We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
Image: Alan Levine
is a small sack I carry in my throat
Of gnawed rawhides & commitments,
Honeymoons & light switches,
Sleep I leave on the nightstand,
Another storm outside, the pathetic fallacy
& dog’s kennel full of pee,
The fridge running, a didgeridoo,
Dry hinges squawking like kookaburras
& paint crusting over in paint cans
At either side of blue hours,
& what collects on the windowsill,
Countless resignations of stone & fire
Ants carting off the sugar granule by granule
& catatonia, if I consider the landfill.
Eric Greenwell grew up on the Mississippi River. Recipient of Writing in the Wild and Centrum Writers’ Conference fellowships, he is the 2016 PEN/Magery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Resident. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Willow Springs, Kahini, Terrain.org, Lake Effect, and Adirondack Review among other magazines and journals.
Contributions from readers enable us to provide a public space, free and open, for the discussion of ideas. Join this effort – become a supporting reader today.
Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox. Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter, Monthly Roundup, and event notifications.
In his new book, philosopher William MacAskill implies that humanity’s long-term survival matters more than preventing short-term suffering and death. His arguments are shaky.
In her new book, Danish poet Olga Ravn writes with open love, pity, and compassion for her strange yet familiar creations.
Draconian individual punishment distracts from systemic change and reinforces the cruelest and most racist system of incarceration on the planet.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission