poetry
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On vengeance and Ahmed Saadawi’s ‘Frankenstein in Baghdad.’
We all share blame for the ills perpetrated in our names, but some among us are made to suffer outsize portions of the costs.
Ahmed Saadawi, Albany, Arabic fiction, cocaine, cooperation, Correction, Correction (pt. ii), Correction part 2, corrections, evolution of cooperation, evolution of eusociality, forgiveness, forgiving, Frankenstein, Frankenstein in Baghdad, incarceration, injustice, Iraq, jail, jail poetry, Jonathan Wright, justice, Lori Milks, mass incarceration, most provable murder case I have ever seen, murder, murder victims, neurology, neuroscience, philosophy, poetry, poetry in jail, prison, public defender, punishment, rehabilitation, reprisal, restorative justice, retribution, Saadawi, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, terrorism, the healing power of forgiveness, the neurology of justice, vengeance, victims of terrorism, violence, War on Drugs
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On octopus art.
We humans make art for humans, but octopuses might make art for others.
Andy Warhol, animal art, animal cognition, animal theory of mind, art, art criticism, art theory, audience, Baphomet, board games, do animals make art, elephant art, elephant painting, emotional intelligence, empathy, evolution of brains, evolution of cognition, evolution of intelligence, free will, function of art, gossip, how does consciousness work, narrative explanation, non-human animal cognition, non-human animals, octopus art, octopus brains, octopus literature, octopus theory of mind, poetry, purpose of art, Satan, The Optic Wraith, The Sri Lankan Loxodrome, theory of mind, timing of consciousness, what counts as art, what is art, what qualifies as art, why do we make art, why is art beautiful, Will Alexander
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On the value of religious misinterpretation.
We’re liable to misinterpret old stories when we look at them with modern eyes … but it’s worth knowing what myths might mean in a better world.
Abraham, anachronism, anachronistic crtique, Ants Among Elephants, Bible, can God save us, caste, caste system, Christ, Christian theology, colonialism, conquest, covenant, creation in Genesis, dalit, David Kishik, DK, Dravidar Kazhagam, forgiveness, forgiving god, Genesis, God, God saw that it was good, God’s insecurity, Goldman, grammar, hebrew, Hinduism, human sacrifice, human sacrifice for good harvest, imperialism, incarceration, incarceration crisis, incarceration in the U.S., incarceration in the United States, jail, Jesus, Jesus’s sacrifice, Job, John-Michael Bloomquist, mass incarceration, merciful god, mercy, Noah, Old Testament, oppression, poetry, poetry in jail, rainbow, Rama, Rama threatening ocean, Ravana, Ravana worship, religion, Rudyard Kipling, sacrifice, sacrifice of Jesus, suffering, Sujatha Gidla, Tamil, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, textual analysis, The Book of Shem, The Flood, The Iliad, The Prodigal’s Return, theology, Translation, untouchable, why did Christ have to die, why did Jesus suffer, why does Rama threaten the ocean, why is God jealous, Yahweh
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On resurrection.
We are unlikely to live again … but religions themselves get resurrected all the time. As you might expect, the religions that rise from the grave sometimes come back as shambling monstrosities.
Achilles, ancient European myths, Anthony Appiah, Asatru, astrophysics, Birka warrior, Boltzmann brain, Celtic mythology, Celtic religion, Christianity, Daoism, druid, druids, female viking, female viking warrior, female warrior, forgotten faiths, Greek mythology, Ian Johnson, Icelandic poetry, In Search of the True Dao, life after death, lost faiths, Louis Komjathy, milk, mythology, neopaganism, New York Review, Norse mythology, Odin, Odin’s gift, odinism, Odinist revival, Odysseus in the underworld, pagan, pagan revival, paganism, physics, poetry, prejudice, pseudoscience, rebirth, rediscovering lost faiths, rediscovering lost religions, rediscovering Norse faiths, reincarnation, resurrection, Roman propaganda, Sexism, space dust, The Lies that Bind, The Odyssey, the old beliefs, Viking myths, Viking religion, viking revival, viking warrior women, viking women, white supremacists, white supremacy, Wicca, witchcraft, world mythology, world religions
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On overdose.
Minority heroin users were anonymously demonized for decades; now they’re being killed.
cartels, cocaine, dope, Dope to the Cut, drug dealers, fentanyl, H, heroin, incarceration, jail poetry, jail poetry workshop, mass incarceration, opiates, opiods, overdose, overdose deaths, poetry, racial disparities in drug treatment, synthetic opiods, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, The Washington Post, War on Drugs -
On power and dignity in defeat.
