I went to hear Charles Simic read from his poetry last night. This was scheduled to happen outside in Bryant park, but it had been raining all day and the reading was moved to a Barnes and Noble. A sad development, I thought. I was running late for being early and climbed the escalator steps [...]

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When I came into the city on Sunday, traveling by car through the Bronx, the skyline was ghastly. The sky was a badly mixed pink-purple dulled by a wash of dirty gray. Everything blended into these three colors, as though created to fill out this picture. Amid the swirl of smog the buildings had sprung [...]

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Someone said this to me once. “Turn on Law and Order, clean the apartment, pay your bills, cook dinner — that’s how I think one stays happy.” That’s how one learns to ignore one’s pain, he meant. That’s how you disown the crying, punching, screaming want that turns you into something shapeless, something to “deal [...]

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Oh gosh, well here we are. The room is cold and full of shadows, and the furniture is much more stark than necessary. You sit there and smile and don’t say very much because there isn’t very much that needs to be said. I don’t say very much either. In my head I shuffle through [...]

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