A Revolutionary Religion

Christianity arose in a period when there were a lot of religions around, and its early liturgies were, of course, influenced by them. But it is harder to understand just how revolutionary Christianity was in that context.

Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953)

Much has been written about this great English contralto, so it’s probably OK that this appreciative American write something about her, but here, where she is not as well known, more than seventy years after her death.

Richard Long (born 1945)

I came upon his sculptural work almost by chance in the mid-1980s. The weird thing about modern art is that, after it got separated from draftsmanship, it got a lot easier to be a fool for doing it, so being an artist took a lot of bravery. It allowed your idiocy to be seen plain and up front.

Why I Like Ella Fitzgerald

When my partner, Eric, and I first met in the early nineties, a great appreciation for the music of Ella Fitzgerald was one of the things that united us.  

Recent Poetry, May 2025

No Christ

Suppose Christ left no benediction,
That he was nothing but a fiction,
Mythic and adjudicated,
And all about him fabricated.

A Side-Dish and Not the Main Course: How It Happened That I’m So Weird

I think I was in the third grade when I finally understood myself to be fat. They’d been calling me “fatso” for a while at that point, which was just confusing to me. But then one day, at school, I caught sight of the reflection of a fat boy in a window, and it was me. The mystery was solved. I took on the fat identity then and there.  

The Orthodox Church and Homosexuality: My Last Word on the Subject

In May, I published an essay that was said to be my last post on homosexuality and the Orthodox Church. I seem to have lied. This essay will be the last one. I have already published an essay on sex in general.  It’s called “A Pebble in My Shoe.” It’s probably a good idea to look that one up and read it before this one.

Recent Poetry: February 2025

Chantal Ackerman (1950-2015)

Why is your movie
“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” which runs to more than three hours,
not boring?

In it we see the life of an ordinary woman.
She cooks and cleans. She teaches her son French
(He wants to go to a French-speaking school,
But knows only Flemish). And she turns tricks as a prostitute in their apartment when the son is away.

Only when her carefully observed life goes very slightly off the rails on day 3, does she murder one of her johns.

Why is your movie,
“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” which runs to more than 3 hours,
Not boring?

The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts

 I took these precepts formally in 2018, receiving the dharma name Shin Chi, which I am told can mean “deep wisdom.” In the Zen school in which I practice, one is asked to say something very personal about each one. The boldface below represents what I said about them. The lightface represents what was originally written by Boundless Way Zen. I also took the precepts in the Korean school in which I used to practice (this was in the early nineties) and the name I was given then was Il Shim, which I am told can mean “one mind.”

The Cross

I wear a cross on a silver chain around my neck. It’s only less than 1x1 inches. It’s silver. It doesn’t say “Save and Preserve” on the back, as Orthodox crosses often do. The one I had before said that. It was pewter, and being that, it wore almost completely away. It says on the front the abbreviation for “The King of Glory,”  and the one for “Jesus Christ conquers.” That last word, NIKA, (“conquers” in Greek) is not an abbreviation though. 

Recent Poetry, January 2025

Mike Leigh (1943-    )
You taught us that
By not turning away
There is much to be learned.
And what a rare thing it is
Not to turn away.
In all of your films,
On our behalf,
You never turned away.
We learned so much.