Mar 17, 2018 | Current Ned Note, Past Notes, Poetry
by Larry Levis Whenever I listen to Billie Holiday, I am reminded That I, too, was once banished from New York City. Not because of drugs or because I was interesting enough For any wan, overworked patrolman to worry about— His expression usually a great, gauzy...
Mar 15, 2018 | Bookstores, Current Ned Note, Past Notes
Borderlands Books is a fantastic otherworldly experience in the heart of San Francisco. A specialty store that focuses on science-fiction, fantasy and horror novels, this is a bookstore for a true connoisseur of speculative fiction. I’m not sure if I qualify...
Mar 12, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing
re-published on Arts Advocacy Day – March 12-13, 2018 I read on Brainpickings recently that Mark Rothko, the marvelous abstract expressionist painter, said that when people “weep” when seeing his paintings they are having the same transcendent experience he had...
Mar 10, 2018 | Current Ned Note, Past Notes, Poetry
by Kevin Craft Wind kicks a few cups down the alley. Pocketful of stones, a greasy lot. Morning chill in fleeting sunlight. You’d rather stay under this blanket agreement. Not any storm can house you off the cuff. The troposphere brushes your cold turned cheek. Wake...
Mar 8, 2018 | Bookstores, Current Ned Note, Past Notes
Find my books at Elliott Bay Book Company I fell in love with the Elliott Bay Book Company at first sight. I was in college, and I was visiting on a “Literature and the Arts” group trip. The classic old-Seattle brick building, the funky Pioneer Square...
Mar 5, 2018 | Current Ned Note, Past Notes, Poetry
Black History Month: February Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be...