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Arts & Humanities > Art Appreciation Reflections on beauty: 'Beauty is but in the eyes of the beholder'

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Note: The poem in the epigraph is from Robert Hass' Sun Under Wood. The first girl's breasts I saw were the Chevy dealer's daughter Linda Wren's. Pale in the moonlight. Little nubbins, pink-nosed, I can still hear the slow sound of the surf of my breath drawing in. I think I almost fainted. -"My Mother's Nipples," Hass 18 Wh... More..

Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: The power of poetry

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Note: This is an essay I wrote about six months ago, entitled "A Bridge to the Void," about the late Agha Shahid Ali's outstanding book of poetry, The Country Without A Post Office. I was not thinking about the power of poetry when I wrote it, but in retrospect, Shahid's book remains the most convincing evidence I've seen fr... More..

Education > Non-Traditional College Students What is the best way to spend a gap year before going to university?

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Backgrounds: As a high school student in a prestigious Brooklyn preparatory school, a gap year was never presented as a viable option-and indeed, neither I nor anyone I knew took one. Instead, my classmates and I attended weekly meetings with a college counselor and aimed our applications at the most impressive colleges that... More..

Creative Writing > Humor Humor: Bad days

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As an atheist (or maybe an agnostic), I don't often put much stock in the idea of a god, much less the idea of an all powerful one. I live my life, and from day to day my decisions and actions determine its quality. Why, then, is it that there are some spans of time-days maybe, but sometimes even weeks-when everything I do e... More..

Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Self-reflection

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Flies like sparks Bounce off the lamplight, As though attached by Elastic string. Black tar glistens 'Round spotlights of yellow, And cicada songs spring From near windows gone dim. Footsteps over roads Four hours gone empty Clap echoes and pierce The humidity. Dawn sun is a distant Most unlikely fiction. Paths home so seren... More..

Arts & Humanities > American Literature Literary analysis: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

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"And now all past humiliations became precious parts of my experience, and for the first time, leaning against that stone wall in the sweltering night, I began to accept my past and, as I accepted it, I felt memories welling up within me. It was as though I'd learned suddenly to look around corners; images of past humiliatio... More..

Aaron Smith

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Recent articles

1. Memoirs: The power of poetry
2. Literary analysis: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
3. Reflections on beauty: 'Beauty is but in the eyes of the beholder'
4. Poetry: Self-reflection
5. Humor: Bad days
6. What is the best way to spend a gap year before going to university?

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