I Never Ask

What do you want from me? Where should I go? What am I waiting for? What’s your name? What about the other guy? How ‘bout those people I don’t know? Help that ugly girl, the guy who cut me off in traffic, the woman with the bad breath, those Craigslisters, the people who can’t spell. Help the Un-readers, O Lord, the people with Kindles, the Amazon shoppers, those folks who send too many Tweets. Bless the Status Updaters, who bore me, the breakfast-detailers and candid photographers, the ones with the burpy babies, the dying fish, the new puppies, the Ecstatics. Tell me what it’s like to be in love again, Lord, by making it happen to other people. Make me wealthy in spirit, by punishing me more. What about that traffic ticket? Can I have another? It’s not like I only broke that law once.https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/onearth/1047/thumbnail.jp

The Tragedy of Krudhog the Cruel: A Horrid Tale Best Never Told At All

What have I to tell you, unlucky one, of this vision brought before me? Hear it here that I, Othur Lokbrok, do not speak with a voice of my own, but rather echo the Sisters Weird, come to me one night in a passion and fury beyond all earthly resemblance. Thereupon that cursed night was I, awake and trembling, for out of a dream my spirit raised itself vigilant, as hushed voices seemed to seep and slither eerily through my window. Then in the dark at the foot of my bed a dampened candle glowed red hot as three faces, horrible, wicked, appeared before me. ‘Awaken, young Othur, son of Lokbrok, son of Gap,’ spoke the middle one to me. ‘Heed our song, of heavy heart and shaking shudders, that we loathe to lay before you. For though you may clasp your ears, or cover your eyes, or seek shelter beneath your covers, it is you that must hear and see and embrace our awful lament. It is you that must carry such burden and tell it thus, tell it to all those that sleep without an open eye for the Evil of your day. We hope some still live with an ear, or two, or three, willing to hear how Evil once thrived, and how Evil may be felled again, as beneath a Heel or Rock.

Vision as OfferingInterview of Kamau Daaood Monday April 9, 2012, by Nicole Ollier and Sophie Rachmuhl, edited by Sophie Rachmuhl and Kamau Daaood

The Journey into a Poem Interviewers: Could you tell us how you work? There are several kinds of poems it seems, like the one about your father or the one about Lady Day, which are a bit more narrative than some others. And the one that you start your concerts with, “Liberator of the Spirit,” (hear it on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4btOXkGpwA8) maybe that’s less narrative. Kamau Daaood: You know the writing process with me is different. There’s no one set way that I write. I’..

Graduate Voice Recital Series, March 13, 1990

This is the concert program of the Graduate Voice Recital Series performance on Tuesday, March 13, 1990 at 8:30 p.m., at the Boston University Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Nacht und Träume by Franz Schubert, Tell me, oh Blue, Blue Sky by Vittorio Giannini, A Spirit Flower by Louis Campbell-Tipton, from Quatre Chansons de leunesse by Claude Debussy, Before my Window, Vocalise, and The Answer by Serge Rachmaninoff, Folksong Arrangements by Benjamin Britten, and Allerseelen, Du, meines Herzens Krönelein, and Zueignung by Richard Strauss. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Letter from [John Muir] to [Jeanne C.] Carr, 1872 Aug 28.

Yosemite Valley Aug 28 /72Dear Mrs Carr. My horse & bread, etc is ready for upward. I returned three days ago from Mts Lyell, McClure & Hoffman I spent three days on a glacier up there planting stakes etc.. This time I go to the Merced group one of whose Mtns shelters a glacier. I will go over all the lakes & morains etc there. Will be gone a week or two or so. Hutch\u27 wants to go with me to help me !! but I will etc etc Ink cannot tell the glow that lights me at this moment in turning to the mtns. I feel strong to leap Yosemite walls at a bound Hotels & human impurity will be far below. I will fuse in spirit skies I will touch naked God Farewell, or come meet in ghost between Red Mtn & Black on the star sparkled ice. Love to all their & to Moores & Stoddar

Letter from Katharine M[errill] Graydon to John Muir, 1906 Nov 3.

[4]desire of my heart while our mother is still with us. She was very ill in the spring, and tho better now, is very much broken. It seemed strange that she should collapse with physically and mentally so suddenly after seventy of such unusual health; but so it is. Aunt Julia\u27s slight hold on life continence still slighter. The boys are well, are working very hard are as devoted as they should be to their pail mother.Aunt Mina is the same Aunt Mina, only more so - poor lonely soul. She sees so life for herself. My blessed sisters grow ([illegible] very [illegible]) finer than ever. Goodbye.[1]Oalen College,Honolulu.Mr. Muir,Again I am back at my Honolulu work, living about as when you saw me here. The past blessed year has left me better in spirit, stronger in body; indeed, it has shown me that I can live in Indianapolis a more satisfying and larger life than in Honolulu, and[in margin: Send me a word, send me a [illegible], send me a [illegible] of some kind. With love to the family,I am Sincerely[illegible] Katharine M. Graydon.Nov. 3. 1906.]03772 [2]as soon as convenient I mean to make the change. For it I am working, and planning, and praying.It was a disappointment not to see you all as I came th[illegible]. in September, but my visiting was cut short and I did not linger - I could not It is a long while since I have heard of [illegible] from you such stretch of silence I with might not be. I hope you will write soon, and tell of yourself, of Helen\u27s health, of Wanda\u27s marriage, which, by chance, I have heard. Knew I her new have, I should,[3]write her. Oh, tell me everything! I never wander [beyond?] my interest in and affection for the Muirs. That you must know. When does your new book come out? What are you now working on?I bought a lot, while at home, and am pegging away now to accumulate enough to put up a home. Think of it, the Graydons to have their own home before they pass on to their eternal mansion! It seems to good too be true, I pan for that little home by day and by night, and am most eager to accomplish this[in margin: I must tell you that this [illegible] has on it 13 pres[illegible]

