Word of the Week: Roseate (ROH-zee-ut) Definition (Adjective) 1. resembling a rose especially in color 2. overly optimistic : viewed favorably In Context "… the Catalan channels, richly funded by the local parliament and putting nationalist devotees in charge, has created a roseate picture of independence that simply doesn't fit the facts." Peter Preston, The Observer (London), 10 Dec. 2017
Bird in Hand Jasmine Gibson Being asked to move into time To places wishes and daydreams Into rivets and seams Being asked to move back into categorical understandings of regrets In order to fight against disintegration Carrying a placeholder for liminal spectrums Reading somersaults into lecture Move me, unmove me place me unto y’all’s metaphoric understanding of the dreams which have yet been realized Wish unto me, unfurl around, open Gasp gasp gasp Cry out, there are ways of understanding that leave indelible marks onto membrane surfaces We should all be so lucky to exist To not function The eyes, cease [...]
Word of the Week: asperity (uh-SPAIR-uh-tee) Definition 1. roughness of manner or of temper : harshness of behavior or speech that expresses bitterness or anger 2. rigor, severity 3. a) roughness of surface : unevenness b) roughness of sound In Context "[Charles Portis's True Grit is] one of those rare American novels that can be enjoyed by young readers for action and dialogue and by older readers for the lowdown wit and the wonderful asperity of the narrator Mattie Ross, an elderly skinflint who spins out the tale of her long-ago adolescent pursuit of the outlaw wastrel who killed her [...]
I want Jordan Jace I want to write poems for construction workers and dreamers For revolutionaries For deadbeats and those on the low I never want to ask please fix us all I want for us to want to patch every heart and pave every road and destroy every system that has ever left us broken. I want to sing like frank ocean, like wonder like sonder, like mereba, like the sea I want to recite the line Took the wretched out the earth Called it baby fanon, I want to call someone baby. I want to stop smoking because I [...]
Word of the Week: cinquefoil (singk-foil) Definition(noun) 1. any of several plants belonging to the genus Potentilla, of the rose family, having yellow, red, or white five-petaled flowers, as P. reptans (creeping cinquefoil) of the Old World, or P. argentea (silvery cinquefoil) of North America. 2. Also called quinquefoil, quintefoil. Architecture. a panellike ornament consisting of five lobes, divided by cusps, radiating from a common center. 3.Heraldry. a charge in the form of a five-leaved clover. In Context "DeBolt recently drove through Stanley and found an array of meadow flowers in bloom, including wyethia (aka mule’s ears), elephant heads, penstemon, cinquefoil, [...]
I Ask That I Do Not Die BY ILYA KAMINSKY —but if I do I want an open coffin I am an American poet and therefore open for business Owls peck the windows of the 21st century as if looking for the board members of Exxon Mobil who who who who who Listen my beloved nothings your seriousness will kill you! But before you die my doctors have prescribed happiness God is a warm brick or a claw or the silence that survives empires An old woman in the rain with a pot of mushroom soup is one of God’s disguises. Her [...]
Word of the Week: nascent NASS-unt Definition (adjective) coming or having recently come into existence In Context "Bezos starts by upending the world of books with his start-up Amazon, using the nascent Internet to challenge brick-and-mortar book chains like Barnes and Noble." Chris Impey, The Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2018
Book of the Month: These Precious Days by Ann Patchett(2021) Critical Evaluation "The days that Patchett refers to are precious indeed, but her writing is anything but. She describes deftly, with a line or a look, and I considered the absence of paragraphs freighted with adjectives to be a mercy. I don’t care about the hue of the sky or the shade of the couch. That’s not writing; it’s decorating. Or hiding. Patchett’s heart, smarts and 40 years of craft create an economy that delivers her perfectly understated stories emotionally whole. Her writing style is most gloriously her own." Witchel, Alex. [...]
