“In a lonely cabin on the frontier, I, Clinton Rollins, attempting no literary style, pass the time by penning my memories. And as an old man my thoughts wander back: The things that happened fifty years ago… Spanish-Americans I have known — whom I have grown to like… And that warm, sweet, green odor of … More With Walker in Nicaragua

A Macedonio Fernández En busca de la tarde fui apurando en vano las calles. Ya estaban los zaguanes entorpecidos de sombra. Con fino bruñimiento de caoba la tarde entera se había remansado en la plaza, serena y sazonada, bienhechora y sutil como una lámpara, clara como una frente, grave como un ademán de hombre enlutado. … More La Plaza San Martín

Nick Cave’s entire lecture The Secret Life of the Love Song is available on line in full text. Everyone should read it, as it is a classic. Normally I would post some actual music of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with this announcement, but I only like Nick Cave as a spoken word artist. … More Secret Life of the Love Song

I have very elaborate dreams and I had one of my most academically successful ones the morning of my first Ph.D. exam. It was in the adventure quest genre. At the very end I was able to snatch the golden key from the beak of the eagle. I woke up knowing I would write a … More Academic Dreams

Paul Dresman’s The Silver Dazzle of the Sun is a brilliant book of very well distilled poetry, with Southern California as one of its major backdrops. Today we have what we call “California weather,” meaning 75 dry degrees in a cloudless sky with high, bright white light. On a winter day back home the sun … More Silver Dazzle

I saw the poet Christian Bök read the other night and I have not yet digested the event. He appears to be a very nice person and this is not negligible. The work, although interesting, seemed clever but cold. Some of the things I appreciated were his interest in French avant-garde writers, which I share, … More Sound Poems, Digital Speech

El suertero que grita “La de a mil”, contiene no sé qué fondo de Dios. Pasan todos los labios. El hastío despunta en una arruga su yanó. Pasa el suertero que atesora, acaso nominal, como Dios, entre panes tantálicos, humana impotencia de amor. Yo le miro al andrajo, y él pudiera darnos el corazón; pero … More La de a mil

Today we were discussing images of the body in García Lorca. We stared in astonishment for several minutes at the Romance del emplazado or ballad of a man who has been given the precise date of his death. I believe this poem has been translated by Langston Hughes, but I found it translated by a … More Romance del emplazado

I. It is said that my great-great-grandfather had a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne and corresponded with Marx, and that this correspondence is archived in the Kremlin. That was long ago, before his school in St. Petersburg was closed by the Czar, and the family was saved from deportation to Siberia by a friend of my … More A Middle Class Story

“El secreto del arte es tener duende. El duende es el espíritu escondido de la España sin consuelo. Todo lo que tiene sonidos negros tiene duende. Estos sonidos son el misterio…” The secret of [this] art is to have duende. Duende is the hidden spirit of the inconsolable [part of] Spain. All that has black … More La señorita del abanico