Literature and Poetry

Rose Madeline Mula writes: I must admit, though, that whenever I pass the bedroom door to go into the bathroom or to access my laundry, my spirits (and any drive I may have had) plummet when a glance reveals that crumpled bed. And I can’t erase that vision for the rest of the day. It remains emblazoned on my brain when I sit at my computer and try to finish that essay I started a week ago (the last time I made my bed) or go into the kitchen to cook dinner (which I hadn’t done since that day last week when I last made my bed).       more »

A new book about John Singer Sargent and the women he painted: "Like characters in an Edith Wharton novel, these women challenged society’s restrictions, risking public shame and ostracism. All had forbidden love affairs; Lucia bravely supported her family despite illness, while Elsie explored Spiritualism, defying her overbearing father. Finally, the headstrong Isabella outmaneuvered the richest plutocrats on the planet to create her own magnificent art museum." more »

Internet Scout's Research Group's weekly marvelous discoveries: In February 1623, a group of Dutch officials accused a team of English merchants and Japanese mercenaries of conspiring to capture a castle on Amboyna, a small island in what is now part of Indonesia. The island was central to the booming spice trade, which had fueled an increasingly acrimonious rivalry between the British and the Dutch. "Folk art is a reflection of society as seen through the eyes of artists whose perceptions are sometimes traditional and conventional - sometimes unruly, and even wild." So writes the Canadian Museum of History, host of a online exhibit that highlights Quebec folk art from the eighteenth century through today. Michael Twitty explains how enslaved African-Americans created contemporary American southern cuisine. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Take for instance, the preoccupation with the names of things, that was so essential to my father, and that I've retained, yet can't recall whether I ever consciously tried to pass on. Even my dearest companion was somewhat afflicted with this (I hope minor) obsession. And why does it loom now so large as a matter of consequence to my bumbling consciousness? Even wrote about it for SWW (Renewing Respect for Language: The Subjunctive Is a Governor of the Consciousness That Uses It). Did I fail in a relatively simple matter of pointing out things to our children? Do any of them care half as much as we did?   more »