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Ashok Karra

Ashok Karra

357 posts published

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

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

The apocalypse was easier before.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 31, 2022 • 3 min read
I bought the Baroness G.I. Joe figure from WalMart
gi joe

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

I suspect I am experiencing a midlife crisis.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 29, 2022 • 4 min read
Adam Zagajewski, “Auto Mirror”
poetry

Adam Zagajewski, “Auto Mirror”

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

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 28, 2022 • 3 min read
Emily Dickinson, "Our share of night to bear" (133)
poetry

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

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

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 22, 2022 • 4 min read
Kyla Houbolt, "But What Do You Know?"
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."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 6, 2022 • 6 min read
Kay Ryan, "Pinhole"
poetry

Kay Ryan, "Pinhole"

"Hope is a discipline," Mariame Kaba says.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jul 1, 2022 • 4 min read
Andrea Cohen, "Night"
poetry

Andrea Cohen, "Night"

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

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 26, 2022 • 6 min read
Kobayashi Issa, "Mosquito at my ear"
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 15, 2022 • 3 min read
Jane Hirshfield, "Sonoma Fire"
poetry

Jane Hirshfield, "Sonoma Fire"

The world is burning.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 9, 2022 • 4 min read
On Becoming Spectral: Daniel Clowes' "Ghost World"
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 4, 2022 • 8 min read
Math & Poetry: A Conversation with Tom Snarsky
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 3, 2022 • 8 min read
Yehuda Amichai, "Forgetting Someone"
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jun 2, 2022 • 4 min read
Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs, "How College Works" (2014)
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."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 30, 2022 • 11 min read
Emily Dickinson, "The difference between Despair / and Fear" (305)
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 28, 2022 • 5 min read
On Neoliberal Comforts and Theopolitical Problems: A Conversation with Asher Wycoff
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.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 25, 2022 • 12 min read
Kay Ryan, "Chop"
poetry

Kay Ryan, "Chop"

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

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 23, 2022 • 5 min read
Thoughts on the Job Search, 49 applications in
education

Thoughts on the Job Search, 49 applications in

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

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra May 21, 2022 • 5 min read
"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
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