Winning is pretty easy. It takes effort to get there, but once we’ve done it, most people can act with grace. It reveals more about a person’s character to see how they handle defeat. In the Christian bible, Jesus is a more compelling character than Yahweh. Jesus faces adversity, which sometimes he accepts calmly –…
Americans love a winner, anti-racism, Aryan, Aryan supremacy, ban the box, books to prison, books to prisoners, Christianity, Deadpool, death of Thor, defeat, dignity in defeat, education, equality, equity, felony, George Patton, gods die, growth, heroes, incarceration, Independently Blue, inequality, inequity, jail, jail poetry, Jesus, Jesus losing his temper, Julien Poirier, Laughing Shall I Die, learning, loser, losing, mass incarceration, Midwest Pages to Prisoners, MWPP, mythology, myths, Norse, Norse myths, Odin, odinism, pagan, paganism, Pages to Prisoners, patriotism, personal growth, poetry, poetry in jail, poverty, prison, prison education, racism, racist, Ragnarok, redemption, Reginald Dwayne Betts, suffering, superheros, teaching in jail, Tom Shippey, trials, Viking myths, Vikings, white supremacy, winning, Yahweh
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On reading poems from Donika Kelly’s ‘Bestiary’ in jail.
Will poems about lovelorn bowerbirds help men in jail for domestic violence? At least the words are beautiful.
abuse, abusive relationships, affirmative consent, AI, art, assault, Bestiary, Bower, bowerbird, Bruce Weigl, child abuse, Child Beater, consent, CPS, creation, DCS, desire, domestic, domestic violence, Donika Kelly, drinking, Heartbreak, incarceration, jail poetry, Kavanaugh, kindness, love, love poems, mass incarceration, mouse, objectification, poems, poetry, pornography, pre-emptive excuses, relationships, respect, romance, sex education, sexual assault, sexuality, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, That Cat, The Impossible, trauma, violence, What Gay Porn Has Done for Me, writing, writing poetry
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On neural plasticity.
What would it take to convince yourself that you are worthy of love?
addiction, biofeedback, brain development, brain growth, CBT, chemical dependence, cocaine, cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, criminal justice, day by day, depression, dopamine, dopamine receptor levels, dopamine receptors, drug addiction, drug counseling, drug use, e-meter, free will, getting over addiction, happiness, healing, incarceration, jail, lie detector test, mass incarceration, mental health, methamphetamine, mind control, neural development, neural plasticity, plasticity, poetry, poetry class, polygraph, redemption, rehab, rehabilitation, reshaping thought, Scientology, sobriety, substance abuse, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, therapy
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On nature.
Nature heals, but we yank the world away from people in need.
boaters, boats, cell block, concrete, contraband, domestic violence, drug use, evolution, finding a way to survive, forest bathing, Greazy, Grow, growing a tree in jail, heroin, human evolution, human instincts, incarceration, instincts, instinctual behaviors, instinctual urges, jail block, jail boats, jail poetry, life inside jail, mass incarceration, medicine, methamphetamine, nature, nature bathing, nature walks, opiates, our man, Our Man Grows an Orange Tree, plants, poem, poetry, prison poetry, stress, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, withdrawal
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On asymmetry and ‘The Hatred of Poetry.’
Like you, the people in jail have stories to tell.
45, agitation for change, asymmetry, asymmetry of attention, attention, attention economy, Ben Lerner, By Any Measure, county jail, criminal justice, dipole moment, Donald Trump, grammar, hate crime, Hatred of Poetry, idiosynchratic grammar, imprisonment, In Between Poems, incarceration, Jack Gilbert, jail poetry, Jana Prikryl, lockdown, lyric, lyric poems, lyrical poetry, mass incarceration, MFA, Orlando shooting, Philip Warren Anderson, physics, physics of poetry, physics of symmetry, plea for attention, poet, poetry, prison poetry, reading poetry in jail, rehab, rehabilitation, school to prison pipeline, symmetry, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, terrorism, The After Party, The Hatred of Poetry, the internet, the power of words, Thirty Thousand Islands, waning attention spans, why read poetry, why water flows, why write poetry, writing poetry in jail, [jumpsuits]
Frank Brown Cloud 