September 1, 2016
Lab Notebook: Identifying Unknowns
Lab 1 Somehow I’ve overlooked the procedure’s first step. Will you be heat-fixing a slide today? I’ve prepared for this microbiology quiz by transcribing a full page of notes. Still, […]
September 1, 2016
The Animal Cell or, on the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body
What’s the difference between a body we love and the trappings that make it?—Keetje Kuiper’s The Animal Cell Gray’s Anatomy begins with the microscopic sine qua non of our existence, […]
September 1, 2016
On Not Eating the Marshmallow
If I were a preacher—if I had a sermon—if I were a protester, a radical in the totalitarian regime of the self—if I were fearless enough to be jailed—or fearless […]
September 1, 2016
The Search
1 My hospital—in fact, my entire university—has a new research mission: precision medicine. The other term for this is personalized medicine. Regardless of terminology, the goal is clear. Using advances […]
July 1, 2016
The Pleasures of Poise
When we think of the pleasures of poetry, we rarely turn our thoughts to poise. But poise in the hands of Cavalier poets or Pope was a major virtue. We […]
July 1, 2016
The Afterlife
A salmon’s second journey begins with its “collection.” At the Cole M. Rivers Hatchery north of Medford, Oregon, the crowder is drawn through the holding pond once a week, May […]
May 1, 2016
Tears, Silence, Song
There are three aspects of mourning: with tears, that is the lowest; with silence, that is higher; with a song, that is the highest. —Hasidic saying September 11, 2001 What […]
March 1, 2016
Grammar for an Unwritten Language (Cape Verde, West Africa)
Indicative Ellipses of sweat darkened the armpits of Madalena’s fuchsia dress. She paused, erasing a c with the side of her hand, replacing it with a k. Cape Verdean Creole […]
January 1, 2016
Sparrow Needy
I had a brother, and that says it all. — From a conversation overheard on a New York City bus When I was growing up in Harlem, there was a […]
January 1, 2016
Snow
So often these days I find myself thinking about things. Nothing lofty: just things—objects, stuff. Things I have, things I had, things that once belonged to other people which are […]
January 1, 2016
Who Know in Singing Not to Sing: Poetry and Decorum in the Fallen World
Once upon a time, it was common to talk about decorum in art. These days, not so much. Neither the literary nor the social applications of the term sit well […]
November 1, 2015
“Trapped in My Rib-Cage Something Throes and Aches!”: Berryman at 100
1 “At twenty-five a man is on his way,” John Berryman writes in an early poem, “A Point of Age.” True enough—but on his way to what, exactly? Success, or […]