In elementary school they read us this delicious poem by Mark Strand: “Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry…” The gender politics of “Eating Poetry” are a little cringe but the visceral engagement with language still resonates with me. And apparently also with
February Links Roundup: Eat a Book Every Day Read More »
Having just finished my intensive immersion in “The Sopranos”, I don’t have an explanation for the enigmatic and (some would say) unsatisfying final cut-to-black scene of Tony in the diner. To quote Wednesday Addams, Are they dead? Does it matter? What I do notice is a psychological resemblance to the endings of two other shows
Hell Is the Absence of Closure Read More »
Welcome to 2022, readers. Let’s start the year with the energy of this Oregon crow who befriended a class of fifth graders: [Education assistant Naomi] Imel said the bird wasn’t aggressive at all and seemed to love the kids. “It landed on some people’s heads,” she said. And, she added, it spoke. The bird could
January Links Roundup: As the Crow Flies Read More »
How it started: How it’s going: Another year around the Block. I definitely don’t take that for granted. It’s one thing to know intellectually that life is short and unpredictable, entirely another thing to feel that urgency as one wakes up every day in a country under threat from fascism and disease. What am I
Reiter’s Block Year in Review: 2021 Read More »
Multi-genre creator The Poet Spiel, a/k/a the visual artist Tom W. Taylor, has now licensed his colorful, energetic prints of flora and fauna for sale on Spoonflower fabrics and home goods. Spiel’s artwork will also grace the cover and frontispieces of my next poetry collection from Little Red Tree, forthcoming in early 2022. Meanwhile, he
Flash Fiction by Spiel: “Blue Boy” Read More »
Happy (?) November, readers. My mood continues to be “living my best life in the end times”, hence the question mark. This post’s title references an article I will shortly mention, but also a realization that sometimes gives me hope and other times makes me feel more helpless than ever. I grew up thinking that
November Links Roundup: Inequality Isn’t Magic Read More »
It’s Socktober! As part of my ongoing wardrobe reorganization, I was planning to wear a different pair every day, but it’s been shorts-and-sandals weather for the past week and a half. Guess I’ll have to try again in…Toe-vember. I have decommissioned six bags of ladies’ formal attire this month, some with the tags still on.
October Links Roundup: Oh Susannah Read More »
Happy (almost) autumn–the witching season! Self-described “normie Satanist” blogger Stephen Bradford Long followed a similar trajectory as mine, from anguished gay Christian to student of occultism and Tarot. In a provocative post from July, “The Satanic Practice of Learning from Demons”, he explains why he bothers to engage with authors like Jordan Peterson, notwithstanding the
September Links Roundup: Learning from Demons Read More »
Better get this post up before the month is over! Here’s an eclectic list of good reads around the web. At the Iowa Review, Amanda Peery-Wolf’s “What Can I Ship” is a witty found-poem based on the Union Pacific Online Customer Handbook from 2007. The reader may be alternately numbed and delighted by the sheer
August Links Roundup: Ship It Read More »
We went to Salem. This Massachusetts coastal town has made a peculiar tourist industry out of the fact that it executed 19 people (and two dogs) on charges of witchcraft in 1692. Four others died in prison or under interrogation. All respect to Giles Corey, the crotchety octogenarian who let himself be pressed to death