A couple of weeks ago we suffered some losses on our little farmette in Portland. (For those readers who aren’t in the neighborhood, we have a double lot, and cultivate it intensively.) I was pretty miserable, so I coped with it the only way a writer can–I wrote a poem:: A Crack in the Crust […]
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In Jail: New York, 1970
Strip search from a how-to-do-it manual In my last post I described witnessing police assaults on citizens. Of course the cruelty doesn’t stop on the streets. I was arrested during Women’s Liberation actions in 1970. The police treated us quite gently, since all of us were white, and they considered feminists more of a joke […]
The Cops or the Cameras?
Police beating antiwar protestor, NYC Part I of a series, in which I explore the nature of policing in modern society. Every week we read at least one account of police officers assaulting or killing some unarmed person, usually (but not always) a person of color. If I tried to recount all the stories I’ve […]
By Special Request
Sylvia & Martha, photo by Steven Dansky Two weeks ago or thereabouts, I posted a humorous poem about traveling by air. Last week I read that poem at the benefit to save our local bookstore, and also read a poem about love–in this case, finding the love of my life, only to have her undergoing […]
Reading at the Bookstore Benefit
Martha reading at the benefit This past Friday, lots of local artists got together to raise money for St. Johns Booksellers. For my blog readers who don’t live around here, a little background: our neighborhood independent bookstore is housed in a 91-year-old building. Part of the facade crumbled and fell to the sidewalk on May […]
Traveling Blues
I’ve been traveling lately, to the Rainbow Book Fair in NYC and also to visit elderly relatives. Gives one food for thought. The characters in my novels travel by foot, horse, camel, boat, and even chariot. In Sylvia’s new novel, they cross the country in a covered wagon, and it takes them months. So why […]
False Witness: Baltimore & Ancient Israel
Police choking Eric Garner to death I’ve been steamed this week, reading about the latest victim of police murder–Freddie Gray. As often happens, perjury is committed by those sworn to uphold the law. The medical examiner says that the probable cause of death was a “rough” ride in a police van. Mr. Gray sustained a […]
A History of Taxation
A History of Taxation Tax collectors in 16th Century Russia We have just gone through the agonies of tax season. Death has been inevitable since the first molecules assembled themselves into living protoplasm, but despite the adage, taxes are a fairly recent invention. The first humans were hunters and gatherers; even now, some humans continue […]
A Praise Song for Passover
On various Jewish holidays, Hallel (“praise”) is recited. [For word nerds, hallel gives us hallelujah, or “praise Yahweh.” Many years ago I learned a short blessing in Arabic which includes what I assume is a cognate: Alhamdulillah, “praise Allah.”] At Passover several psalms are read, among them Psalm 136, praising God for creation, for saving […]
Passover is Almost Upon Us
Slaves making bricks, Egypt 1274 BCE I missed a week of blogging as I was doing taxes. But tonight’s post will, I hope, more than make up for it. Below is a poem from Haggadah: a Celebration of Freedom. It is read with the fourth cup of wine at the Passover seder. (You can order this […]