An illiterate, underbred book it seems to me; the book of a self taught working man, and we all know how distressing they are, how egotistic, insistent, raw, striking, and ultimately nauseating. When one can have the cooked flesh, why have the raw? But I think if you are anaemic…

The Catholic Church has been in the news. Maybe you’ve read a bit about the “Eucharistic Coherence” matter, and the group of United States bishops who have tried to muscle President Joseph Biden on his pro-choice views. These bishops think the president’s views on abortion should disqualify him from bellying…

(a poem from Black Irish) Marilyn the Tortoise, was bequeathed to my brothers and me in ’69 by our drug-dealing Cuban building superintendent who, running one step ahead of the local Anti- Crime Unit, was forced to leave his French Provincial mustard velveteen sectional sofa and the largest RCA model television money could buy. He packed…

(Elegaic Musings on A Drinking Life) — William Carlos Williams, from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” “We live with a callous on the heart” — Pete Hamill, Essay on Blood on the Tracks Pete Hamill died on my birthday. I was scrolling on twitter the day his death was announced when…