Pandemos, politics and persuasion

In ancient Greece, the presiding deity of politics was not stern-helmed Athena with her cold gray eyes, nor haughty Apollo, nor Zeus armed with his nuclear-weapon thunderbolts. It was Aphrodite. …

Poem: The Newer Testament

He died for your right to bear arms, right there on that flagpole, the yellow gold of his hair so memorable. And as the blood dripped down it left red …

Poem: The mark of civilization

“We will all get it,” you shrug, with the unspoken and let the weak die. Because in nature, the wolves nip the heels of the hindmost moose. The old stag …

Poem: Light

We cringe at the shadowed alley, flinch at corners where the night lingers longest. Dark, we murmur, is tantamount to harm, to the grave and other gloomy locations, to that …

Poem: Branwen’s lament

We don’t want this story told: When you give your hearthfire away, your luck goes with it, along with a pot where you can boil a man and his body …

‘Easaimláir san intinn,’ or my poor attempts at thinking in Irish

The onslaught of unseen molecules continues unabated. As humans, we seem hardwired to discount disease, which makes a certain degree of sense. Viruses are too small to see, and we’re …

Poem: The Wasteland

Last night’s setting sun was the moon, a milky disc of dimming light. It didn’t sear the eyes to gaze upon it, this hybrid sun-moon. The air burned slightly, that …

Poem: Drywall

Drywall has its uses: We’ve never denied that, never had to. You can’t just live in a bare frame of wood, not with any privacy, not with the separation our …

Song: Immram

The last of my Avalon songs features a synthetic ocean and a real hammered dulcimer, frame drum and udu. Enjoy the journey!

Poem: Plastic trophies

If there was only a little less coddling, you said. No handouts, no plastic trophies, no soothing words over skinned knees. No, the best favor is to show them what …