Ashok Karra - Encouragement

Kyla Houbolt, "hold on"

Kyla Houbolt has been writing amazing poetry on a regular basis, and I regret I cannot give all her work the attention it deserves.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinest Sense"

When I encounter the sentence "Much Madness is divinest Sense," I think back to middle school and high school.

writing

A Short Tribute to Porochista Khakpour's "Just (Don't) Do It"

Now I have to write about myself again. It's not going great.

education

On Office Hours

OK, this is wild. Students at Harvard don't go to office hours?

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "The Sunset stopped on Cottages" (950)

I want Dickinson's confidence, though I can't help but think it hubris.

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "morning"

A few of my more fateful encounters have been with those obsessed with simplifying.

poetry

Matsuo Bashō, "Lady Butterfly"

Bashō witnesses a butterfly with resplendent, patterned wings hovering over an orchid.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "To fight aloud is very brave" (126)

Dickinson says "To fight aloud is very brave," and "brave" catches me unguarded. I don't think I've ever been "brave."

poetry

D. Nurkse, "Psalm to Be Read with Closed Eyes"

The apocalypse was easier before.

gi joe

I bought the Baroness G.I. Joe figure from WalMart

I suspect I am experiencing a midlife crisis.

poetry

Adam Zagajewski, “Auto Mirror”

Those who drive wherever they like, whenever they like—I've been jealous of them for so long.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "Our share of night to bear" (133)

...your literal self is on full display during a move.

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "But What Do You Know?"

Parts. That's what Houbolt begins with. "[M]aybe the problem is that God has been split up / into parts."

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Pinhole"

"Hope is a discipline," Mariame Kaba says.

poetry

Andrea Cohen, "Night"

Andrea Cohen's "Night" sketches the mystery of night so well that I find myself lost in it.

poetry

Kobayashi Issa, "Mosquito at my ear"

Issa laments one of the more miserable summer experiences. A literal bloodsucker, not content with biting and stealing, makes its presence felt loudly.

poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "Sonoma Fire"

The world is burning.

comics

On Becoming Spectral: Daniel Clowes' "Ghost World"

Clowes' work is rightfully a classic, but I do have this much to add: I've rarely seen anything as sensitive to the moral lives of teenagers, taking their concerns and claims seriously.

interview

Math & Poetry: A Conversation with Tom Snarsky

Tom Snarsky introduces himself laconically on his website: "a math teacher who writes poetry." But that can miss the hundred and one other ways he introduces himself.

poetry

Yehuda Amichai, "Forgetting Someone"

Yehuda Amichai takes an everyday error—leaving a light on too long—and finds it apt for describing one of our hardest pains, that of having to forget someone.

education

Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs, "How College Works" (2014)

Chambliss and Takacs' How College Works, published in 2014, initially seems an unlikely candidate for the term "quietly radical."

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "The difference between Despair / and Fear" (305)

The outstanding question of Dickinson's "The difference between Despair / and Fear" is why the difference has to be known.

interview

On Neoliberal Comforts and Theopolitical Problems: A Conversation with Asher Wycoff

You'll learn a lot listening to Asher Wycoff. I certainly have, and I learned that much more through this e-mail conversation.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Chop"

I've watched too many videos from those who follow waddling ducks.

education

Thoughts on the Job Search, 49 applications in

I'm feeling like a student again, but with a slightly better toolbox.