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Ashok Karra

Ashok Karra

115 posts published

http://ashokkarra.com https://twitter.com/akarra https://www.facebook.com/akarra
"Things Fall Apart," or Auden's Animals & Ryan Boyd's "Wolves"
poetry

"Things Fall Apart," or Auden's Animals & Ryan Boyd's "Wolves"

Ryan Boyd's poem "Wolves" elegantly testifies to our present madness.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 15, 2022 • 5 min read
Rae Armantrout, "Anti-Short Story"
poetry

Rae Armantrout, "Anti-Short Story"

In recent days, the problem of tone has asserted itself rather forcefully. Those subject to second-class citizenship meet a litany of demands about their tone.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 12, 2022 • 4 min read
Victoria Chang, "Watchers"
poetry

Victoria Chang, "Watchers"

Your truest thoughts, developed in the intimacy of your mind by means of dialogue with the world, deserve better than to be ripped from your possession.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 4, 2022 • 3 min read
A Conversation with Sam Thielman about Comics, Movies, Evangelical Culture, Charlie Brown & Fight Club
interview

A Conversation with Sam Thielman about Comics, Movies, Evangelical Culture, Charlie Brown & Fight Club

Sam Thielman is everywhere, you just don’t know it.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 1, 2022 • 12 min read
A Conversation with Alan Yan, host of "Poetry to the Brim"
interview

A Conversation with Alan Yan, host of "Poetry to the Brim"

Alan Yan hosts and produces Poetry to the Brim, a podcast where we explore the fullness of things through poetry.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 30, 2022 • 5 min read
Emily Dickinson, "If I can stop one heart from breaking" (919)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, "If I can stop one heart from breaking" (919)

Dickinson is practical, not obsessed with sounding practical.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 27, 2022 • 4 min read
Jane Hirshfield, "Everything Has Two Endings"
poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "Everything Has Two Endings"

Grief and pain are tied to a loss of communication. There's a numbness in knowing you can't be heard.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 21, 2022 • 4 min read
Matsuo Bashō, "Seek on high bare trails..."
poetry

Matsuo Bashō, "Seek on high bare trails..."

Can wisdom be summed up? Made into a brief but elegant legacy?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 15, 2022 • 3 min read
A Conversation with Kyla Houbolt about Poetry & Gardening
interview

A Conversation with Kyla Houbolt about Poetry & Gardening

Good poems do lots of things, but they never fail in expanding the imagination. Kyla Houbolt makes writing good lines look easy.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 11, 2022 • 6 min read
Wendell Berry, "Be Still in Haste"
poetry

Wendell Berry, "Be Still in Haste"

"Be Still in Haste"—strictly, an imperative, but as it regards "Haste," an invitation to meditation.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 5, 2022 • 3 min read
Jane Mead, "The Geese"
poetry

Jane Mead, "The Geese"

So much of my being is wrapped up in places I am comfortable. I'm not always clear on how to achieve those places.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 3, 2022 • 3 min read
A Conversation with Zoe Garden about Tumblr, College, and Creating Social Media
interview

A Conversation with Zoe Garden about Tumblr, College, and Creating Social Media

...some people are just awesome at being online, and Zoe Garden is one of them.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Apr 2, 2022 • 8 min read
Yosa Buson, "New Year's Day"
poetry

Yosa Buson, "New Year's Day"

When I first wrote on this poem, I thought it expressed how the newness of Spring, the promise of renewal, was nothing but a murky, wintery swamp...

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 29, 2022 • 3 min read
On Compliments
philosophy

On Compliments

...some of the most insidious, dogmatic ideologues are expert at presenting themselves as thoughtful, using the appearance of gentleness as a weapon.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 26, 2022 • 6 min read
Humberto Ak'abal, "If Birds"
poetry

Humberto Ak'abal, "If Birds"

Truth be told, in a world where noise-cancelling headphones are needed, the "mic drop" appears profoundly countercultural.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 24, 2022 • 4 min read
William Stafford, "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border"
poetry

William Stafford, "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border"

To hear there is not only the possibility, but the reality of a greater peace, that a place can be "hallowed by neglect and an air so tame"—I mean, I can't imagine how that isn't moving.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 23, 2022 • 4 min read
Kyla Houbolt, "Be That As it May"
poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "Be That As it May"

For me, "you are your own worst enemy" ties to a deeper process of self-knowing, so deep I thought the advice useless once upon a time.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 19, 2022 • 4 min read
Emily Dickinson, "A South Wind — has a pathos" (J 719)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, "A South Wind — has a pathos" (J 719)

When you create something entirely your own, something no one else attends to, you could forget who you were.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 7, 2022 • 4 min read
The Surprising Ways Students Relate to the Classics
education

The Surprising Ways Students Relate to the Classics

How does an intuitive notion about education, one with the power of clarity and simplicity, become a problem?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 5, 2022 • 3 min read
Franz Kafka, "The Top"
philosophy

Franz Kafka, "The Top"

It's not just a maniac philosopher who believes "the understanding of any detail... [is] sufficient for the understanding of all things."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Mar 3, 2022 • 5 min read
Arakida Moritake, "The fallen blossom"
poetry

Arakida Moritake, "The fallen blossom"

Since the result of growth matters so much, maybe growth should be treated as no less than a miracle.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 23, 2022 • 5 min read
Naomi Shihab Nye, "Come with Me"
poetry

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Come with Me"

I spent Valentine's Day thinking about Transformers branded Valentine's cards from grade school.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 19, 2022 • 4 min read
On the first two sentences of Farabi's "The Philosophy of Aristotle"
philosophy

On the first two sentences of Farabi's "The Philosophy of Aristotle"

Why read Farabi? This is just the opening of one of his works, and it is as thorough as one can get in terms of weighing ideas and their consequences.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 18, 2022 • 8 min read
On Reading Closely
philosophy

On Reading Closely

...what's really exciting about reading, what makes me addicted to good essays and difficult ideas, is formation.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 9, 2022 • 5 min read
Matsuo Bashō, "Winter solitude"
poetry

Matsuo Bashō, "Winter solitude"

I believe Bashō and Stevens have something to say about writers who are too comic.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 30, 2022 • 4 min read
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