Jim Culleny

1 week ago | 3quarksdaily.com | Jim Culleny

The First Words(from the Romanian of Marin Sorescu)The first words got polluted Like river water in the morning Flowing with the dirt Of blurbs and the front pages. My only drink is meaning from the deep brain, What the birds and the grass and the stones drink. Let everything flow Up to the four elements, Up to water and earth and fire and air. by Seamus Heaney from The Spirit Level Farrar Straus Giroux, NY, 1996Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.

1 week ago | 3quarksdaily.com | Jim Culleny

Diasporican RechristeningWe work. We are sometimes on time. We are sometimes late. We are sometimes coming up with the excuses for why we can't make it even as we know we have to. Some of us are trying to be American and some of us are trying to be boricua and some of us are trying. We are relearning Spanish or we are practicing Spanglish or we are remembering that language is just another tool of empire. We are dreaming of the archipelago and we are not.

1 week ago | 3quarksdaily.com | Jim Culleny

A Simple Ontology maybe flower petals are held to stems by thought and the wind's a counter-thought that plucks and sets them elsewhere in the grass to grow in contemplative resolution beside my notion of a grub-pulling crow maybe the wind itself is a palpable bright idea, something about motion and the abhorrence of vacuums, something about coming and going, about ferocity and stillness, about war and its absence maybe the moon's the concept of fullness, loss, abatement, regeneration from...

1 week ago | 3quarksdaily.com | Jim Culleny

Only Ayesha (God be pleased with her)Wrapped in silken, the angel brought her; only Ayesha, The Apostle saw her for three nights in a dream, only Ayesha. He sees her lips placing morsels, and says, 'Only Ayesha'; following the bowl's edges, she slurped, only Ayesha. The lovers do not stop reiterating, testing the language's deal: 'How is the love knot? Stronger than ever, but only Ayesha.

2 weeks ago | 3quarksdaily.com | Jim Culleny

Here's the economic theory for us ordinary folk," a dad said to daughter about the way of the world before Tariffs got in the way. How Things WorkToday it's going to cost us $20 To live. Five for softball. Four for a book, A handful of ones for coffee and two sweet rolls, Bus fare, Rosin for your mother's violin. We're completing our task.