Reading: Paper People by Harry Baker
Harry Baker (b. 1992) is a slam poetry champion who used to study math. An enticing combination that makes for some interesting slam poetry. Today I read “paper people”, a lovely allegory for society culminating in a touching personal reminder. I quote the entire poem here with his kind permission (how #twitter makes our life …
Reading: Gracious living Tara by Tom Raworth
British poet Tom Raworth (1938 – 2017) was associated with the Black Mountain School. He won numerous awards with his poetry that, according to John Olsen, features an intense gouache of perceptions Gracious living ‘ Tara’ lonely as four cherries on a tree at night, new moon, wet roads a moth or a snowflake …
Reading: Shorter American Memory of the Declaration of Independence by Rosmarie Waldrop
Rosmarie Waldrop (b. 1935) is a German poet who emigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. She is the acclaimed translator of the poetry of Edmond Jabès. Unknown to her work, I poured over what is of her poetry available online and stumbled upon this funny idea. Shorter American Memory of the Declaration …
Reading: James McMichael – The Admiral Benbow
American poet James McMichael (1939) is the author of multiple collections of poetry and receiver of many awards, as you might expect. I found out about him through the book Poetry for Dummies. I read a poem about the ghost of a ship: The Admiral Benbow The aisles are filled with trees, The tables with …
Koushick Suriyanarayan makes your software
The standard Android camera doesn’t allow the user to switch between the front and back cameras of the phone while filming. This was precisely the functionality my daughter wanted for her Youtube Channel, so I looked at the App-store for alternative cameras and found some popular, heavily sponsored programs that didn’t quite deliver. After uninstalling …
Reading: Sunbathing by David Baker
David Baker is an American poet and professor of English born in 1954. His poetry books have titles like Never-Ending birds, Changeable Thunder, or The truth about small towns. I liked this poem at first sight. The subtle rhyme and rhythm of the first verse, until “I suppose he is”, is a fine poetic craftwork. Both – chokes, …
Corona for nihilists
After we have felt, in our bodies, that we are still worthy even if we create nothing – how would we create? The corona crisis is a special time for nihilists. The clean separation of society in essential and non-essential activities signals that money is not the only dimension of meaning that informs our political …
Cooperative Maze Game
In these restricted times, I have played around with Scratch, a programming tool for children developed by MIT. After some tinkering I came up with a simple maze game. I decided to make the game cooperative: the players have to share their ammo to defeat the sharks and reach the next level. They have to …
Make philosophy relevant again
Misunderstanding: After studying “ethics” for many years in university, I don’t know more than the average person about how to behave. I know far less. In that sense, such endeavor is the epitome of uselessness. On the other hand, not knowing seems to be better (and you rightly ask, where does this judgment come from?) …
Burning further apart
Eucalyptus trees depend on fire to release their seeds. Plants need CO2 for their survival. The ignorant, as well as the evil, can point at facts like these to undergird their complacency and inaction in the face of climate change. The ease with which they appear to convince themselves that any worldview matching their lifestyle …
