Ashok Karra

american politics

The 1st Amendment, "the right to be an asshole," and trust

...Jonathan Katz talks about "the right to be an asshole."

poetry

Wisława Szymborska, "Puddles"

Szymborska's riddling moral in "Puddles" fascinates both as a matter of craft and as a puzzle about our paranoia

poetry

Kyla Houbolt, "The Yellow Submarine"

Kyla Houbolt's "The Yellow Submarine" presents us with yellow everywhere.

philosophy

Heidegger's "Unfaith"

...I want to look at some remarks of Heidegger which concern how faith relates to the question "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?"

poetry

Isabella Mori, "Not So Pretty Haiku"

Mori achieves an affecting memoir of what COVID wrought.

philosophy

Introducing Heidegger's "Fundamental Question of Metaphysics"

...I was not convinced in the least that "Why is there anything at all?" was a good question.

heidegger

On the Prefatory Note of Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics"

In my early twenties, I was assigned Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics for a class. I did not get very far.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, “A Letter is a joy of Earth” (1639)

Letters are not easy. I know this, but I write bad ones anyway.

art

Agnes Martin, "Praise"

It is a pink square with a texture like a paper napkin.

philosophy

On the Problem of "Missing Out"

We believe who we were could understand who we are.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "As willing lid o’er weary eye" (1050)

...the evening would not be the evening, nor the day the day, if we did not labor and require rest.

politics

Generational Conflict and the Question of Value

This moment feels more radical, as if the very possibility of change—I'm not even speaking of a specific change—were an affront to divinity.

poetry

Innocence and Experience: On Kay Ryan's "Crown"

The sacred as untouchable, inviolable, inaccessible makes sense to me.

Tucker Carlson's Departure

Tucker Carlson being out at Fox is a huge deal. If I could organize a symposium of academics to talk about it, I would.

american politics

Love thy neighbor

I finish writing a short piece on nihilism, and then I have to confront the news.

poetry

On Nihilism: Kay Ryan's "Nothing Ventured"

I confess confusion regarding the word "nihilism."

philosophy

An Ordinance of Reason

A number of events have me wondering about Aquinas' definition of law.

poetry

On Creation: Emily Dickinson, "I dwell in Possibility"

...genuine expressions of identity are nothing less than poetry.

poetry

"Eternity waits:" On Adam Zagajewski's "Gulls" (from "En Route")

"Eternity doesn't travel, / eternity waits." Zagajewski proposes a mystic truth. Before we can debate it, we have to believe it in some sense.

poetry

Adam Zagajewski, "Segesta" (from "En Route")

You only see when you see differently.

poetry

Not beyond pain: Emily Dickinson, "Presentiment — is that long Shadow — on the Lawn" (764)

There are days of disappointment.

poetry

Our Daily Bread: Paul Celan, "I hear the axe has flowered"

So many times I've been told pain is necessary for growth.

poetry

Comfort and the Soul: Vsevolod Nekrasov, "The Soul"

When I was in graduate school, two words were too much.

poetry

On the Meaning of Survival: Kay Ryan's "Turtle"

Really good art makes you really mad.

american politics

On Democratic Virtues: East Palestine, Ohio

...screaming bloody murder when you have urgent and serious reasons to question authority is a political virtue.