Ashok Karra

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.

poetry

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

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

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.

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.

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.

poetry

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

Dickinson is practical, not obsessed with sounding practical.

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.

poetry

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

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

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.

poetry

Wendell Berry, "Be Still in Haste"

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

poetry

Humberto Ak'abal, "If Birds"

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

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.