Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!
On Comforting Myths, Poetry, and Writing Back
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30 March 2025 Talking and Writing BackReader, April (National Poetry Month!) is upon us and now is a good time to engage our poetic and political voices, reading, talking, and writing poetry into public spaces, encouraging and listening to others do the same. Maybe writing poetry isn't your thing. That's cool. Write a short piece and we'll call it a prose poem. Check. Or maybe you think writing politically isn't where your passion lies. No worries. All writing is inherently political: it helps determine the agendas for what we will discuss, the ideas which merit our thought. Check again. But maybe you think that stepping into public is the most frightening idea imaginable. Gotcha. Small steps work. Start by becoming an audience for others doing it. Hunt down the poetry reading or open mic event and listen, and then respond. I won't judge your response, but offer something up that is an emotive, compassionate connection to the performer. We'll call this small step "ethical attentiveness," a term coined by educator Nel Noddings. Once sated, move on to your own writing. Post your work to a small group of friends on social media. After they respond, invite them to share it. Looking for some quieter other methods?
You're reading this because you read. I can't think of any other reason. But what are we doing with what we read?
Literary Nomads attacks Carpe DiemWhile I recently asked listeners of the podcast to engage others in real dialogue from our reading, to spread the important ideas, perhaps even as a counter-method to the short-brained provocations of media, it makes sense that I also make good on the strategy. The next few episodes involve me wrestling with Marvell's messages and not only talking about them, but writing back to/at/about him. This is a powerful strategy in reading and meaning-making, re-embedding our thinking into the written word, continuing the dialogue which may well have begun with Horace 2000 years ago (or far earlier if the subject is male predation). I'm not at all convinced that Marvell's "carpe diem" is the carpe diem than the Classical Age had in mind, so is this also an error that his speaker makes? Or do Marvell and speaker share the misunderstanding? More, I wonder how much I share that error. Whether it's a reflection, a poem, a counter-argument, or something in between, our wrestling with what we read in a concrete way (speaking, writing, exploring with others) is a critical strategy for holding our thinking accountable. Along the way, the past couple of episodes have touched upon Oscar Wilde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, and Ralph Ellison. Heading forward, I'm looking to longer examinations of Horace and even a fan version of Star Trek, all pursuing this path of understanding what has become of carpe diem.
Hope you've had a chance to catch up!
And don't forget that you can ask a question for the podcast to wrestle with, too!
Totalitarianism Across the Past 250 YearsApril begins my publishing of Arendt updates, and I'm likely to experiment with different approaches, though the summary notes approach is definitely happening! Watch for these on my social media! (@WaywordsStudio) And A Little Fictional AsideSome flash fiction. April is National Poetry Month in the US!Here are a few of the poets I'll be reading this month: Mohammed El-Kurd, Mosab Abu Toha, Jim Daniels, Rainer Maria Rilke, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and a book on haiku by Writing Down the Bones author Natalie Goldberg. Who are some of your favorites? Let me know! Some RecommendationsEarly Recommendation from My Reading: Comforting Myths (2024) by Rabih Alameddine“I'll ask this here, just pose the question: Does the public consider a work to be political when that work--that novel, poem, painting--asks the public to bear the burden of reality? " This too too brief work by Lebanese-American writer Alameddine argues that all art is inherently political as are our reading choices, echoing other artists before him (I'm thinking of Achebe, in particular) but through a contemporary lens and with a recalcitrant eye upon liberals who read lit from the marginalized and derive comfort from writers he calls the "Cute Others," those which do not threaten their position. (He counts himself largely amongst these safe ones.)
from "My Language is Tamazight"A poem by Ali Sadqi Azaykou in the ancient Berber language recently translated by El Habib Louai. “Some said it is a dream
& abandoned me.
They added:
“Beware! Nothing of what has been said
will ever be known.
Your language remembers a lot
& people refuse
to feel the same pain as you do.”
In what language will we choose to be heard? That's always the choice, isn't it? Steve What's Ahead?
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Waywords Studio
Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!