Category Archives: Old writing

Two Jewish Poems by Mordecai Martin

I started taking my writing seriously by taking poetry seriously, spending time in workshops and reading collections. I never published any poems. I never felt they were strong enough to submit, but I wrote them, including two that feel pressing today. One was my response to the Squirrel Hill shootings at the Tree of LifeContinue reading “Two Jewish Poems by Mordecai Martin”

The First Time I said Free Palestine

There is a truth we are not hearing, although it is everywhere. We dissemble it, we call it complicated and wall it off behind experts who never seem to name it. But truth is never too complicated to be understood. We ignore the people who speak the truth. We call them foolish, or too young, or too soft hearted, or too innocent and utopic, or too gullible or too ashamed. I’ve been called all that, when I say two words: Free Palestine

There Goes Funky Flashman: An obituary for Stan Lee

I wrote this on November 12th, 2018 for my now-defunct newsletter, and I’m posting it here in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stan Lee. Stan Lee died today, aged 95, outlasting just about anyone who thought of him as anything besides the lovable grandfather of Marvel Comics. Oh, there were alwaysContinue reading “There Goes Funky Flashman: An obituary for Stan Lee”

What I Want To Achieve In My Writing

In December 2016, I wrote the following in a google drive document called “What I Want To Achieve In My Writing.” First, I am most concerned with writing something beautiful. That it have the clarity, catchiness, melancholy, humor, rhythm, tenderness and unity of thought that I love in writing, this is what I mean byContinue reading “What I Want To Achieve In My Writing”

It Does Not Matter

I wrote this piece two years ago on a different platform, and have decided to share it here on the anniversary of Allende’s death. Today, on the 45th anniversary of the United States backed military coup that toppled his democratically elected socialist government and ended his life, I read the last public speech of PresidentContinue reading “It Does Not Matter”