name | name
Apr.16.2013
Vân, Cúc, Trúc, and Trang; Dũng, Dai, Khôi and Phát. In my mother tongue these names carry music, cadence, poetry. They evoke for the listener images of clouds, peonies, bamboo, jade; acts of bravery or wishes for prosperity. In English, alas, they lose all meaning as the inflexible American...
|
Apr.03.2013
Hear
Jesus,
Nazarene,
Hear
My cry.
We
Are misfits
In the great
By and by,
You and I.
We
Are freaks
In the here
And the now.
They
Took your flag
In the name
Of your father.
Brother,
Mine
Still flies,
Tell
Him and your
Mother.
Mine
Still flies.
Realize
Our relation...
|
Aug.23.2012
I posted a note a short while ago about how so many people were suddenly calling me Michael. Other than blogging about it, I never said a word to anyone. Now, just as unprecipitated, I'm Michael once again. Guess it was just a current going astray.
|
Jul.05.2012
Identity, that’s what. Ever since my divorce I’ve thought about my last name from time to time, and what it meant. Mississippi had some archaic divorce laws in 1995 (and still does for all I know). They mostly worked in my favor so I decided not to buck the one regarding...
|
Mar.21.2012
I feel I would make a great "ghost" writer. Give me a famous person and access to their life (for research purposes, of course) and, within a few (or many, if necessary) months I'll whip out a memoir anyone would believe. I'm more a guy-behind the cook book guy instead of the cook book guy. And I'd...
|
Mar.04.2012
It had been a long day and a late night awaited so, at about five, I ventured into a Central London Starbucks.
“Tall, half-shot, wet latte,” I ordered, using the company’s recognised terminology with confidence. “For here.”
“What’s your name?”
The girl was holding a felt-tip pen...
|
|
Feb.21.2012
I have named my new phone, the esteemed Samsung Stratosphere provided by Verizon through my company's machinations and bureaucracy.
I don't usually name things. Yes, my previous Blackberrys were both named - Pillsbury and Pillsbury 2, also known as doughboy - but that's because my wife couldn't...
|
Jan.16.2012
What is in a name? The name on Martin Luther King Jr's birth certificate was Michael Luther King, which MLK Sr claimed was a mistake. It certainly doesn't have the ring of Martin Luther King. But it is the contrast and combination of Martin Luther, the revolutionary, and King, the essence of...
|
Aug.03.2011
August 3
Big Name
My name has a foreign sound; my head turns when it is called. I recognize this as training not identity. I remember teaching the dog her name. I called it while petting and praising her, soon the name was hers. Now, I think of G-d. Did we...
|
Jun.12.2011
I’m going to name my house. Well, maybe not my house, but my back yard.
The backyard that has held multiple tables for a medieval Yule, when a “king” from a different land visited and played the bagpipes, where each dish of the feast was heralded by a young squire. “My lords and ladies, the first...
|