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Ashok Karra

Ashok Karra

357 posts published

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Kobayashi Issa, "Writing shit about new snow" (translation Robert Hass)
poetry

Kobayashi Issa, "Writing shit about new snow" (translation Robert Hass)

"Writing shit about new snow / for the rich / is not art" is a blunt instrument, clear about its stand and too short to be a rant.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 9, 2024 • 3 min read
On the Texas Constitution
american politics

On the Texas Constitution

I'd like to introduce you to this short video about the Texas Constitution.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Feb 3, 2024 • 4 min read
Marie Ponsot, "Bliss and Grief"
poetry

Marie Ponsot, "Bliss and Grief"

"No one / is here / right now." That's it. That's "Bliss and Grief," a short poem by Marie Ponsot.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 29, 2024 • 2 min read
Kay Ryan, "Bait Goat"
poetry

Kay Ryan, "Bait Goat"

...I can't help but feel the pull of the words "Bait Goat."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 28, 2024 • 4 min read
On Class in America, 1/27/2024
american politics

On Class in America, 1/27/2024

[I]f you change your speech–maybe use appropriate grammar, make polite and charming small talk–you can advance in society?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 27, 2024 • 5 min read
Philosophy and Advertising
philosophy

Philosophy and Advertising

If we do separate philosophy from religion cleanly, then is philosophy relegated to being a cult?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 22, 2024 • 3 min read
Kay Ryan, "Salvage"
poetry

Kay Ryan, "Salvage"

I am not in the mood for Kay Ryan's "Salvage."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 20, 2024 • 4 min read
Emily Dickinson, "A nearness to Tremendousness" (963)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, "A nearness to Tremendousness" (963)

What shattering, colossal lines: "A nearness to Tremendousness – / An Agony procures."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 16, 2024 • 3 min read
Joy Harjo, "Granddaughters"
poetry

Joy Harjo, "Granddaughters"

Harjo means in her lyric to build a grandmother/granddaughter whose experiences are inextricable from myth.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 11, 2024 • 4 min read
On Moral Idealism
education

On Moral Idealism

I do not tell people what to think, but some lines of thought are better than others.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 9, 2024 • 3 min read
Kathyrn Cowles, "Keeping Track"
poetry

Kathyrn Cowles, "Keeping Track"

There are times you're paying so much attention to detail you miss the obvious.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 5, 2024 • 3 min read
Kate Colby, "How far I've come"
poetry

Kate Colby, "How far I've come"

These lines riddle with a Janus-like structure.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 4, 2024 • 3 min read
Emily Dickinson, "There's a certain Slant of light" (258)
poetry

Emily Dickinson, "There's a certain Slant of light" (258)

I want to begin 2024 by talking about Dickinson's "There's a certain Slant of light."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Jan 2, 2024 • 5 min read
Goodbye to 2023
america

Goodbye to 2023

2023 closes with endless war, ongoing genocide, COVID resurgent, and the prospect that liberal democracy in the U.S. will be gone by 2024's end.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 31, 2023 • 3 min read
Kevin Young, "Colostrum"
poetry

Kevin Young, "Colostrum"

I'll start with Young's electric first sentence, "We are not born / with tears."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 27, 2023 • 2 min read
Li-Young Lee, "One Heart"
poetry

Li-Young Lee, "One Heart"

Li-Young Lee's "One Heart" commands us to "[l]ook at the birds."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 21, 2023 • 3 min read
On Taking Notes
education

On Taking Notes

I don't want to own up to how little organization I have. I don't want to think about all the good stuff I've lost.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 20, 2023 • 3 min read
Heidegger: "Philosophizing... is extra-ordinary questioning about the extra-ordinary."
philosophy

Heidegger: "Philosophizing... is extra-ordinary questioning about the extra-ordinary."

Heidegger's talk of philosophy's engagement with the "extra-ordinary" is not mere provocation.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 19, 2023 • 5 min read
Jane Kenyon, "Otherwise"
poetry

Jane Kenyon, "Otherwise"

In "Otherwise," Jane Kenyon deals with the unimaginable with every step.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 17, 2023 • 3 min read
Adam Zagajewski, "Moths"
poetry

Adam Zagajewski, "Moths"

The poem excels at creating unease in a situation which typically denies it even exists.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 16, 2023 • 3 min read
Federalist 51 as of December 15, 2023
politics

Federalist 51 as of December 15, 2023

I'm thinking aloud how to introduce my students to Federalist 51 and the famous idea that we can run a government if ambition can counter ambition.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 15, 2023 • 4 min read
Heidegger: "whoever engages in philosophy must know a few things"
philosophy

Heidegger: "whoever engages in philosophy must know a few things"

Heidegger links philosophy and history: "philosophy either projects far beyond its own time or else binds its time back to this time's earlier and inceptive past."

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 13, 2023 • 4 min read
Gabrielle Calvocoressi, "At Last the New Arriving"
poetry

Gabrielle Calvocoressi, "At Last the New Arriving"

So much joy in Gabrielle Calvocoressi's "At Last the New Arriving." So much joy you might miss the struggle.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 12, 2023 • 4 min read
Martin Espada, "The Florida Citrus Growers Association Responds to a  Proposed Law Requiring Handwashing Facilities in the Fields"
poetry

Martin Espada, "The Florida Citrus Growers Association Responds to a Proposed Law Requiring Handwashing Facilities in the Fields"

I have been thinking lately about how we survive and thrive in our own little dreamworlds.

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 6, 2023 • 3 min read
Kyla Houbolt, "Mirror"
poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "Mirror"

What if a life well-lived was nothing but running as fast as you can, whenever you could?

  • Ashok Karra
Ashok Karra Dec 3, 2023 • 3 min read
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