100 Themes Poem: “Snap a Photo”

Contrary to all appearances, I have not given up my 100 Themes Challenge, even though I started it in 2015 and I’m not even halfway through. I WILL GET THERE EVENTUALLY. Tonight (December 2 going into December 3), I wrote a poem for the first time in months. And the poem before that had been the … Read more

Prose Poem Translation: Turgenev’s “The Threshold”

It’s been a while since the last Turgenev translation, but we’re back in business! “The Threshold” was one of the first prose poems in the Senilia collection that I read and understood, so it has a special place in my heart alongside “The Skulls.” You’ll notice that this one has no commentary attached. That’s because … Read more

Prose Poem Translation: Turgenev’s “The Old Man”

Old man next to a tree watching the sunset

Now that it’s November, the Western Hemisphere is witnessing the apparent death of nature — and in the Catholic Church, we are also observing a month of prayer for the dead. So it seemed apt to choose, as my next prose poem translation, Turgenev’s “Старик” (“The Old Man”), a reflection on aging and eventual death. … Read more