# Richard Jeffrey Newman > In a world that seems more and more troubled by disruption, It All Connects is where I work out for myself how to live in, with, and through the identities that define me. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [A Bit About Me](https://www.richardjnewman.com/about.md) - What Would You Like To Know? - [It All Connects...](https://www.richardjnewman.com/blog.md) - ...because, in the end, it all does. - [My Books](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books.md) - [Get In Touch](https://www.richardjnewman.com/contact.md) - I look forward to hearing from you! - [Events](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events.md) - [home](https://www.richardjnewman.com/home.md) - Poet • Essayist • Educator • Consultant Take refuge on this path the page gives you to roam. Hunker down against the shadow cast by prayer and build yourself a line that won’t efface itself. Language is not wine. You cannot pour it freely. - [My Scrapbook](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog.md) - This, that, and the other thing... - [Readings & Talks](https://www.richardjnewman.com/readings-workshops-talks-2.md) - Readings & Talks Without fail, Richard delivers a powerful message and a challenge to his audiences: rethink the way you understand the dynamics of gender, abuse, power. From his perspective as a survivor, an academic, and an artist, Richard engages and connects deeply with his audiences, tackling… - [My Services](https://www.richardjnewman.com/services.md) - What can I do for you? - [Video](https://www.richardjnewman.com/video.md) - Settings Of My Work Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s jazz ensemble Pneuma made a lovely video of their musical setting of “Light,” one of the poems from The Silence of Men. The piece is from their album, Who Has Seen The Wind?, which is well worth getting. Readings & Talks Interviews - [Welcome To “It All Connects!”](https://www.richardjnewman.com/welcome-to-it-all-connects.md) - A catalyst for the increasingly important conversations we need to be having about our place in the world. - [Read•Watch•Listen](https://www.richardjnewman.com/work.md) - Find my work, and find out about my work, online - [Working With Other Writers](https://www.richardjnewman.com/working-with-other-writers.md) - “Working on your poetry with Richard Jeffrey Newman is as much a pleasure as it is a privilege. Lifelong master-teacher that he is, he comes to the process with a treasure-trove of guidance and information to offer, helping you to build on the unique iterations and stylistic gestures of your own wo… - [Writing For Your Business](https://www.richardjnewman.com/writing-for-your-business.md) - On this page “When he came on board as union secretary, Richard transformed the scattershot nature of our messaging into a consistent, coherent, and effective communications strategy, both internal and external. Two highlights: the monthly “Frank Talk” column he ghostwrote for me and the way he use… ## Posts - [To Write Is To Sit In Confrontation With Yourself](https://www.richardjnewman.com/to-write-is-to-sit-in-confrontation-with-yourself.md) - Wrestling with yourself like that, if you’re honest about it, is to court what can be a very frightening vulnerability, because it means by definition having the audacity to lay claim to a readership’s attention... - [The Sealey Challenge Day 14](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-14.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 14 Beyond naming names, nothing can help. I learn my limits, I write what I can: I didn’t become a poet for nothing. from Before Sleep, Philip Booth’s sixth book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 12](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-12.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 12 It is being offshore: nothing that’s not horizon. It is, beyond beacons, sailing alone. Nothing, beyond one’s compass, to point or warn. from “It Is Being,” in Available Light, Booth’s fifth book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 11](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-11.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 11 ...we grope, for clothes and coffee, our selves woken by waking beside each other: who climb back down from separate sleep and are, by morning, married. from “Native to Valleys,” in Margins, Booth’s fourth book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 10](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-10.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 10 ...the poem, the poem that must map the bottom of here, would be some sort of base to start out from. from “Heart of Darkness,” in Weathers and Edges, Booth’s third book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 9](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-9.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 9 I love you by the terms/I make to give you. from “Adam,” in Letter from a Distant Land, Booth’s first book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 8](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-8.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 8 She never knew what to expect from her furtive trysts with death And much to her amazement, She realized that had made her husk of a life worth living. from “The Cancer Chronicles,” in No Surrender, Ai’s eighth book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 7](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-7.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 7 A woman is not a horse you can trade, sell or shoot when you get tired of her. I realize now that it’s too late a man can learn from his mistakes. A few good women is all it takes. from “The Saga of Charlie Smith,” in Dread, Ai’s seventh book. #thesealeychallenge - [Like Domestic Violence, Antisemitism Has Also Been A Thread Running Through My Life](https://www.richardjnewman.com/like-domestic-violence-antisemitism-has-also-been-a-thread-running-through-my-life.md) - “We’re building an oven in my basement,” the ringleader smiled. “When it’s finished, remember, we know where you live,” - [The Sealey Challenge Day 6](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-6.