J R Leach In the digital age, the incessant calls to action reverberate across the virtual landscape, summoning legions of fervent warriors to wage battles against perceived evils. This rallying cry, echoing the urgency of a multitude of crusades, permeates our online existence. Be it the casual dehumanization of entire swaths of people to the …
Simon Elmer Der Zauberlehrling (1797) is the title of a famous ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a re-telling of an ancient Egyptian myth that was later put to music by the French composer, Paul Dukas, in his orchestral scherzo L’Apprenti sorcier (1897). The latter was chosen for the title of a text published in …
Edward curtin By the lake’s lapping shore above the town and the railroad tracks, my wife and I stopped and marveled, struck stone silent by two dazzling Baltimore Orioles, clawed together as they tumbled, wrestling in the green morning breeze above our heads. They perched upon a branch and sang a morning hymn, an ode …
Todd Hayen When I was a young lad of 11, I was fascinated with computers, or what little there was of them at the time. It was about 1966, and I checked out a book from the school library on the short but exciting history of the machines. I pored over every page of it. …
Margaret Anna Alice The following poem was inspired by a conversation with Mike Yeadon. We have both independently noticed the increasing use of terms like “bungled” and “blunder” to describe the crimes against humanity perpetrated under the cloak of COVID. Even well-meaning people who share similar values and goals sometimes fall into this trap being …
Edward Curtin “The most incomprehensible talk comes from people who have no other use for language than to make themselves understood.” Karl Kraus, Half-Truths & One-and-a-Half Truths Things, possessions, life on the installment plan or credit card. This is the season to buy, to accumulate more folderols, to give things to one’s children and each other, …
Edward Curtin “There’s a blaze of light in every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah” Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah The last time I was in Montreal, Leonard Cohen, who had been dead two years, was on my mind. How could it be otherwise for one who has admired his songs …
Edward Curtin My title comes from a song sung by soldiers as they marched to hell in the trenches of World War I and the same song my sisters and I sang in the car as our parents drove us to our summer vacation in paradise at Edgewater Farm. I think of this as we march to …
September is the cruelest month, babu We are daily labourers We are kiln workers We are domestic maids We are casual agricultural hands It is a lean season, babu And we are pushed to the walls Of seasonal hunger and recurring wounds We sell pots and pans And keep our empty stomachs at bay It is the month of diarrhea[Read More...]
On the day India was born eleven demons were let loose. A great celebration ensued Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! India won the match again! The match is always fixed. A man versus woman Bilkis versus eleven Satans played in broad daylight. A great uproar, carnal pleasure, proud chest, thumping victory: Bilkis: Zero, India: Eleven. It’s always the same match . India[Read More...]
