“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”― Walt WhitmanText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThis is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income
“We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”― Jack GilbertFor me, Jack Gilbert was one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1925, a city built on grit and hard work. He came from a working-class family with the massi
By: Hermann HesseArt: Henri PrestesText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI feel it again and again, no mattcr Whether I am old or young: A mountain range in the night, On the balcony a silent woman, A white street in the moonliglht curving gently away That tears my
“We are hung up on the illusion of success, and so we aim constantly higher: more production, more knowledge, more power, more, more, more.”—Dr. Alexander LowenThe modern individual is committed to being successful, not to being a person. He belongs rightly to the “action generation,” whose motto is
By: Erik RittenberryPhoto: Erik Rittenberry“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”― Wendell BerryText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThe desecration of the sacred in our modern age is merely a symptom of our spiritual s
By: James SchuylerPhoto: Erik RittenberryText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedBooks litter the bed, leaves the lawn. It lightly rains. Fall has come: unpatterned, in the shedding leaves. The maples ripen. Apples come home crisp in bags. This pear tastes good. It r
By: Erik Rittenberry“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.”― Mark TwainLast week, I wrote an article titled The Vitality of Pessimism (I removed the paywall, by the way). In that article, I attempted to argue that:”If read correctly,
By: Jack MichelineJack Micheline at the Jack Kerouac Conference in Boulder, Colorado, 1980’s | Photo by Mark ChristalI am fifty two, live alone, considered some mad freak geniusIn reality I am a fucked up poet who will never come to terms with the world… — Jack MichelineWhen I began to write in the
By: Henry MillerI am done with civilization and its spawn of cultured souls. I gave myself up when I entered the tomb. From now on I am a nomad, a spiritual nobody.— Henry MillerTo keep the mind empty is a feat, a very healthful feat too. To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no ra
By: Erik RittenberryAn optimist and a pessimist, Vladimir Makovsky“Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerves give to wisdom.” —Bernard DeVoto“A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.” — SchopenhauerUnlike other animals, we humans possess a heightened sense of self-awarene
By: Jim HarrisonPhoto by Erik PetersenI am uniquely privileged to be aliveor so they say. I have asked otherswho are unsure, especially the man with threekids who’s being foreclosed next month.One daughter says she isn’t leaving the farm,they can pry her out with tractorand chain. Mother needs heart
By: Lev Shestov“Once an idea is there, the gates must be opened to it.”― Lev ShestovThe business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty—man who is supremely afraid of uncertainty, and who is forever hiding himself behind this or the other dogma. More briefly, the business of philosophy
“A little too abstract, a little too wise,It is time for us to kiss the earth again,It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,Let the rich life run to the roots again.”― Robinson JeffersSubscribe nowWhy read the poems of Robinson Jeffers? What sets Robinson Jeffers as a poet apart for me, esp
By: Charles BukowskiText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedoften it is the only thing between you and impossibility. no drink, no woman’s love, no wealth can match it. nothing can save you except writing. it keeps the walls from failing. the hordes from closing in
By: Wendell BerryPhotograph by Guy MendesIt is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,for hope must not depend on feeling goodand there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.You also have withdrawn belief in the present realityof the future, which surely will surprise us,and hope
By: John CalderEvery artist is tortured by the experience of creating art, but it is also his escape from the outside world, and from worry, pain, and both company and solitude. —John CalderSubscribe nowIn 2001, John Calder, a prominent British publisher, wrote a wonderful book on the philosophy of
By: Mary OliverI could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple. —Mary OliverWhen I came to a teachable age, I was, as most youngsters are, directed toward the acquisition of knowledge, meaning not so much ideas b
By: Erik RittenberryText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn a world where self-worth is measured through the filtered gaze of a camera lens, where relevancy depends on relentless exposure, I have come to see that the truest, most authentic creators are those who
By: Kell RobertsonPhoto: Stephen ShoreText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedcoughing up phlegm from too many cigarettes and a night filled with vapid plays that simply tell us that we are nothing more than, at best, greedy embeciles who look for light in an icebox f
"So many books, so little time."“When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you.” – George SaundersWhy read short stories? As the late, great literary critic Harold Bloom so elegantly put it: “Short stories favor the tacit; they comp