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 6 I don’t want the truth, I want the lies, so look this way, say something nasty. Don’t be shy. from “The Paparazzi,” in Vice, Ai’s sixth book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 5](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-5.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 5 When the police come, I’m sitting at the table, the cup of coffee that I am unable to drink as cold as you body. I shot him, I say, he beat me. I do not tell them how the emancipation from pain leaves nothing in its place. from “Finished,” in Greed, Ai’s fifth book. #thes… - [The Sealey Challenge Day 4](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-4.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 4 from “Capture” in Fate, Ai's fourth book “You tricked me,” he gasped as he poured himself into my glass and I drank him like grappa made from grapes I'd picked with my own hands. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 3](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-3.md) - The Sealey Challenge Day 3 Manhood, a dream, an illusion, I think, as I lay down the photograph and stand still in the anemic glow of the darkroom lights, my body giving off the formaldehyde smell of the unknown. from “The Journalist,” in Sin, Ai’s third book. #thesealeychallenge - [The Sealey Challenge Day 2](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-2.md) - God. The boot heel an inch above your head is mine. God, say your prayers. —from Killing Floor, Ai’s second book - [The Sealey Challenge Day 1](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-sealey-challenge-day-1.md) - For this year’s Sealey challenge, I'm reading the collected volumes on my shelf, starting with Ai’s. I first learned from her about immersing yourself fully in a poem’s voice. Her first book was Cruelty. #sealeychallenge - [Four by Four #57](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-57.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [On My Desk Now: I Still Miss The Friend I Wrote This Poem For](https://www.richardjnewman.com/i-still-miss-the-friend-i-wrote-this-poem-for.md) - More than anyone else in my life, and despite the fact that we came from very, very different backgrounds, Adrienne accepted me for who I was. - [What Would Literature Be Missing Without You?](https://www.richardjnewman.com/what-would-literature-be-missing-without-you.md) - [I]f I had never written, if not a single word of mine had ever been published, literature would not be missing a thing. - [Towards a Discussion of Male Self-Hatred](https://www.richardjnewman.com/towards-a-discussion-of-male-self-hatred.md) - The internal logic of this value system, in other words, is less about protecting my sister than it is about protecting my claim to status within the male hierarchy that is a central part of patriarchy’s infrastructure. - [Four by Four #56](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-56.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [On My Desk Now - “Finger Exercises” and The Question of Received Forms in Poetry](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-my-desk-now-finger-exercises-and-the-question-of-received-forms-in-poetry.md) - [E]ven to think about publishing these poems, much less to consider making a book out of them, is by definition to place them in the context of the [formal and political] traditions of which they are a part. - [Upcoming Reading: I‘m a Brownstone Poet!](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/upcoming-reading-im-a-brownstone-poet.md) - I'll be reading with the poets Indran Amirthanayagam and Hassanal Abdullah on June 27 - [The Source of War](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-source-of-war.md) - I would never have been able to articulate it this way back then, but I was struggling with the question of whether and how I could resist the militarization of my imagination. - [Domestic Violence Has Been A Thread Running Through My Life](https://www.richardjnewman.com/domestic-violence-has-been-a-thread-running-through-my-life.md) - I am sure that every man reading this recognizes the ethic out of which that threat emerges. Not only had I violated another man’s “territory;” I had done so in a way that explicitly questioned his sovereignty within those boundaries. - [From Saadi’s Bustan: A Ghūrid Tyrant Reformed by A Courageous Peasant](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-a-ghurid-tyrant-reformed-by-a-courageous-peasant.md) - A Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Four by Four #55](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-55.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [From Saadi’s Bustan: The Selfish Man and the Baghdad Fire](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-the-selfish-man-and-the-baghdad-fire.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [On My Desk Now: Some Tentative Thoughts on Confronting Antisemitism in America](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-my-desk-now-some-tentative-thoughts-on-confronting-antisemitism-in-america.md) - [From Saadi’s Bustan: A Noble Man Suffers With The Victims of a Famine](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-a-noble-man-suffers-with-the-victims-of-a-famine.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Of Note: May 11, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-may-11-2026.md) - A weekly roundup of articles about what’s going on in the world that you might not otherwise be reading. - [Sometimes Resisting Means Recommitting Yourself To What You’re Already Doing](https://www.richardjnewman.com/sometimes-resisting-means-recommitting-yourself-to-something-youre-already-doing.md) - Over the last four years that I’ve been reading the statement, however, and especially since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, it has become an affirmation that gathering as we do every month is itself a form of resistance that we should not take for granted. - [From Saadi’s Bustan: The Hermit Theophilus and the Tyrant](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-the-hermit-theophilus-and-the-tyrant.