Fri, 06/05/2020 - 3:50pm
“Nouning, March 2020”
by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor
Comments by Wei-Yi Lee
https://districtlit.com/2020/05/21/cahnmann-taylor/
N. The process of turning verbs and adjectives into nouns, also called nominalization.
What an awesome
spread!
Said at weddings,
even funerals,
of butter,
gossip,
wings,
two facing
newspaper pages.
What spreads.
We said this
for uncountable
nouns: acres,
days, contagious
smiles, laundered
tablecloths,
…
Tue, 05/26/2020 - 9:48am
By Elliot Shaw
In the classic poem “To a Mouse,” Robert Burns tells us that the best laid plans often go askew, leaving us to deal with nothing but grief and pain. But what he doesn’t tell us is that skewed plans can sometimes be better than carefully formulated ones. Of course, there are times when our hoped-for designs on the future truly were the ideal scenarios; there are times we are left with only misfortune. And sometimes these…
Mon, 05/18/2020 - 9:22am
By Lianna Arcelay
My peepers open, mind unrested, head slightly pounding, to the sunlight creeping through unopened blinds. The sunlight is offensive: I refuse to acknowledge it, defiantly rolling over. I sleep on – off to deny the day, willing my body up at around two in the afternoon on a good day, four o’clock on a bad day. I am submerged in a suffocating loneliness: both outdoors and indoors have become symbolic of the same emotionality,…
Mon, 05/11/2020 - 3:35pm
Dr. Dorothy Figueira performs Bach's Goldberg Variation #10 on the organ.
Fri, 05/01/2020 - 2:15pm
By Anqi Liu
I was lying on the couch
enjoying the last warmth in late autumn
a heavy somnolence descended on me.
An unknown period of time passed
I woke up from the darkness
full of chagrin
it's like sometimes
I dreamt about my dad,
and the moment I woke up,
the consciousness was in a trance
the emotions were all numb.
can I go back to that dream?
Tue, 04/21/2020 - 9:30pm
Original author: Hu Xudong
Translated by Willy Du
—To Ah Zi
Several days ago, like two idle supervisors,
we constantly monitor squirrels’ collective labors on the side of the road:
Every morning, they’d the good weather take, grain by grain
from the trees to the earth below. In the evening,
with their paws, they’d the tranquility of the town break, and teeth it up the trees.
You’d imagine that the squirrels also delight
at the sight of two…
Fri, 04/17/2020 - 10:31am
By Masaki Mori
Our current, perpetual nemesis
Wields invisibility and silence
To take the disposable body
And shrivel the mind dry
Depriving our voice of the last breath
In isolation, unheard, uncared for,
No utterance signals viral dominance
Stretch our being, in and out,
Stir the air with our expression
As a sign of life for co-motion
Modest, yet resilient to withstand
The infinitesimally insidious
This is our call to arms from lonely…