several days reading and watching Pasolini and writing poems in honor of Pasolini: evoking/provoking/convoking the maestro. more ›

  • Thursday Evening

    Sitting here on a Thursday evening listening to PJ Harvey play on Apple TV while Stephen bakes a cheesecake from scratch for Shayne’s birthday, which we will celebrate tomorrow when she comes up for the day to work on some… more ›

  • Is this about Laura?

    How do we transmit grief? Loss? Via tears and via telephone. The receiver dropped on the wooden floor, whose grain links the message to the cord spiraling back to the telephone’s base. Telecommunication holds the community together. The message—through tears—reverberates… more ›

  • Early-Bird Gothic

    wczesno-ptasi gotykuWho dare writes such a magical phrase?!?! And it confounds me why those other translators have rendered this line into barely suitable English: “early ornithogothic.” What a disservice to Szymborska’s poetry and my sensibilities as a translator. Hell, even… more ›

  • Legend

    I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know of Van Cliburn. From small-town east Texas, he became a legend–and one of my heroes–of both classical music as well as cultural diplomacy. When the Soviets sent Sputnik… more ›

  • Misinformation

    Assuming that there is someone who actually reads this blog–as opposed to stumbling across it while searching “big black dick” or “big gaping pussy” (the two main searches, by the way, that point to my little corner of the web)–I’ve… more ›

  • In Memory of M.B.

    Burn all the books. The word is eternal. L’écriture—la maison de l’être. In abandonment, the writer writes to abandon what has been written in order that writing can be written in abandonment. To write is to leave a trace of writing, unwritten… more ›