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Of Note: May 3, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-may-3-2026.md) - A weekly roundup of articles about what’s going on in the world that you might not otherwise be reading. - [On The Trail of a Tale - Part Four: How I Came to Play a Very Small Role in Saadi’s Travels Through the World](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-the-trail-of-a-tale-part-four-how-i-came-to-play-a-very-small-role-in-saadis-travels-through-the-world.md) - What persuaded me to accept ISIC’s commission, however, was thinking about the generations of Iranian Americans, like my son, who did not read Persian. They deserved, I thought, access to a version of that heritage that would “sing” in their dominant tongue the way the original “sang” in Persian. - [From Saadi’s Bustan: The Emperor of Rum Enjoined to Endure His Burdens](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-the-emperor-of-rum-enjoined-to-endure-his-burdens.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Of Note: April 26, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-april-26-2026.md) - A weekly roundup of articles about what's going on in the world that you might not otherwise be reading. - [Four by Four #54](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-54.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [From Saadi’s Bustan: Takla Is Deterred From Abdication](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-takla-is-deterred-from-abdication.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [On My Desk Now: Junot Díaz and the Double Bind of Male Survivorship](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-my-desk-now-junot-diaz-and-the-double-bind-of-male-survivorship.md) - I had hoped in writing my essay to be able to note this complexity and then set it aside, not because I think it’s not important, but because it seemed to me [that it] silenced Díaz as a survivor, short-circuiting the larger discussion about male survivors that his essay might have started. - [From Saadi’s Bustan: Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz Sacrifices A Jewel To Help the Starving](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz-sacrifices-a-jewel-to-help-the-starving.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Of Note: April 12, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-april-12-2026.md) - Dear Friends, Here is the latest round of links to pieces dealing with the US-Israel war against Iran and related issues. Some of these will be dated by the time you receive this, but the issues they raise—concerning Iran's internal politics, the economic impact of the war, and more—are not. I apol… - [The Power We Pretend Not To See - 5](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-power-we-pretend-not-to-see-5.md) - It’s ironic, then, that the metaphor [Attar] constructed for bewilderment is itself “bewildered” in that it simultaneously reveals and denies both the sexual vulnerability of the male body and the trauma that is inherent in how the princess sexually coerces the slave. - [From Saadi’s Bustan: Darius and His Herdsman](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan-2.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Four By Four Quarterly Roundup: January-March 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-quarterly-roundup-january-march-2026.md) - My selections from the last three issues of Four By Four, along with four selections from the archive - [Of Note: April 5, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-march-29-2026-2.md) - Dear Friends, Here is the latest round of links to pieces dealing with the US-Israel war against Iran and related issues. The Links * Before you share that story about how troops were told the Iran War is for “Armageddon,” read this: I shared with you last month, a link to this article, which repor… - [On The Trail of a Tail - Part Three: Crossing The Border from Iran to Europe](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-the-trail-of-a-tail-part-three-crossing-the-border-from-iran-to-europe.md) - [T]ranslation as the performance of centrality—in this case of a Christian centrality—that emerges from and serves to perpetuate real political power and that is therefore both demonstrably false and inherently harmful. - [From Saadi’s Bustan](https://www.richardjnewman.com/from-saadis-bustan.md) - A Weekly Poem from 13th Century Iran - [Of Note: March 29, 2026](https://www.richardjnewman.com/of-note-march-29-2026.md) - Dear Friends, Here is the latest round of links to pieces dealing with the US-Israel war against Iran and related issues. I am also adding to these notes a second section. As you know, I have published several books of translations of classical Persian poetry, among them Selections from Saadi’s Bus… - [Four by Four #53](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-52-2.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [On My Desk Now: Translating Korean Poetry](https://www.richardjnewman.com/translating-korean-poetry.md) - I’ve had an interest in translating poetry for as long as I can remember. As an undergraduate, I was awarded the B’nai Zion medal for excellence in Hebrew, largely on the basis of an independent study I did with Professor Robert Hoberman for which I produced translations of biblical, medieval, and… - [The Power We Pretend Not To See - 4](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-power-we-pretend-not-to-see-4.md) - None of the responses I found asked why the chasteness Donne’s speaker craves should require an act of sexual violence in the first place, much less one that is generally understood in the real world to be something men perpetrate almost exclusively against women. - [On The Trail of a Tale - Part Two: The Sources of Franklin’s Parable in 17th Century Christian Arguments for Religious Tolerance](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-the-trail-of-a-tale-part-2-the-sources-of-franklins-parable-in-17th-century-christian-arguments-for-religious-tolerance.md) - For Saadi, in other words, the Zoroastrian’s sincere commitment to his faith was worthy of respect on its own terms and was therefore more valuable as a guide for human behavior than the orthodoxy he would have been merely performing had he given thanks to God as Abraham had expected him to. - [Four by Four #52](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-52.