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.

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.

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.