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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

On The Trail of a Tail - Part Three: Crossing The Border from Iran to Europe

On The Trail of a Tail - Part Three: Crossing The Border from Iran to Europe

[T]ranslation as the performance of centrality—in this case of a Christian centrality—that emerges from and serves to perpetuate real political power and that is therefore both demonstrably false and inherently harmful.
From Saadi’s Bustan

From Saadi’s Bustan

A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran
Of Note: March 29, 2026

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 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

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

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

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 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

On My Desk Now - February 2026: Ruth’s Story

paid-only post
The Power We Pretend Not To See - 3

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

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 by Four #51

Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me
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