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [On My Desk Now - February 2026: Ruth’s Story](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-my-desk-now-february-2026-ruths-story.md) - [The Power We Pretend Not To See - 3](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-power-we-pretend-not-to-see-3.md) - “If you take those narratives at face value, though, those violations seem less like actual assaults, literal or metaphorical, than a necessary condition for spiritual growth to take place.” - [On The Trail of A Tale - Part One: Benjamin Franklin's Persian Parable](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-the-trail-of-a-tale-part-one-benjamin-franklins-persian-parable.md) - Had Franklin gotten his wish...and the Parable had remained unpublished, neither its origin in the work of the 13th-century Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz nor the story I am telling you would have become known, at least not in the way we know them now. - [Four by Four #51](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-51.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [On My Desk Now - January 2026: Either Way, You Choose A Side](https://www.richardjnewman.com/on-my-desk-now-january-2026-either-way-you-choose-a-side.md) - “That kind of paralysis is perfectly understandable in a rank and file, whether we’re talking about union members or people on the street. It seems inexcusable to me, however, in those who have been charged with leading the opposition...” - [The Power We Pretend Not To See - 2](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-power-we-pretend-not-to-see-2.md) - (Read Part 1 here.) When I was an undergraduate, a man I looked up to as a teacher and a mentor took me to his studio so I could see some of his recent paintings. There was one that I could not stop staring at: a naked man falling through a fractured landscape of colors, which I remember as differe… - [Bodies As Bodies: Fetal Personhood and The Politics of Reproductive Autonomy](https://www.richardjnewman.com/bodies-as-bodies-fetal-personhood-and-the-politics-of-reproductive-autonomy.md) - [Repost - Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?](https://www.richardjnewman.com/israel-and-palestine-whose-side-are-you-on.md) - I am talking about two very different areas of concern, one that has to do with the oppressive and murderously unjust behavior of a nation state, and one that has to do with an ideology that targets Jews worldwide, regardless of what their position on Israel and Palestine might be. - [Maybe I Do](https://www.richardjnewman.com/maybe-i-do.md) - In Memoriam, Veronica McGinley - [A Belated Gratitude](https://www.richardjnewman.com/a-belated-gratitude.md) - It never occurred to me that he might have been telling me those stories because he saw them as a way for us to connect in ways we hadn’t been able to do before... - [The Power We Pretend Not To See - 1](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-power-we-pretend-not-to-see-1.md) - "To me...the error is in thinking that the impulse to self-erasure that the nightingale and the dervish feel so passionately resembles love even remotely." - [The Ethics of Bearing Witness in Poetry to Violence and Trauma](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-ethics-of-bearing-witness-in-poetry-to-violence-and-trauma.md) - —Based on a talk I gave on a panel in 2017 at the Western Maryland Independent Literary Festival - [Why I Write "It All Connects"](https://www.richardjnewman.com/why-i-write-it-all-connects.md) - ...because it represents the vantage point from which I make the connections that matter most to me. - [Four by Four #50](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-50.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [The Kind Of Courage These Times Call For](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-kind-of-courage-these-times-call-for.md) - not from poets in particular, but from poets no differently than anybody else - [Four by Four #49](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-49.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [Four Flowers](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/four-flowers.md) - [A Gray Praying Mantis](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/a-gray-praying-mantis.md) - [Poetry Versus Propaganda: When a Poem Devolves Into Rhetoric](https://www.richardjnewman.com/poetry-versus-propaganda-when-a-poem-devolves-into-rhetoric.md) - The difference between poetry and rhetoric is being ready to kill yourself instead of your children. —Audre Lorde, “Power” Back in 2019, I was asked to review a book of poems by Steven Sher called Contestable Truths, Incontestable Lies. Sher is a Brooklyn-born, Orthodox Jew who has been living in J… - [Four by Four #48](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-48.