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To walk or tramp about; to gad, wander. < Old French - trapasser (to trespass).

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Pebble on the Tongue

Pebble on the Tongue*: A Lyric Pause to Recollect

Dec 31, 2022
Now and again it is cleansing for a writer to reckon frankly with his or her craft.  A few lines from Edna St. Vincent Millay (1939) will serve my purpose well: Song II For you there is no song, Only the shaking of the voice that meant to sing, The sound of the strong voice breaking. Strange in […]

Pebble on the Tongue*: A Lyric Pause to Recollect

December 31, 2022

Now and again it is cleansing for a writer to reckon frankly with his or her craft.  A few lines from Edna St. Vincent Millay (1939) will serve my purpose well: Song II For you there is no song, Only the shaking of the voice that meant to sing, The sound of the strong voice breaking. Strange in […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: Fork in a Brazilian Street

Nov 14, 2022
A BBC reporter on the street in Brazil as national elections approached, asked a clear-eyed passerby what he made of the choice before him (the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, or Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva).  He replied:              “Lula is certainly not the gateway to Paradise, but he is the way out of Hell.” The traveler does […]

Pebble on the Tongue: Fork in a Brazilian Street

November 14, 2022

A BBC reporter on the street in Brazil as national elections approached, asked a clear-eyed passerby what he made of the choice before him (the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, or Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva).  He replied:              “Lula is certainly not the gateway to Paradise, but he is the way out of Hell.” The traveler does […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble On The Tongue*: The House of Tears

May 28, 2022
Every language has some register of expression at which it excels.  These powers tell a great deal about the social history of each community: its origins, the tenor of its story, even its physical context and values.  Languages of the global South often have unusual capacities for commiseration; this from deep experience in struggles for […]

Pebble On The Tongue*: The House of Tears

May 28, 2022

Every language has some register of expression at which it excels.  These powers tell a great deal about the social history of each community: its origins, the tenor of its story, even its physical context and values.  Languages of the global South often have unusual capacities for commiseration; this from deep experience in struggles for […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue:  Can Filigree Strings Yet Carry Us Aloft?

Sep 9, 2021
While meandering home from the Canadian Maritimes some time ago, we stopped at the suggestion of family by the College of New Jersey in Trenton to view an art exhibit about the beauty and travail of Afghanistan.  There we stumbled on the video of an extraordinary scene composed by Lida Abdul, who, exile that she […]

Pebble on the Tongue:  Can Filigree Strings Yet Carry Us Aloft?

September 09, 2021

While meandering home from the Canadian Maritimes some time ago, we stopped at the suggestion of family by the College of New Jersey in Trenton to view an art exhibit about the beauty and travail of Afghanistan.  There we stumbled on the video of an extraordinary scene composed by Lida Abdul, who, exile that she […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: “If You’re Lucky …”

Jul 21, 2021
To say that travels will move you, is a tautology, self-evident on the face.  But Kate Daniels,  lyricist of the gritty, personal truths of the American South has penned a line that captures the traveler’s rarest take-away, the most powerful gift of a ‘traipse’: If you’re lucky ….It will bring you to your knees. Kate […]

Pebble on the Tongue: “If You’re Lucky …”

July 21, 2021

To say that travels will move you, is a tautology, self-evident on the face.  But Kate Daniels,  lyricist of the gritty, personal truths of the American South has penned a line that captures the traveler’s rarest take-away, the most powerful gift of a ‘traipse’: If you’re lucky ….It will bring you to your knees. Kate […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: ‘Luckiest Woman Alive!’

Jun 10, 2021
Some years ago, I was dinner guest in the home of an Ethiopian woman in Winnipeg, Canada.  We sat on haunches in her kitchen as she made coffee in the ceremonial way, roasting beans over open coals.  The strong aroma suffused her life story. Years before, she had married for love a Muslim man back […]

Pebble on the Tongue: ‘Luckiest Woman Alive!’

June 10, 2021

Some years ago, I was dinner guest in the home of an Ethiopian woman in Winnipeg, Canada.  We sat on haunches in her kitchen as she made coffee in the ceremonial way, roasting beans over open coals.  The strong aroma suffused her life story. Years before, she had married for love a Muslim man back […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: From the Basement of Suffering

May 24, 2021
Given the loss and suffering that marks these days, here is the sense of a moment recounted by Sadako Kurihara, poet of Hiroshima: In Hiroshima, in a basement, mid stench and death, a young woman goes into labor. A woman, herself moaning with pain, steps forward. “I can help with the baby. I am a […]

Pebble on the Tongue: From the Basement of Suffering

May 24, 2021

Given the loss and suffering that marks these days, here is the sense of a moment recounted by Sadako Kurihara, poet of Hiroshima: In Hiroshima, in a basement, mid stench and death, a young woman goes into labor. A woman, herself moaning with pain, steps forward. “I can help with the baby. I am a […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: Gift of the Gulag

Mar 31, 2021
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is not known to have written much about his epic, and often painful, travels – to Kazakhstan and his years in the gulag, to Germany when exiled and made stateless by the Soviet authorities, later around the world as a celebrated Nobel laureate, and eventually back to Mother Russia.  But he did write […]

Pebble on the Tongue: Gift of the Gulag

March 31, 2021

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is not known to have written much about his epic, and often painful, travels – to Kazakhstan and his years in the gulag, to Germany when exiled and made stateless by the Soviet authorities, later around the world as a celebrated Nobel laureate, and eventually back to Mother Russia.  But he did write […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Du Fu: Pebble On the Tongue

Jun 12, 2020
A handful of lyrical lines can whisper to the traveler  – how vast is the sea of creative beauty – how deep the wistfulness of soul  – how strong the yearning in our sojourn – how paltry our grasp of the great yonder – how precious to find company midst ‘silent peaks’            _____________________________ Written On […]

Du Fu: Pebble On the Tongue

June 12, 2020

A handful of lyrical lines can whisper to the traveler  – how vast is the sea of creative beauty – how deep the wistfulness of soul  – how strong the yearning in our sojourn – how paltry our grasp of the great yonder – how precious to find company midst ‘silent peaks’            _____________________________ Written On […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

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