Category: articles
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Divine
If not Divine, thenwhat are we?Progress and processfrom some hapless form;some simple thing,some lesser beast,some soulless creature fully leastthat yet still walksin wood or jungle,flies in sky,crawls from hole or swims in sea? What that livesconsiders itself,except the human,to ask, “What made me?”What living that walksor flies or crawls or swimsbegs answers to questions this…
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Roald Dahl’s Tree
It would have taken, you said, at least ten people holding hands to encircle the tree. For each meter or so of circumference, a baobob is supposed to have lived one hundred years, so this tree in Tanzania, with a view of the Indian Ocean, is more than a thousand years old, several feet of…
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A Brief Look of Concern
I wish I was a better man.I would bargain for itwith Mephistopheles – clutch hisoffered claw in mine.With no irony, I would ask thisof God if I was only capableof admitting to myself that…that…That it’s my fault.All of it.It was me from the start, wanting otherwomen, thinking of ways to convince youthat it wasn’t so…
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Five
Skram Firstly, I started as an abandoned architecture photographer, and that starting influence remains strongly within my aesthetic. This photo was taken in black and white film and colorized. This was on the rooftop of an abandoned mining train factory, Goodman Manufacturing, in Chicago on the south side. This panel either controlled the industrial elevators…
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SPANKING THE BABY: Second Thoughts on Discipline
Harriet Winslow held up the Mexican baby by the feet and whacked her on the buttocks. A good hard spanking, Harriet reflected later, which she enjoyed, in truth, but which saved the child’s life. The spanking jarred the phlegm which was choking the little girl to death, and then Harriet sucked out the phlegm, and…
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Ames Room
I believe in Trapezoidal Magic. The ophthalmologist Ames must have had a showman’s heart to construct a room whose walls are not perpendicular but slanted, and the ceiling and the floor incline so the world we see through the peephole makes a dwarf and a giant of the same man, and a ball rolls seemingly…
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Self-Preservation for English Majors
Good morning. Welcome to Self-Preservation for English Majors. I hope you all had a lovely summer. Please stop flirting, you two. You can disappoint each other on your own time. Thank you. As you know, this is a required sophomore-level course for all English majors. At one time, this class was offered…
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To the Peasant Poet
I grab my journal to jot down fragments that rhyme. My boring assignments can wait a short time.In my mind is a dreamscape all my own,Designed to be like the fields you had known. Splashes of white dot the land and sky —The daisies swaying and clouds drifting by.The breeze blows through my loosened hair,And…
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We Hear Everything
Mommy and Daddy love you very much. This isn’t your fault, baby. No, no, it has nothing to do with that. Sometimes it happens. People change, they stop feeling – No, sweetheart, no. I’ll always love you. Always! It’s different. You’ll understand when you’re older. Nothing happened. You heard that? It’s not what you think.…
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It Came To Me
Kneeling in the gardenI look closely at the tulipsCan I help them growWith just a thoughtA few wordsA drink of waterDo they grow for your eyes to seeDo they grow to smell so sweetKneeling in the gardenIt came to meThe tulips show me how to reach Featured Download: If you would like a resource to…
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Hamlet’s Moral Philosophy: The Key to Unlocking Shakespeare’s Own Ethics
Little is known about Shakespeare’s personal life or his own beliefs. Most of what we know is derived from his expansive catalog of plays; the consensus is that the character of Hamlet is most similar to the Bard himself. “In recent years, studies of Shakespeare’s plays have concerned themselves with everyday objects and ‘matter’ rather…
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A Second Longer
Some bald skin warms in laundry. “The altar needs work,” the altar worker thinks, before slippingdown _____________________. (something else here) Slave ships start arriving in half dozens and toothbrushbristles drag across her lungs. Muse on namesfor pairs of mules. Honk and Cuss. Belle and Nubbin. Ignoring the intention of the shape,stone drinks the rain. Do…