Reading as a Way of Life
J.S. Porter
For James McDonald at The Printed Word To care about words, to have a stake in what is…
On the 16 Occasions When I’ve felt like a Real Writer
Books, even when you have them, don’t make you a writer—the writing, the whatever you do to finish…
An American Gift to the World: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Always, after he was in bed, there were voices—indefinite, fading, enchanting—just outside his window… This Side of Paradise…
Andreescu and Atwood: Tennis and Literature
By J.S. Porter In September 2019, Margaret Atwood was on the cover of Time Magazine and Bianca Andreessen…
On Reading The Perfect Archive by Paul Lisson
For David & Marcia Cohen “Paul Lisson sits in the Bauhaus Cafe, gulping black tar-thick coffee, smoking cigarettes,…
Devouring the Dead
Marshall Soules is a photographer who jolts, challenges, sparks me. I feel creative when I’m around his creativity.…
Greatness: Dramatic and Quiet
by J.S. Porter Sometimes greatness is dramatic and forceful. I remember taking my son when he was very…
From Global Village to Global Membrane: A Review of B.W. Powe’s the Charge in the Global Membrane, with Street Art Photos by Marshall Soules
(Above) C215 Annotated, Barcelona 2016, Photograph by Marshall Soules The new electric environment is a collective poem. –Marshall…
Why I Can’t Stop Reading The New York Times
I have a digital subscription to The New York Times. The print edition of the Sunday Times alone…
Shawna Lemay’s Asking
Which of us…has not dreamed of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical, without rhyme…supple…rugged…? –Baudelaire for Maureen…
One-Hit Wonders
I don’t think Eminem necessarily intended to give advice to poets, artists, songwriters, and filmmakers, but his “One…
Roma
For Cheryl The photograph below is what drew me to the film. A woman surrounded and embraced by…
Poetry and Love in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new…
There’s Someone You Need to Meet
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) By J.S. Porter “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that…
Dancing with Thomas Merton
(Photo: Thomas Merton) for David Wagg By J.S. Porter I carry two lines of poetry in my head…
First Reformed: An Unconventional Review of an Unconventional Movie
for Susan McCaslin and Mark Haddock By J.S. Porter Director and screenwriter Paul Schrader has made a film…
How to Read Harper’s Magazine May 2018 with the Retractable Tongue of a Snake
a prose poem for John Robert Colombo Read the way the snake moves, how it smells with its…
Books for the Planet
for Kaizen, Marshall, and Blake Every now and then something drops into your life and changes it, ever so…
Titles (In Articles, Books, Movies, Stories, Songs etc.)
I CARE. Y DON’T U? That’s a better title than plain old “Titles,” isn’t it? I have your…
Black Panther
for Daniel J. Porter, M.Eng and Jesse R. Guscott, MD Africa. Birthplace of us all. Ancestral home of…
Tribute to a Friend – Wayne Allan (1941-2018)
“There are people one meets in books or in life whom one does not merely observe, meet or…
Hemingway’s Finca Vigía – The Lookout House
– By J.S. Porter; Photographs by Cheryl Porter For Daniel and Rachel Fourteen miles east of Havana is…
On The Shape of Water
A scene from ‘The Shape of Water’ – filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario (HO-Fox Searchlight) By J.S.…
I Love New York
for Rachel By J.S. Porter I love New York. I love it because it’s a Big Minestrone Soup,…
Our Lady of the Veils
– By J.S. Porter A superhero has a particular skill— impervious to bullets, good with webs, etc.— a…
Emily Dickinson at War
– By J.S. Porter Gun fire When you read Emily Dickinson you enter…
Glenn Gould as a model of how to get your work done
…the fabulous terror of not knowing before/one begins. Again. Kate Braid, “The Goldberg Variations (1981)” in A Well-Mannered…
I Must be Saved: Listening to Madeleine Peyroux
Listening to Madeleine Peyroux’s “I must be saved” from Bare Bones for Rev. John Porter (1919-2003) my sun,…
A Sister Says Goodbye to a Brother
for Kate Van Viegen – By J.S. Porter When Anne Carson lost her brother, she wrote a book…
The History of Poetry
for Rachel – By J.S. Porter I like my poetry pure and simple. Bug a boo,…
Nancy Duffy