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [The Grand Canyon](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/the-grand-canyon.md) - [At The Brooklyn Book Festival](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/at-the-brooklyn-book-festival.md) - At the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 21, I had the opportunity to record this video for Sagging Meniscus press. I'm looking forward to reading the book, Wings, by Amir Or, translated from the Hebrew by Seth Michelson: - [Fire In The Sky](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/fire-in-the-sky.md) - [Round Up #3: “Four Things to Listen To” Issues 1-15](https://www.richardjnewman.com/round-up-3-four-things-to-listen-to-issues-1-15.md) - A Quick Reminder If you would like to continue to receive these “roundups” along with all the other benefits of supporting It All Connects financially, click the button below. If you are not already signed in, you will need to sign in with the email address at which you receive the newsletter—it’s… - [Artmageddon!](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/artmageddon.md) - Date: September 28 Time: 3:00-3:45 Where: 1517 Ditmas Avenue, Brooklyn (near 16th Street) Admission: Free I'll be reading with Ama Birch, Quincy Scott Jones, Matthew Beckerman, and Jiwon Choi - [Leila & The Doll](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/leila-the-doll.md) - [Artistic Loneliness](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/artistic-loneliness.md) - “[I]n that library I experienced loneliness, real loneliness, but also exquisite artistic loneliness: You’re lonely but also exquisitely happy if it’s snowing outside and you’re working on a novel. There’s nothing more gorgeous than that.” —Kiran Desai, quoted in Poets & Writers - [Four by Four #47](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-47.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [Round Up #2: “Four Things to Read” Issues 1-15](https://www.richardjnewman.com/round-up-2-four-things-to-read-issues-1-15.md) - A Quick Reminder This “Four Things To Read” roundup from the first fifteen issues of Four By Four is the second one I’ve sent. The first one included the sixty images from “Four Things To See,” and the third, which I have not put together yet, will “round up” everything from “Four Things To Listen… - [Four by Four #46](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-46.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [Round Up #1: “Four Things to See” Issues 1-15](https://www.richardjnewman.com/round-up-1-four-things-to-see-issues-1-15.md) - If you’ve been reading “Four By Four” regularly, you know that each issue contains a curated collection of four images, four articles, and four pieces of music. After ten issues, in other words, you’ve received forty curated items in each category. After forty-five issues, which is what I am up to… - [Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #3](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/lines-that-didnt-make-the-cut-2.md) - Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #3 You know you are expected to respond, that rules establish how to choose your words. Instead, you lead her out beyond the edge and watch her iron shackles become birds. Surrender to this failure. Shave your head. Embrace her like the resurrected dead. - [Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #4](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/lines-that-didnt-make-the-cut-3.md) - Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #4 You did not create the arrogance that lies in wait. Wilted in the sun, surrendered generosity is not an accident. Facts matter. So does silence. - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-30.md) - A lesson I learn each time I think I’ve finished a manuscript: that’s when I need to let it sit for however long it takes—this time it’s been more than a year—before I read through it at least twice more to catch at the manuscript level what needs changing. I’m always way to programmatic at first,… - [Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #2](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/lines-that-didnt-make-the-cut-1.md) - Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #2 They can’t be less inhuman than they are. The line of people leaving, a living scar across the flesh that was our home, stretched far beyond where I, at six years old, could see. Even now, that child breathes in me, riding his father's shoulders, hiding the jar of… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-29.md) - [September 2025 Events](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/september-2025-events.md) - September 9, 2025: Reading at DADA Date: September 9, 2025 Time: 7:00 Where: 60-47 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385 Admission: Free, but please buy a drink or some food to support the venue. I will be reading selections from all three of my books along with the artist and writer Lizzie Scheader.… - [“Time In The Rock”](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/time-in-the-rock.md) - And there I saw the seed upon the mountain but it was not a seed it was a star but it was not a star in was a world but it was not a world it was a god but it was not a god it was a laughter blood red within and lightning for its rind the root came out like gold and it was anger the root came out l… - [You Hate Me](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/you-hate-me.md) - You hate me, but you do not need my body for that. In fact, it’s much easier without my body. All you really need is the idea of me, the vessel into which you pour everything you're afraid is in you and that you do not want to be. - [Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #1](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/a-dream.md) - Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #1 ...when I finally slept again, I reentered the house that wasn’t mine, that I nonetheless knew as intimately as if I’d built it myself. At the turn in the hallway leading to the kitchen, I stood suddenly face to face with my mother-in-law, who was holding her phone… - [Four by Four #45](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-45.