Yo Ivanhoe

I began by telling him how dissatisfied I was with the idea that life must be a lesser thing than we were capable of imagining it to be. I had the feeling that the same thing happened to nearly everybody I knew and whom I did not know. No sooner was their youth, with the … Read more

A bad night lies ahead And a new day beyond that– A simple sequence, but hard To remember in the right order. —Mark Jarman, “Psalm: The New Day” Twice I woke up tonight and wandered to the window. And the lights down on the street, like pale omission points, tried to complete the fragment of … Read more

No man should ever find himself in the fish-belly gray light of dawn sitting hunched on the floor with a pen paralyzed in his fingers listening to Jimmy Scott. No man should ever eat plain white rice and corn chips for breakfast. No man should ever sit at four a.m., raking the soiled carpet with … Read more

—Abel Pann You know how your heart moves, how it lurches and staggers and sways like a beaten bell in your chest. You know how it sounds: That sound. Those noises. That familiar music. The rattle of a cold slate shingle banging up against your ribs. The squeak of its eraser at work somewhere just … Read more

…what is it we are all doing, what is it we are about, pray tell? And why are we gathered here? —Raymond Carver, “All My Relations” I’m on my way with dust in my shoes, free of mythology: Send books back to their shelves, I’m going down into the streets. I learned about life from … Read more

—Abel Pann He would have been seventy-two years old this week. By the time he was my age he had four children and a literally broken heart. He did what he could. He taught wonder. I still sense him coiled like a discus hurler behind every one of my best intentions. His blood is the … Read more

I was born a clown, and in retrospect my parents were incredibly good sports about what must surely have been on a number of levels a shock and a disappointment. They’d been trying for years to have a child, and they accepted me immediately as a blessing and loved me unconditionally for what I was. … Read more

It’s no secret that people of great achievement are often abject curiosities and spectacular failures as human beings, and this was certainly true of Tchaikovsky, who lived in my hometown when I was growing up. I can’t truly claim that it was my privilege to know the man, or even that to know him would … Read more

I’m opening the phone lines for suggestions, but I’ll start off with a sample from one of rock’s most literate songwriters, and a perennial candidate for any list of great underrated musicians. This one always comes in handy for any unhappy relationship or untenable work situation: I’m giving you my notice, and it works this … Read more