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Like a Roaring (Nittany) Lion
Tuesday December 6, 2011
For reasons both practical and spiritual, I’ve mostly resisted the consuming pull of the sexual abuse saga at Penn State. But with ubiquitous news feeds and family or friends always there to fill you in, not to mention my own curiosity, one tends to be better informed than one’s better intentions would have it. On hearing of the case, of young boys victimized first by a predatory coach....
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In the Kitchen
Monday December 5, 2011
My mother lives in a little yellow house on John Street in Whiting, Indiana, where the Chicago skyline looms across the northern edge of town, where British Petroleum’s refining towers, which flank the town’s southern edge, burn both night and day, their white eyes flaming through the rain that has made me late for my Thanksgiving visit. The smell of that....
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Gilgamesh and Me
Friday December 2, 2011
One of the most brilliant moments from any episode of The Office takes place in season four’s opening episode, “Fun Run.” Michael Scott (Steve Carell) has organized a 5K to promote rabies awareness (long story), and decides to prep himself for the race by eschewing water all day and consuming a double order of Fettuccine Alfredo immediately before taking off. Because of....
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Judging Donald Hall
Thursday December 1, 2011
“When you like a woman, / you talk and talk. / One night you kiss. / Another night you fuck.” “After their tumult, as they quieted, / She breathed into his ear / The tunes she loved to sing.” “When love empties itself out, / it fills our bodies full. / For an hour we lie twining / pulse and skin together....” These lines are from three poems in the new collection by Donald Hall, one of America’s most revered poets....
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Unplugging
Wednesday November 30, 2011
Over lunch on Saturday—Reuben sandwiches, a surprisingly delightful alternative to the soybean-and-lentil concoctions one might expect at a yoga retreat at a hot springs in Northern California—Craig and I talked to another couple about sabbath. Not in the way you might think, but in the way more and more people these days are talking about taking an intentional break from the Internet. Wilbur has neither....
Artist of the Month
Alison Pelegrin
Alison Pelegrin is a citizen of Louisiana through and through, and her poems read like love songs to the place. In her verse, which effortlessly marries formal elements with natural speaking rhythm....
Current Issue
Issue 70
Fiction by Valerie Sayers, Poetry by Mark Jarman and Martha Serpas, Art by Enrique Martinez Celaya
Good Letters: The Image Blog