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [September 9, 2025: Reading at DADA](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/september-9-2025-a-reading-at-dada.md) - Date: September 9, 2025 Time: 7:00 Where: 60-47 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385 Admission: Free, but please buy a drink or some food to support the venue. I will be reading selections from all three of my books along with the artist and writer Lizzie Scheader. - [September 11, 2025: Reading At Book Culture LIC](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/september-11-a-reading-at-book-culture-lic.md) - Date: September 11, 2025 Time: 6:00–7:00 Where: 26-09 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101 Admission: Free I will be reading from T'shuvah along with these other fine writers: Aida Zilelian, Emily Hockaday, Jared Harél, Pichchenda Bao, and Stine An. Check out the Book Culture website for more th… - [September 13, 2025 - How Writing Poetry Helped Me Come To Terms With What The Men Who Violated Me Did To Me When I Was A Boy](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/how-writing-poetry-helped-me-come-to-terms-with-what-the-men-who-violated-me-did-to-me.md) - A Reading & Discussion at the Jackson Heights Public Library Date: Saturday, September 13 Time: 2:30-3:30 Where: 35-51 81 Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 • (718) 899-2500 Admission: Free “It was in the making of poems that I first claimed a voice in which I could name that experience for what it… - [Four By Four #44](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-44.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [Four by Four #43](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-43.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #42](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-42.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-28.md) - Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that you can’t use the wrong words. But on the other hand, here I am sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, with visions, and so on, and can’t dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhyt… - [Poetry Saved My Life](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/poetry-saved-my-life.md) - Poetry saved my life is not quite what I mean when I say it’s been a home for me, but both are true. - [from "Fixtures and Fittings," by Sarah Salway](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/from-fixtures-and-fittings-by-sarah-salway.md) - “...The eternal whispering of the kettle would have kept us awake if our beds had let us sleep, duvets rapunzelling out of windows, but still the oven and the fridge carried on their terrible dance, gleaming metal against metal, souvenir magnets of theme parks clashing with haiku fragments and hand… - [Four by Four #41](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-41.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, For Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-27.md) - A Cautionary Tale Two Khorasani dervishes were traveling together. One of them, because he fasted for two days at a time, was weak. The other ate three meals a day and was correspondingly strong. They came to a town where they were arrested at the gates on suspicion of spying. Their captors threw t… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-26.md) - My Father’s Day gift! - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-25.md) - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-24.md) - [Four by Four #40](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-40.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-23.md) - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-22.md) - The student to whom you gave an incomplete in good faith because they really were confronted with serious difficulties at the end of the semester, and seemed very serious about completing the work they were unable to do, who then tries to get over on you with a paper written by an AI that was not “… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-21.md) - Preamble We are starting to roll. We are coming to you through the internet. And when the weather is right, masked, we are coming to your door. We will ring the bell, then step back six feet and wait for you to pick up the leaflets we have left in your mailbox. And we will wait for you to open them… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-20.md) - The morning view from my window... - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-19.md) - Once upon a time... - [Four By Four #39](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-39.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, and Four Things About Me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-18.md) - A memoir is a representation of the author's encounter with memory. It is a compromise with the demands of narrative and that medium we call a book. It is less a record of the past than the record of a sustained questioning, reflective authorial inquiry. —Richard Hoffman, “Backtalk and Backlash: Th… - [Being Able To Say This Out Loud](https://www.richardjnewman.com/being-able-to-say-this-out-loud.md) - Delivered on March 10, 2025 as part of Nassau Community College's Sexual Harassment Awareness Week - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-17.md) - “A self must learn. The body is. The body knows. A self learned to act as if it is real, and learned to ignore what the body knows. The body transcends the self and not, as religions have it, the other way around; even when they posit a stand-in for the self called the soul, the idea is that a pers… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-16.md) - Interesting to compare these two views, written four hundred years apart or so: All men and women are to each other the limbs of a single body, each of us drawn from life’s shimmering essence, God’s perfect pearl; and when this life we share wounds one of us, all share the hurt as if it were our ow… - [Four by Four #38](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-38.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #37](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-37.