During my 7th summer, my grandmother Augusta died. This brought the reality of death to me for the first time. That was also the summer rats got in under our back porch, an infestation that drove Mom about crazy with fear and loathing. All that somehow came together to inspire me to imagine my own […]
The Mere Miracle of Existence Read More »
Praised by such different souls as Ernest Hemingway, Donald Barthelme, Simone de Beauvoir and Kurt Vonnegut, Nelson Algren remains at best a rumor in his own time. They misspelled his name on his tombstone, and when the City of Chicago renamed a street in his honor, the residents complained so bitterly about the change that
Notes From a Sea Diary: Nelson Algren All the Way Read More »
The murder of meaning is a crime Nelson Algren spent his life trying to get people interested in, and it scarcely ended with his death in 1982. Shortly after that year, in fact, one of the greatest admissions of that crime began appearing on t-shirts nationwide. They said, “The one who dies with the most
Nelson Algren and the Murder of Meaning Read More »
My mother read to me from the time I could turn over from my back to my belly. Soon as I could walk, she began taking me to the little library on Central Street, and soon enough I’d run through all the wonderful books for kids the librarians knew of and could afford to buy.
Thorne Smith and My Mother’s Quarter Read More »
for Gwynne Stolle in loving memory In her garden, as in mine, the earth is let be earth, and flowers grow where flowers will, not where she wills them to. In her garden, as in mine, light falls through the green it’s made, softened, dappling everything below it, even me and the dogs. In her
People remember Charlie Parker Rode into Minton’s on a horse Dressed in overhauls Lip drooping a piece of straw. People remember Charlie Parker Hocking his alto for a fix Living just anywhere Raving out of control down a rainy street. People remember Charlie Parker Worked with the higher extensions Of the chords, worked with strange