Ambedo JD Richter To be successful in Millennial America without sacrificing soul and artistry—that was the goal, the tightrope to be walked in a concrete land of parking garages and traffic lights, where everything is bought and sold, where a person’s selfhood is bartered for attention and defined to the outside world as a collection … Continue reading Ambedo (A Chapter from A Novel Written Long Ago…)
Tag: poetry
Writing Matters
In a few weeks, I'll be presenting at a writing classroom and pedagogy conference called Writing Matters. This year's theme is "The Work Of Writing," and will feature panels and presentations from a variety of K-16 teachers. This semester, I've been teaching my Freshman composition courses at SUNY Cortland through a blog, which we utilize … Continue reading Writing Matters
Poem Written On Simon & Shuster’s “Handbook For Writers.”
I do not wish to utter even a single cliché until the day on which I die. I wish that utterance to be "I did well," or "I was very happy," or perhaps even a cliché utilizing the phrases "well-spent" or "well-lived" or "I gave all." I think, right now, those are clichés I can live with, … Continue reading Poem Written On Simon & Shuster’s “Handbook For Writers.”
10 July 2016
There is a man living somewhere in the Elmwood Village strip of Buffalo who plays saxophone or air-flute, closing his eyes willing into existence the sound of jazz through pure, unapologetic imagination. The instruments do not exist, and I hear no sound. I'm not a musician, only a listener, pale ears in a crowd, calloused … Continue reading 10 July 2016
13 March
On the first day that I visited her she told me that a spring in her mattress had been making a noise. As we laid there and moved around, the spring made a noise and I knew what she had meant. When you left me I could not speak or breathe. I was chained to a reservoir … Continue reading 13 March
Adirondack Winters
Huntington Memorial Camp. Raquette Lake, New York- in the Adirondack Mountains. 2016 has been my first winter in graduate school, and my first winter in quite some time to not visit this special place. The walk to the church wasn’t terribly long, maybe three quarters of a mile, but with our boots sinking into the … Continue reading Adirondack Winters
Peter Handke’s “A Sorrow Beyond Dreams”
Peter Handke's memoir "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams" details the life and eventual suicide of his mother, which he attempts to portray in the narrative as having been an "exemplary case" of voluntary death. This is my response to the dense, sparse narrative in which Handke refuses sentimentality and resists analysis; the text ventures into places rarely … Continue reading Peter Handke’s “A Sorrow Beyond Dreams”
Jacob Richter 