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [February 16, 2025: Wordshed](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/february-16-2025-wordshed-2.md) - On February 16th, I will be reading in the Wordshed NYC series along with Lynne Sachs, John S. Hall, Anant Dhavale, and Lauren Dulberg. According to the Instagram post, in addition to poetry, there will be films and music. Sounds like a great evening. Here are the details: When: Sunday February 16,… - [Four By Four #36](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-36.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-15.md) - Why is it that the final poem of the book you're working on, the one that ties the entire volume together, always proves to be the most difficult to revise? - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-14.md) - A gull in Oban, August 2024. - [Four By Four #35](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-35.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-13.md) - [February 1, 2025: Winter Tides Poetry Reading in Port Jefferson](https://www.richardjnewman.com/events/untitled-12.md) - I will be reading on Feburary 1st in the Winter Tides Poetry event hosted by Emily Brandt and Cori Kresge. The event is held at The Curry Club in Port Jefferson. I’ve eaten there before; the food is marvelous! There’s an open mic, so if you have work to share, consider bringing it. When: Saturday,… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-11.md) - Lines That Didn't Make The Cut Across the span, as counterpoint, a flock of pigeons lifted into flight. “We get,” he said, “a bullet each. If you do not die, you do not die.” Nothing I regret hurts more than this: I watched the cloudless sky refuse to darken; I did not watch their guns refuse to ki… - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-10.md) - Lines That Didn't Make The Cut Desire feeds on what it finds, blurring the borders of our narrative. The ones who want to hide our past from us have woven through that book you're here to translate a warning: “Precautions are superfluous. They will be back. It is already late.” - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-9.md) - Dog Yoga - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-8.md) - Archie, two moods - [Four By Four #34](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-34-2.md) - Four Things To Read, Four Things To See, Four Things To Listen To, And Four Things About Me - [Four By Four #33 (Chanukah Edition)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-33-chanukah-edition.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-7.md) - We must not fear repetition in poetry, because sweet speech is pleasant in the repetition. —Nasir Khusraw, translated by Alice C. Hunsberger - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-6.md) - "It is [an] irony of oppression that the solution chosen to eliminate an enemy often guarantees that enemy's enduring fame. [N]o one knows the names of [Nasir Khusraw's] oppressors, but his poems...speak across centuries...to anyone who has [known] war, oppression or terror." —Alice Hunberger, Nasi… - [Four By Four #32](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-32.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-5.md) - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-4.md) - from “Reading Matsuo Bashō,” by Gemma Gorga (translated by Sharon Dolin): I wonder: how many syllables must I remove to make a perfect haiku from my life? - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-3.md) - From “Joyeux Noël” by Gemma Gorga (translated by Sharon Dolin): While you try ordering yourself in the midst of the disorder of my hands, the afternoon melts like a clump of snow. - [Four By Four #31](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-31.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #30](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-30.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #29](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-29.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled-2.md) - From Fletcher’s Field, by Derek Webster in @columba_poetry: All these years, I have lived as if a thought could sink me like a paper boat and have tried to trace back the creek that carried me out to sea. - [(Untitled)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/untitled.md) - [Four By Four #28](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-28.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #27](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-27.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #26](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-26.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [T'shuvah](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/tshuvah-2.md) - "These poems helped me see ways in which the mind, body, spirit and community…resonate[,] forming harmonies and dissonances that are instructive, discomforting, and ineluctable. In reading these poems, I felt myself returning to something I didn’t even know I’d strayed from." —Jason Schneiderman - [Words For What Those Men Have Done](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/words-for-what-those-men-have-done.md) - "[These] poems are alert to the possibility of redemption, not by transcending injury and sorrow, but by finding meaning there, and connection to others' suffering, and the bedrock truth of desire…" —Richard Hoffman - [The Silence Of Men](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/the-silence-of-men.md) - "...exposes the violence of men toward men, and men toward women, and the tenderness also, the resounding tenderness. [Newman's] is an unremitting empathy, as uncommon as it is necessary." —Robin Behn - [Four By Four #25](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-25.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #24](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-24.