As a child, Elizabeth Blackwell was "disgusted" by all things pertaining to the human body. A deeply religious person with a soft spot for metaphysics (like many of her reform-minded friends, who were leaders in the early abolitionist and feminist movements), Blackwell viewed human nature through the lens of the soul/body dichotomy, and she came ( Read more... )

I've always been fascinated by the question of what the relationship between art and politics ought to be. Recently, I stumbled upon a marvelous John Ashbery poem, "Lithuanian Dance Band," which I enjoyed partially because it reminded me of the poetry of Frank O'Hara, a poet I adore. Using Google, I discovered a book excerpt (from "On the Outside ( Read more... )

Robert Hass, a very likable contemporary poet and a great admirer of Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote a fine essay called “Looking for Rilke,” which I mentioned in passing in my last post. If you’re interested in writing poetry, I highly recommend that you read this essay; I think it has a lot to teach young poets about what makes great poetry great. In ( Read more... )

A question with which I've long struggled is: How does one make a unified whole out of disparate parts? Two years ago, when I was applying to medical schools, many of my interviewers asked me the following question: "I notice that you are a person with many, seemingly unrelated interests: abstract mathematics, poetry, etc. How do these ( Read more... )

A reviewer for the London Observer made the following comment about Sylvia Plath: "She steers clear of feminine charm, deliciousness, gentility, super-sensitivity and the act of being a poet. She simply writes good poetry." My question is: What does it mean to praise a female artist for "steering clear of the feminine"? In order for art to be ( Read more... )

Famous William Carlos Williams excerpt ( Read more... )

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people who use the words "heinous" and "hideous" as though they were exact synonyms. I.e., people who use the word "heinous" to mean "physically ugly." I've seen this done in two places so far -- once on TV, once in a magazine.

I'm not aware of the existence of much Buddhist poetry (aside from the great Zen haiku-writers: Basho, etc.), but a battered old anthology of scriptures that I own contains some lovely verses by the Hindi poet Saraha. This excerpt reminds me somewhat of the passage in the Song of Songs where the Shulamite goes outside in the middle of the night ( Read more... )

According to the 5/10/07 NYTimes article "New York City Renters Cope With Squeeze," the avg. monthly rent for a 1-br apt. in Manhattan is $2567. (Rent.com says the avg. is $1600/mo. for NYC, so there are clearly disparities in the statistics released by different sources.) This got me thinking. I googled my way to rent.com and found the ( Read more... )