Images of the Peace Mural Created by the artist Huong

For more information about the mural and the artist, visit www.peacemural.org or www.huong.org.

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

COME TOGETHER - IMAGINE PEACE A New Poetry Anthology

Come Together - Imagine Peace is a new anthology of poems on peace. Phil Metres, and Larry and Ann Smith are the editors and it has many fantastic poems in it. I am honored to have a poem in it, alongside Naomi Shihab Nye, Martin Espada, and many other great poets. You can get a copy of this book directly from the publisher at SPD.

The book has a section called "Precedents" with poems from Whitman, William Stafford, Muriel Rukeyser, and others. Then there is a larger section called "Contemporaries" with poems from Ellen Bass, Wendell Berry, Daniel Berrigan, and many others. Please check it out. It is also available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble but the publisher will make a little more money if you purchase it directly from the Bottom Dog Press link above. 

My thanks to editors Larry and Ann Smith, and to Phil Metres, whose blog is BehindtheLinesPoetry. Please purchase this new book and support poetry about peace.

Studs Terkel: An Amazing Life

American letters has lost a giant. Studs Terkel died yesterday at the brilliant age of 96. Terkel began his writing life as a journalist in Chicago and perfected his writing as a true "listening" writer. He simply listened to people and told their stories. Rooted in the life of working-class America, those were the stories he found most compelling. 

I first encountered Studs Terkel in his book Working, which I read in high school. In that book, he simply told the stories of people who worked in common, ordinary, and often dirty jobs. It seemed he believed that in telling the story, however ordinary, the story, and the one who lived it, was lifted up. His writing did just that. He lifted up ordinary people in a majestic and beautiful way. Among his last books, is the beautiful Will The Circle Be Unbroken. In this work, he asks people from all walks of life, to voice what they think happens after we die. He let's them speak their own hopes and fears, and he captures them in his smooth and elegant prose. 

Studs Terkel was a genius, a writer who truly "saw" other people. You can read more about his amazing life in the New York Times' obituary.