From Saadi’s Bustan
A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran
Poet • Essayist • Educator • Consultant
Take refuge on this path
the page gives you to roam.
Hunker down against
the shadow cast by prayer
and build yourself a line
that won’t efface itself.
Language is not wine.
You cannot pour it freely.
It All Connects
Of Note: March 29, 2026
Dear Friends,
Here is the latest round of links to pieces dealing with the US-Israel war against Iran and related
Four by Four #53
Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me
On My Desk Now: Translating Korean Poetry
I’ve had an interest in translating poetry for as long as I can remember. As an undergraduate, I was
The Power We Pretend Not To See - 4
None of the responses I found asked why the chasteness Donne’s speaker craves should require an act of sexual violence in the first place, much less one that is generally understood in the real world to be something men perpetrate almost exclusively against women.
On The Trail of a Tale - Part Two: The Sources of Franklin’s Parable in 17th Century Christian Arguments for Religious Tolerance
For Saadi, in other words, the Zoroastrian’s sincere commitment to his faith was worthy of respect on its own terms and was therefore more valuable as a guide for human behavior than the orthodoxy he would have been merely performing had he given thanks to God as Abraham had expected him to.
Four by Four #52
Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me
On My Desk Now - February 2026: Ruth’s Story
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The Power We Pretend Not To See - 3
“If you take those narratives at face value, though, those violations seem less like actual assaults, literal or metaphorical, than a necessary condition for spiritual growth to take place.”
On The Trail of A Tale - Part One: Benjamin Franklin's Persian Parable
Had Franklin gotten his wish...and the Parable had remained unpublished, neither its origin in the work of the 13th-century Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz nor the story I am telling you would have become known, at least not in the way we know them now.
Four by Four #51
Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me
On My Desk Now - January 2026: Either Way, You Choose A Side
“That kind of paralysis is perfectly understandable in a rank and file, whether we’re talking about union members or people on the street. It seems inexcusable to me, however, in those who have been charged with leading the opposition...”