NOT JUST LISTEN, BUT HEAR

by Jonel AbellanosaCartoon by Eoin KelleherYou heart is telling youBillions of people need this planet, tooCountless animal and plant livesLive on this planet, tooYour brain is telling youThe desire to join an I.Q. contestExpired 60 years agoYour pancreas...

AT THE CROSSROADS

by James CroninThe Seven Acts of Mercy by CaravaggioThe first time I saw "The Seven Acts of Mercy" . . .  I knew I wanted to write a play about it: its generosity, its complications, its aggressive, violent compassion. �Anders Lustgarden in his...

PERVERSE URGES

by Richard SchiffmanLast week on the floor of the U.S. Senatethe Right Reverend Senator Bugger Muggercalled me and my green-bellied ilk               �tree huggers�Has that cracker ever got my number!He said,...

ABBOTTS LAGOON, PT. REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE

by Buff Whitman-BradleyWe lean our backs againstA bleached driftwood logWhile we eat our simple lunchAnd watch the PacificApproach and fall backApproach and fall backLike a shy teenagerTrying to work up the courageTo ask for a dance.After our mealWe...

REMEMBERING NICOLAI

by Bob StanleyStock vintage photo.I didn�t forget about the old photo of Nicolai,or what grandpa said about him,that tears came easily to his eyes,and that his oils of snow-capped mountains,with rivers running behind blue pine trees sold well.Grandpa...

I AM PUERTO RICO

by Kathleen A. Lawrence Click to donate!I am not an island?surrounded by big water?but shimmering shores?lapped by the tears of my peopleI am not a dirty barriobut a street strung?with a clothesline filledwith aprons and smocksI am not mud caked?but...

THINKING ABOUT MARILOU

by Elizabeth McMunn-TetangcoOf allpeople Ishould be moresympathetic, shouldbe kinder toThe Woman Who LovedWrong�afterall, I havebeen her,sitting nextto a dark windowon the plane,with the shadowof the planelost in the oceanwith the personI lovedlostto...

THE PAIN IN SPAIN

by Jerome BettsBARCELONA � The leader of Catalonia said Wednesday night that he wanted a negotiated settlement to the region�s conflict with the Spanish government, but he did not offer to shelve his secessionist plan. �The New York Times, October 4,...