Category Archives: Writing

Eventide

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Mary Ruefle erasure of Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Carl Jung once wrote: “Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths … Continue reading →

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Fairy tales are about trouble

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Fairy tales are about trouble, about getting into it and out of it, and trouble seems to be a necessary stage on the route of becoming. All the magic and glass mountains and pearls the size of houses and princesses … Continue reading →

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Civil Disobedience

Posted on July 4, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth–certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it … Continue reading →

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Hope is a thing with feathers

Posted on June 29, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

“Hope” is the thing with feathers — That perches in the soul — And sings the tune without the words — And never stops — at all — And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard — And sore … Continue reading →

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Be a planet, not a meteor.

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Advice to A Young Writer1. If possible, be Russian. And live in another country. Play chess. Be an active trader between languages. Carry precious metals from one to the other. Remind us of Stravinsky. Know the names of plants and … Continue reading →

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from this green earth

Posted on June 8, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

 

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*Meditations in an Emergency*

Posted on May 8, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A poem by Frank O’Hara. It’s the first poem in *Meditations in an Emergency*, 1957: To the Harbormaster I wanted to be sure to reach you; though my ship was on the way it got caught in some moorings. I … Continue reading →

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A rare literary find and more stuff you need to see

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A papyrus of part of the Iliad has been discovered in a Roman-era tomb of mummies in Egypt. “The papyrus contains a passage from Book II of Homer’s Iliad, specifically the section known as the ‘Catalogue of Ships’…” from the … Continue reading →

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Islands in your pocket

Posted on April 24, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

In the late 15th and mid-16th centuries, publishers in Venice produced a genre of small books called isolarii . The original publications can be thought of as an encyclopedia of islands containing maps along with text descriptions of significant history, … Continue reading →

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Print vs Ebooks

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A new paper released last week by the Pew Research Center found that print books continue to be American adults’ preferred reading format, though digital formats continue to make inroads. According to a survey of 8,046 U.S. adults conducted last year from … Continue reading →

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