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Three Poems Of Mine That Should Never Again Have Become As Relevant As They Are Now](https://www.richardjnewman.com/three-poems-of-mine-that-should-never.md) - When I first shared these poems with you in June 2022—two from The Silence of Men and one from Words For What Those Men Have Done—this is how I introduced them: Sometimes you publish a poem in response to the current moment, whatever that may be, and then the moment passes, and the poem no longer f… - [Four By Four #23](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-23.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #22](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-22.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [For My Son, A Kind Of Prayer](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/for-my-son-a-kind-of-prayer.md) - "With passionate emotional and even spiritual attention, Richard Jeffrey Newman captures the primal love between father and son." —Roger Sedarat, author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic - [The Teller of Tales: Stories from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/the-teller-of-tales-stories-from-ferdowsis-shahnameh-2.md) - "Newman's excellent translation…open[s] a window on a literary work so embedded in the collective Persian consciousness that it seems a part of the daily life of every Iranian." —Iraj Anvar, translator of Say Nothing: Poems of Jalal al-Din Rumi and Divan-i-Shams-I Tabriz: Forty-eight Ghazals - [Four By Four #21](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-21.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Selections from Saadi's Bustan](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/selections-from-saadis-bustan.md) - "...it is fortunate that Richard Jeffrey Newman has undertaken this fine and engaging translation of Saadi's Bustan for English readers." —John Moyne, author of A Bird in The Garden of Angels: A Life and Times and An Anthology of Rumi - [Four By Four #20](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-20.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Selections from Saadi's Gulistan](https://www.richardjnewman.com/books/selections-from-saadis-gulistan.md) - “I will write a book to instruct and amuse the people, a gulistan, a rose garden, whose petals will not fall away at the touch of autumn’s wind, and in which it will always be spring, immune to the passing of time.” —Saadi of Shiraz - [Four By Four #19](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-19.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #18 - National Poetry Month](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-18-national-poetry-month.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #17](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-17.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #16A - Norouz Edition (Corrected)](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-16a-norouz-edition-corrected.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #15](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-15.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #14](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-14.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #13](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-13.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #12](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-12.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [The People of Gaza Keep Dying - A Poem](https://www.richardjnewman.com/the-people-of-gaza-keep-dying-a-poem.md) - Dear Friends, As a follow up to my three-part series, “Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?”—which you can read as a single essay here—I wanted to share with you a poem of mine, “The People of Gaza Keep Dying,” that was recently published on New Verse News. I have revised this version only… - [Four By Four #11](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-11.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?](https://www.richardjnewman.com/israel-and-palestine-whose-side-are-0b8.md) - Part 3 of 3: Whose Side Are You On? - [Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?](https://www.richardjnewman.com/israel-and-palestine-whose-side-are-916.md) - Part 2 of 3: Subtext - [Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?](https://www.richardjnewman.com/israel-and-palestine-whose-side-are.md) - Part 1 of 3: Context - [Four By Four #10](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-10.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #9](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-9.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four by Four #8](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-8.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #7](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-7.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four by Four #6](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-6.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #5](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-5.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four By Four #4](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-4.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [Four by Four #3](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-3.md) - Four things to read, four things to see, four things to listen to, and four things about me - [T'shuvah Is Available For Pre-Order](https://www.richardjnewman.com/tshuvah-is-available-for-pre-order.md) - Plus save-the-date information about the launch party on October 12 - [Four by Four #2](https://www.richardjnewman.com/four-by-four-2.md) - Four Things To Read 1. Kindred, by Octavia Butler - Originally published in 1979, this book tells the story of a 20th century Black woman who, along with her white husband, is brought to face to face—through a time travel neither of them can control with the complex realities of slavery. It is scar… ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.richardjnewman.com/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.richardjnewman.com/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.richardjnewman.com/llms-full.txt)