• General Nonfiction

    A Happy Belated Birthday to Henry David Thoreau

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    We’re not always up to speed at Traversing. We prefer to slow down our thinking, turning it more toward mulling, pondering, even a dollop or two of old-fashioned cogitating. Sometimes this slowness means we miss observances and even parties (drats!), like the ones that were held in various locales to celebrate Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday last July. But when we do miss folks’ big days, we always try to send a cheery “Happy Belated!” card to acknowledge our oversight and wish them godspeed. So Henry, this card is for you. And given your towering presence in the literary and even spiritual life…

  • Photography - Poetry

    Bringing Joy to “The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens

    January 20, 2018 - By 

    THE SNOWMAN One must have a mind of winter  To regard the frost and the boughs  Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time  To behold the junipers shagged with ice,  The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think  Of any misery in the sound of the wind,  In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land  Full of the same wind  That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow,  And, nothing himself, beholds  Nothing…

  • Film/TV

    What Is “The Shape of Water?”

    January 4, 2018 - By 

    What is the shape of water, anyway? Liquid, right? No, wait, “liquid” isn’t a shape, it’s a quality, like “flighty” or “rambunctious” or “wildly imaginative,” isn’t it? Or is liquid a sound, like that of rushing waters or the slurping of jello or the gurgly slip-slap of lovers deep in the rhythms of coitus mellifluous? The beautiful sound and sight and feel of liquid’s most essential and satisfying form is everywhere in Guillermo del Toro’s current, compulsively watchable movie, “The Shape of Water.” del Toro both wrote and directed it in the kind of creative project control that gets all artists…

  • Music

    A Happy New Year Gift From Ludwig van Beethoven

    January 1, 2018 - By 

      Got 12 minutes on this New Year’s Day for an Ode to Joy that will lift your spirit in appreciation for the year past? Yes, for that year, tempestuous and fraught as it may have been, and truly, for every other year and all the other days you have lived? With luck, there will be still more days stretching out before you, miracles all, awaiting… Exactly what more important thing could you be going about today, on this first day of the new year, and the rest of your life? *** *** A note on the orchestra: Consisting of youths from Palestine, Israel, Iran,…