Blog

Photo of the night sky with thousands of stars

Facing Night

What reaches for the sun.  What turns green panes flat to the zenith.  A green order in the bay window, quatrefoil.  Egg-toothed cotyledon. ~ There’s something to know and it can’t be known and I have to know it.  It wakes me up in the morning, shivers me through the day.  My soul fleeth unto…

Photo of graffiti on concrete wall reading "Fight Sexism"

Sexism

What is sexism, exactly?  What is sexist writing? Like Justice Potter Stewart, we are pretty sure we know it when we see it.  And, indeed, some of it is easy to see.  Women persistently denied interiority, animalized, simplified, fetishized, objectified.  Women sadistically sexualized and demeaned.  Women presented positively in passive roles, negatively in active.  Women…

Photograph of the view from the top of Nob Hill

Nob Hill

We’re in a crosswalk on the steep crest of Nob Hill, it’s late, and a woman passes by.  This woman is or is not attractive.  This woman is or is not an acquaintance.  This woman is alone.  In the crook of her arm she holds a gilled leather handbag with a gold shell clasp.  At…

Photo of an abstract painting

“No Orangutan”

I began my public blogging career (brief though it may be) last week with “Start with A”, suggesting that teachers of poetry—who are frequently poets—might want to begin at a more basic level than many of us do. That included beginning with the literal level of a poem, because we’ve all seen bewildered students, or…