Word of the Week: chauvinism (SHŌ-və-nĭz-əm) Definition (Noun) Exaggerated patriotism of a bellicose sort; blind enthusiasm for national glory or military ascendancy; the French quality which finds its parallel in British "Jingoism." In Context "The fires of antiforeign chauvinism, long fanned by the bureaucracy, were raging." Patrick Smith, Japan: A Reinterpretation, 1997.
After the Winter Claude McKay Some day, when trees have shed their leaves And against the morning's white The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night, We'll turn our faces southward, love, Toward the summer isle Where bamboos spire to shafted grove And wide-mouthed orchids smile. And we will seek the quiet hill Where towers the cotton tree, And leaps the laughing crystal rill, And works the droning bee. And we will build a [...]
won’t you celebrate with me Lucille Clifton won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.
The Life of a Writer Jalynn Harris the life of a writer is desire i hammer into the page i make up my mind: the streetlight is not the moon, but anything can be made beautiful under the ease of my hammer i wish you could see that i write in blue ink the color of oceans & early mornings & everything is clear like tears rushing towards the chin of my desire. i pen what i’m meant to pen. how deep in love i am & how silly of me to spend all morning dreaming about love & not expect [...]
Word of the Week: confluence (KŎN-flōō-əns) Definition (Noun) A flowing together; the junction and union of two or more streams or moving fluids. In Context "The middle reaches of the Mississippi stretch for around 200 miles (330 kilometers) between St. Louis and the river's confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois." Rob Bowden, Settlements of the Mississippi River, 2005.
Word of the Week: insouciant (ĭn-SŌŌ-sē-ənt) Definition (Adjective) Careless, indifferent, unconcerned. In Context "I looked in disbelief at the photos of my slim, young self, hair down to my waist, cigarette in insouciant hand, eyes bigger because the skin around them was tauter." Kim Moritsugu, The Restoration of Emily, 2006.
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond E. E. Cummings somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose or if your wish be to close me,i and my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we [...]
Book of the Month: Matrix by Lauren Groff (2021) Critical Review "Perhaps the greatest pleasure of this novel is also its most subtle. Groff is a gifted writer capable of deft pyrotechnics and well up to the challenges she sets herself, including that of rendering feverish apparitions of the Virgin as recorded by a seminal poet of the Western canon. One senses she doesn’t so much struggle to create her vision but is borne aloft on it, which is the page-by-page pleasure as we soar with her. "But it’s the dogged progress of a grand life that sustains this narrative. From [...]
The Magic of Showing Up In our Writing Space Group (a group of Princeton employees who like to write and meet once a month to do so), we often talk about finding the time and motivation to pursue our own creative projects. Some of us write every day for work, some don't, but we all struggle to find a consistent, viable schedule for our own creative writing projects. We have discussed many strategies, and the key to consistency, it seems, may come from something as simple as sitting down at your desk or kitchen table. A personal trainer once told me [...]
