Ashok Karra - Encouragement

heidegger

On Heidegger's Distinction between "World" and "Earth"

The Earth always contains an element of mystery; you might say the more one probes it, the less one understands.

poetry

The Earth to Me

Not wanting to leave the house comes into my life like the most subtle haunting.

poetry

Two Poems

They're just there, / comfortable where they are. // An Earth unafraid to share.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Home to Roost"

Our lives are lovely as they are ridiculous.

poetry

Lucille Clifton, "hometown / 1993"

Many, many people want to believe they possess some comfort and everyone else can, too.

american politics

On Horror and Competence

The President does not seem like he is in the right place, but he is standing above everyone.

poetry

Wendy Videlock, "Change"

...the heart of conservatism, nowadays a sneering contempt for change, is fundamentally broken.

philosophy

Anguish and Abandonment in Sartre's "Existentialism is a Humanism"

When moral rhetoric is good, there must be depth to be uncovered.

education

Some Convocation-like Remarks for a Literary Gathering Before the Academic Year Begins

We are "with calling" because there is something to be done in this life, that there is serious purpose.

poetry

Charles Baudelaire, "The Pipe"

Authenticity, by definition, cannot be abuse.

philosophy

On Witold Gombrowicz's Heidegger

Gombrowicz describes Heidegger as "creative," but with disorganized, "difficult[,] and tortured" thinking.

blogging

Four Posts from 2025 Worth a Look

...clarity is not always a virtue.

poetry

Wendy Videlock, "Spin"

Wendy Videlock's poem calls to mind an annoying type of person and a larger problem related to their existence.

poetry

Chase Twichell, "Pine"

Out in the woods, by the lake and among the monks, resides the question of who we want to be.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "I've nothing else — to bring, You know" (224)

...if you're in love, you have nothing. Like, absolutely nothing.

emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson, "The earth has many keys" (1775)

Everything is melody. What isn't is the "unknown peninsula," not unlike Hamlet's "undiscovered country."

philosophy

Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art" and the Question of Impersonal Great Art

"Great art" all too easily leads to phrases like "Western Civilization" and "the decline of the West" being used by Neo-Nazis.

american politics

FAQ: What should you know about the Supreme Court of the U.S.?

It is difficult to get people to focus on the illegitimacy of the Court.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "It is an honorable Thought…" (946)

A poem which asks if you just want to lift your hat, overtaken with excitement, as you walk down the street.

poetry

Kay Ryan, "Venice"

I remember being a young, terrible tourist in Venice.

poetry

Emily Dickinson, "We outgrow love, like other things" (887)

Dickinson, in the little poem below, does not judge.

american politics

Unfortunately, we do need to know there was a UFC fight at the White House

Today I want to talk about something less high-minded.

american politics

The word "illegal" is out of control

Screaming "illegal" at people as an excuse to do untold horrors to them is a way of voiding lawfulness itself.

emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson, "We like a Hairbreadth 'scape"

How do we juggle love, our need to create, and our desire for attention?

poetry

Seamus Heaney, "Lightenings i"

Mysteries are all we have.