Never Describe the Sky as Azure BY PHILIP METRES unless it’s made of stone. لاجورد Lāzhward migrating from Persia, smuggled from Farsi to Arabic & thrown like a wingless bird across the sky-dark sea until its version spills from English mouths. Lapis lazuli. O trap of beauty, you are a fiction ... Exhausted at day’s end of an oven-summer I duck out of the house [...]
Word of the Week: ineffable (in-EFF-uh-bul) Definition (Adjective) 1. a) incapable of being expressed in words : indescribable b) inexpressibly bad : unspeakable 2. not to be uttered : taboo In Context "Such haziness was inevitable, because the questions Buber was trying to answer were the most ineffable ones of human life: What is the meaning of our existence? How can we achieve the feeling of wholeness that we so painfully lack?" Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2019
Word of the Week: quibble (KWIB-ul) Definition (verb) 1. to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words 2. a) to find fault by raising trivial or frivolous objection b) to engage in a petty quarrel : bicker 3. to subject to minor objections or criticisms Context "A few researchers and doctors have also quibbled with some of the details in the dietary advice…." Eliza Barclay, Vox.com, 24 Jan. 2019
The Mothering Blackness BY MAYA ANGELOU She came home running back to the mothering blackness deep in the smothering blackness white tears icicle gold plains of her face She came home running She came down creeping here to the black arms waiting now to the warm heart waiting rime of alien dreams befrosts her rich brown face She came down creeping She came home blameless black yet as Hagar’s daughter tall as was Sheba’s daughter threats of northern winds die on the desert’s face She came home blameless
Word of the Week: abhorrent (ab·hor·rent \ -ənt) Definition (Adjective) 1 : causing or deserving strong dislike or hatred : being so repugnant as to stir up positive antagonism 2 : not agreeable : contrary 3 a : feeling or showing strong dislike or hatred b archaic : strongly opposed In Context class="cite-example">"The Syrian Regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and abhorrent way." — CNN, "READ: UK Prime Minister Theresa May's statement on Syria strikes," 14 Apr. 2018
Word of the Week: kakistocracy (kakə̇ˈstäkrəsē) Definition (Noun) government by the worst people In Context "Whether this partakes more of an aristocracy, or caucocracy, or rather Kakistocracy, is a problem, in the solution of which, he may find some amusement and employment of his genius." — The Weekly Aurora, (Philadelphia, PA), 31 Oct. 1815
Rock Me, Mercy BY YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA The river stones are listening because we have something to say. The trees lean closer today. The singing in the electrical woods has gone dumb. It looks like rain because it is too warm to snow. Guardian angels, wherever you're hiding, we know you can't be everywhere at once. Have you corralled all the pretty wild horses? The memory of ants asleep in daylilies, roses, holly, & larkspur. The magpies gaze at us, still waiting. River stones are listening. But all we can say now is, Mercy, please, rock me.
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (2021) by Suleika Jaouad Critical Evaluation "At the tail end of trauma, most people would prefer to hand the sufferer a bucket of silver paint and a brush, and say go ahead, paint the lining. Jaouad tosses the supplies and hops into a Subaru. On the road, she opts for slowness, finding the courage to marinate in unanswered questions and be alone with her thoughts. She drives a jagged constellation, 15,000 miles across the nation, visiting strangers who wrote to her. In each interaction, we meet someone who has encountered a lightless [...]