A Step of Faith

...One of the questions is how did you know you were supposed to go to New Guinea? How did you know you\u27re supposed to join Wycliffe Bible Translators? How did you know that you\u27re supposed to go up this river 500 miles? Well, we will only know for sure by taking a step and following that passion and the desires that God has put in your heart. It is walking by faith, there\u27s no question about it. We will never have a visual picture of tomorrow. We like to have it all laid out. Lord, just tell me just how all this is going to be. We have the Holy Spirit within us and he\u27s going to guide us, he\u27s going to convict us

Dismissed

The wing of my spirit is brokenThe day star of hope has declinedFor a month not a word have I spokenThat\u27s either polite or refin\u27dMy mind\u27s like the sky in bad weatherWhen mist clouds around us are curledAnd viewing myself altogetherI\u27m the veriest wretch in the worldI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayersBut why tell me why did she kick me downstairs I wander about like a vagrantI spend half my time in the streetMy conducts improper and flagrantFor I quarrel with all that I meetMy dress too is wholly neglectedMy hat I pull over my browAnd I look like a fellow suspectedOf wishing to kick up a rowI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayers But why tell me why did she kick me downstairs At home I\u27m an object of horrorTo boarder and waiter and maidBut my landlady views me with sorrowWhen she thinks of the bill that\u27s unpaidAbroad my acquaintance flout meThe ladies cry, Bless us look there And the little boys cluster around meAnd sensible citizens stareI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayersBut why tell my why did she kick me down stairs One says He\u27s a victim to cupid Another His conducts too bad A third He is awfully stupid A fourth He is perfectly mad And then I am watched like a banditMy friends with me all are at strifeBy heaven no longer I\u27ll stand itBut quick put an end to my lifeI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayersBut why tell me why did she kick me down stairs I\u27ve though of the means - yet I shudderAt dagger, or ratsbane, or ropeAt drawing with lancet my blood orA razor without any soapSuppose I should fall in a duelAnd thus leave the stage with e\u27clatBut to die with a bullet is cruelBesides \u27twould be breaking the lawI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayersBut why tell me why did she kick me down stairs Yet one way remains - to the riverI\u27ll fly from the goadings of careBut drown oh the thought makes me shiverA terrible death, I declareAh no! I\u27ll once more see my KittyAnd parry her cruel disdainBeseech her to take me in pityAnd never dismiss me againI suppose she was right in rejecting my prayersBut why tell me why did she kick me down stair

Softly Ye Night Winds

Some of these resources may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Such materials should be seen in the context of the time period and as a reflection of attitudes of the time. The items are part of the historical record, and do not represent the views of the library or the institution. [Verse 1] Softly ye night winds that float o’er my brow Whisper he thinks of me, dreams of me now: Tell me my thought cheer him onward to fame Tell me when sleeping, he murmurs my name Say not his fond arms another entwine Say not he breathes her the vows that were mine Say not he breathes her the vows that were mine [Verse 2] Lonely I pine for his coming in vain Pine as the night pines for morning again Yet the fond thought that my lover is true Falls on my spirit like sunlight on dew Then let me hope and in fragrance and bloom Fade like the lily and die mid perfume Fade like the lily and die mid perfum

Joshua A. Fishman: A Scholar of Unfathomable Influence

In personal tribute to Joshua A. Fishman, I tell a few stories about this remarkable scholar as I got to know him – a glimpse of the person behind the great ideas that have so powerfully shaped our thinking. My many vivid memories of things Fishman said or wrote in my personal encounters with him – often pithy one-liners – are testimony to the power of his mind and voice, his spirit and soul. From my first year of Ph.D. study when I took his course Sociology of Bilingual Education at the 1980 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, through our interactions over the succeeding decades at conferences and talks, in personal visits and interviews, and around publications he invited me to write or vice versa, Fishman’s influence on my own academic career was enduring and profound. My turn to honor Professor Fishman for all he did for scholarship, globally, and for me, personally, came in the intergenerational symposium we organized for him at Penn in honor of his 80th birthday in 2006. My hope is that these personal stories begin to convey the intellectual giant Joshua A. Fishman was