Word of the Week: frangible (FRĂN-jə-bəl) Definition (Adjective) Capable of being broken, breakable. In Context "I sat there and every few minutes felt myself on the verge of tears, felt uncomfortably frangible and brittle." John Dufresne, Requiem, Mass.: A Novel, 2008.
Heirloom Brian Sonia-Wallace Dad always grew tomatoes They were his pride and joy So when the lady outside Home Depot Offered me the box and said, ‘Do you have a garden?’ I didn’t say no, though I should have I said, ‘We have a theatre…’ And somehow that was just as good. It grows like a weed in Hollywood In the cracks between Film and Industry It was a grease monkey’s garage, then a shooting range But only now Can we call the people who run it clowns. We put the tomatoes out On the air conditioning supply unit To try [...]
With the Lark Paul Laurence Dunbar Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy, Chasing the troubles that fret and annoy; Darkness for sighing and daylight for song,— Cheery and chaste the strain, heartfelt and strong. All the night through, though I moan in the dark, I wake in the morning to sing with the lark. Deep in the midnight the rain whips the leaves, Softly and sadly the wood-spirit grieves. But when the first hue of dawn tints the sky, I shall shake out my wings like the birds and be dry; And though, like the rain-drops, I grieved [...]
Word of the Week: panjandrum (păn-JĂN-drəm) Definition (Noun) (A mock title for) a mysterious (frequently imaginary) personage of great power or authority; a pompous or pretentious official; a self-important person in authority. In Context "During several months, hardly a week passed that Louis did not have occasion to greet some panjandrum alighting at a railroad depot and lead him in military pomp to the Tuileries Palace, where gala after gala preempted other, more banal affairs of state." Frederick Brown, For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus, 2010.
Word of the Week: ludic (LŌŌ-dĭk) Definition (Adjective) Of or pertaining to undirected and spontaneously playful behaviour. In Context "Postmodernism creates a wonderland where each thing can morph into another, a ludic world free of conventions, rules, and traditions." Lubomír Doležel, Possible Worlds of Fiction and History: The Postmodern Stage, 2010. This word was suggested by Julie Mellby in the Princeton University Library.
A Love Note Adeeba Shahid Talukder for Willem My love, you are water upon water upon water until it turns azure, mountainous. The horizon fills like sand between glass marbles. So much has passed between us— last night you told me to press your hand harder and harder as I pained. The sunset was at its last embers. The dark was stealing the blue light from our room. I was falling into you. ~ ~ Compress water and it turns to ice— compress beauty and it loses breath. Gaze at it too long, and even the wide mirror of the ocean [...]
Iyáaní (Spirit, Breath, Life) Sara Marie Ortiz At Haak’u Within the community, on the land, in it, and of it, there is a way in all things that Acoma (Haak’u) children are taught. Shadruukaʾàatuunísṿ It is a way of saying. It is a way of saying our life and the way things grow and grow. It is a way of saying the children are growing so quickly. It is a way of saying the plants, which we so lovingly care for in the fields, are growing and growing. It is a way of saying neither would grow and grow without our [...]
Word of the Week: intrinsic (ĭn-TRĬN-zĭk) Definition (Adjective) Belonging to the thing in itself, or by its very nature; inherent, essential, proper; "of its own." In Context "In the environmental sphere, debate hinges on whether elements of nature – trees, animals, rivers – have intrinsic value which transcends human interests, or whether our motivation for caring for them should spring from the many ways that they are valuable for us." Charles R. Warren, Managing Scotland's Environment, 2002.
Audience Rachel Levitsky for Becca I don't know anything about the structure of rocks. Only that I move them away from where they were to another location closer in proximity to me. Collecting rocks is a habit backed in desire. I suppose I trust that my desire is true, although I have doubted it as I've doubted all sorts of love— material attachment to objects and object relations. Mother for example. First best friend. The poster from a museum possessed by gaze and gender seen in a country I now call to question, taken by a photographer, of a model mid-gesture, [...]
The Bad News Sandwich: How to Give (and Receive) Feedback At Princeton Writes, we host writing and public speaking classes and workshops, and toward the end of each session, we ask participants to share their writing or to give short speeches in front of the group. This requires vulnerability on the part of the writers and speakers and compassion on the part of the audience. Afterwards, we ask for feedback from the audience. This request is often met with silence. Audience members look away, readers and speakers shift awkwardly, until finally, someone starts. To make it easier, we give the audience [...]
