Speaker, Subject, and Theme in Audre Lorde's “Hanging Fire”

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A critical essay investigating a contemporary portrayal of typical adolescence in Audre Lorde's poem.

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…speaker in Audre Lorde's “Hanging Fire” is most likely—but not definitely—a fourteen year-old adolescent girl who has to endure the unavoidable onset and eruption of puberty and who ironically has already matured beyond her boyfriend or teenaged crush as a result of it, as she expresses with lament and dissatisfaction, “I am fourteen/ and my skin has betrayed me/ the boy I cannot live without/ still sucks his…

By Ngoc Nguyen

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The Distance Between Objects

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…my running away from home in October 1991, when I was thirty-three years old. I’d been planning my escape for years, first as a child with an active imagination in rural Pennsylvania, then with a brief marriage the summer of my sophomore year of college in Crete, Nebraska. I collected my degree in art and education the weekend Mount Saint Helens erupted. It was the same weekend that I climbed into…

By Mimm Patterson

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A Modest Proposal to the Universal Dilemma of Human Melancholy

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A short essay espousing the merits and advantages of embracing to think and choose well so…

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…does it mean to experience melancholy? Is it just depression—or overwhelming sorrow? Or, to be more precise, is melancholy just insurmountable sadness and despair accompanied…

By Ngoc Nguyen

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The Show Must Go On

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…atmosphere at our new home in Lynnport was devoid of oxygen. In its place was the grey haze of cigarette smoke and the foggy gloom of scarcity. For this reason I spent as much time as possible outdoors.

I don’t recall feeling poor. I had the vast and beautiful expanse of rural Pennsylvania and my young imagination to sustain me. But ‘poor’ is the word my mother used. Although we had a sturdy roof…

By Mimm Patterson

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Yoga Nidra Meditation Script: Thank the Nature

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…down and thinking about the ways to find the problems for your solution is one part of Yoga Nidra Meditation. Why don’t you look through the other part and take a minute or two to appreciate the beautiful world and mother nature? It would be a nice change of pace and you will get to realize the importance of the environment in your lives. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and let yourself flow with the…

By Soare Stapanire

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Yoga Nidra Meditation Script: For Stress

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…you are lying down on the soft grass under the shade of a big tree. The wind is blowing quietly brushing your body making it feel like the wind is quietly embracing you. In front of you, there’s a lake in which clear water is flowing slowly. The wind and water are making beautiful calm music which is making you fall in the depths of the sleep. Above you, the sun is shining brightly blessing you with its warm…

By Soare Stapanire

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Few Facts: A Lot of Guess Work

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…have bitten my tongue for as long as I can. I cannot ignore the apparent ignorance associated with currently disseminated data related to SARS CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), and COVID-19.

Much of the data espoused as “facts” by the self-proclaimed experts are actually speculations. By their own admissions (and publications from sites of authority, e.g., CDC) there are too many unknowns to…

By Robert L. Scarry

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The Journey to Discover Your Voice

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You have a right to be who you are. Your unique talents have a place in this world. If you have not found your place yet, please keep seeking. There is a place for you.

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…out who we are is a process that takes a lifetime. Even the person who is lying on their death bed, doesn't fully realize who they are…

By John Davis

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I Play a Part in This Drama of Life, and the Struggle to Own it

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When you are willing to engage with the struggle of letting go while being empowered to change what you can, you will find a peace that no illusion of control will ever bring you.

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…question came to my mind this morning. I’m sure it has come to yours.

When will our lives get back to…

By John Davis

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Birthing a New You

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…can be very challenging. When you decide to take on a new challenge, you are going to feel discomfort. It’s this way for many people. It’s a normal part of the process. I invite you today to take on that new challenge…

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…a male. I know nothing of the pain of childbirth. To pretend I do would be extremely dismissive to the women in the world who have. I will not go…

By John C. Davis

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