On 23 March 2021, much of global trade came to a halt. The cargo vessel Ever Given wedged in the Suez Canal. The ship blocked the canal for six whole days; normally fifty ships pass through it each day.

She found the skeleton intact down in the valley -- intact except for the head, which was separated off but not by much. The whole things was almost glowing white surrounded by long, dying grass.

Nature Stands Aside, the grand retrospective of Rosamond Purcell's work at the Addison Gallery of American Art, began with a provocative question: ''What kind of genius is Rosamond Purcell?''

My thoughts are classified & brittle. Even science
seems antiquated, somehow trivial,
& normal life a foreign land & shadowy,
high on the far horizon's dusty arc.

It is hard to draw breath in this historical moment without feeling suffocated by sadness and anger--not to mention helplessness. The heavily armed state of Israel is systematically murdering the unarmed civilians of Gaza and reducing their neighborhoods to rubble.