To Read & To Write

"'Live Oak, with Moss' doesn't *declare* manly love organic, natural, and pure; it takes as a given that it *is*... 'Live Oak, with Moss' is Whitman's first sustained attempt to address the naturalness of love beyond traditional heteronormative boundaries." - from the afterword by Karen Karbiener The naturalness of love in these twelve short poems is in symbiosis with the geography of the natural world as well, making these poems very romantic. But they are enormously sad, save for a few moments, in that this world and his lovers also have the tendency to respond back without passion, as if everything were ambivalent except for the poet himself. There is a yearning here, acknowledging that nothing else matters (not knowledge, nor technology) until love is consummated. Whitman's verses are tender and sweet and painfully echo the drama of a man who cannot reveal his true identity. These poems were hidden by Whitman. However, he wrote instructio...

Rumi (1207 - 1273), a now much quoted poet, is also an Islamic saint. In The Pocket Rumi , a good amount of his poems and verses are published, and out of these many referenced Christianity: Jesus and even the Virgin Mother. Not in a negative light at all. I do feel it is of importance to note Rumi's Persian and Islamic background. The prophet Muhammad is also mentioned very frequently in his work, which drew me to a closer understanding and appreciation of Islam, without having to open the Koran.  Frankly, it doesn't sit well that a lot of his poetry is not something we might call common humanity or shared human values. Tell me, what historical struggle, what coming together of societal conditions, what political events urges a person such as Rumi towards  love?  Rumi doesn't believe in good and evil, in the moral sense, but he cannot deny his striving towards  goodness . It's in his work, this combining of goodness and love and also, quite differently than t...

Usually, when someone directly asks me what my favorite book is, I say that I haven’t yet found it, but I love many. This is no longer true. Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke is now my favorite book, and although I am not an artist, reading it compelled me in such a way that other books have only made me contemplate. Rilke’s Letters To A Young Poet encouraged me to change; my opinions, my fears, and my actions. Rilke asks Kappus, the poet he is writing to, not to neglect his emotions, but to feel them, however wonderful or painful, and to turn “inward” in his search for truth (first letter). Rilke also reminds Kappus, in another letter, that beauty can be found in everything – such as, if one had an unhappy childhood, there are things, perhaps even things special to a certain individual, to be found in memory that, if missed or searched for, will bring peace and humility (sixth letter): “try to be close to Things; they will not abandon you; and the nights are still the...