1. CHLORIS HAS HER SAY “If it’s true, Chloris, that you love me,and I’ve heard you do love me well—”was a fresh way for you to begin.After that you lost the thread a bit,scorning ambrosia and the prospectof trading places with kings if my lovewere sure. (No kings were offering.)—from “Anti-Pastorals,” Volume . . .
Read MoreAnd pints that instantly glow,On the counter, in pyramids of crowns…—Émile Verhaeren, trans. Jacob Siefring Tripelicious is how I describeThese Belgian-style beers I imbibe.As I sip golden glow,I will rhyme and bestowApprobations with Tripel Ale vibes. 1St. Vrain is a river and beer.Lightly fruity, the latter will cheer—fully tickle the tipOf your tongue as . . .
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(Repressive State Apparatus in action 5/7/2024, FJP photo) I have been a history professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for twenty years. On May 7, I was one of a handful of faculty members arrested for standing in support of hundreds of students who were engaged in nonviolent protest of university . . .
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A review of The Girl Before Her by Line Papin (Kaya Press, 2023) The road to the laundromat is iced all over and the wind is ruthless, blowing me back to the winter in Massachusetts, to the field of sunflowers, their eight-foot stalks almost depleted of moisture, their beehive heads bent over by snow, . . .
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Before we brush our teeth and get dressed, beforeI take two kinds of blood pressure pills and threefiber gummies, put coffee in one kind of go-cup,kale smoothie in another, get into the car, I say I wantto have one more cup of coffee in bed and read youthis Ellen Bass poem, but it’s . . .
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(Photo by Victorgrigas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0) (An earlier version of this essay, titled “They tried to kill the truth, but it came back stronger” was published in Issue 4 (Spring 2024) of the print magazine, Discontent.) 1. Every time I’ve opened this document to continue writing, I’ve had to turn . . .
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As Jewish academics, researchers, and higher education professionals, we are appalled by, and refuse to accept, the deliberate mischaracterization, and weaponization of persisting fears about Jewish safety and well-being on campuses across the United States as the singular excuse for a series of misguided and dangerous policies by university administrators. These include . . .
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At dawn, when I have to pee and there is that dread of standing, and afterI pee and drink a small jam jar of water, you’re the first thing I put in my hand, Pill. In my palm you’re so perfect and white and round, and then I addanother one of you, . . .
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It must be awful to be a Republican these days. So many reasons to be terrified: immigrants flooding across our borders, gender subversion from within, swarthy people rising from below, and so few of “our nation’s core principles” left unassailed. Even Sean Hannity, culture warrior supreme, can’t seem to keep up. How . . .
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Drawing by Grant Hoskins, published with permission from the artist Students Called for Divestment from Weapons Manufacturers as State Police Entered Campus AMHERST, MASS.—Over 130 students, faculty, and community members were arrested by state police on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus on Tuesday evening and into the early hours of Wednesday . . .
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