I went to see Bernie Williams at Carnegie Hall last week. It was strange to hear such accomplished musicianship coming from a man who won a batting title as centerfielder for the Yankees. But the more I thought about it the less strange it seemed. Athletes and artists have a lot in common. Both know… Read more

I am an immaterial ethereal manPeople pass through me and don’t even noticeI am as substantial as a breathor heartbeatI am as alive as my thoughtsI am at home outside this universeI am lost nowhereI am never aloneI am on firea puff of smokedissolvingI was there when the sun started shiningI will be there when… Read more

When you put a convicted felon in charge of your criminal justice system, you know what’s going to happen: he will pardon people who commit crimes on his behalf, or who commit crimes and give him a lot of money, and he will file charges against any lawyer, district attorney, or judge who tries to… Read more

Things are bad. For a lot of people, things are always bad. So many things we used to depend on are broken. We all get to an age where we look at the world and think, it was broken when I got here. Change on the scale that is needed to get things where they… Read more

Lately it occurs to me.Bobby died the other day. It happens every day, somebody cashing in the deposit on a used container that they don’t need anymore. In the moment I hear that someone has gone, I flash through my memories of them: the joy and the grief, the poison and the poetry, all the… Read more