Denise, December 2006 “We are the Highbridge girls, we wear our hair in curls,” we sang. The rest of the song I have forgotten but it was about how tough we were. We were city girls. There were “gangs” in our neighborhoods, although nothing like the violence that there is today. The rumbles involved chains […]
Category: Denise’s writing – Essays and poems
Essays, poems, and more written by Denise
In Praise of Public Transportation
Denise, June 2004 My father worked for the Transit Authority in New York City, which ran the subway system. He counted money in the days before there were tokens. He would be astounded by the new swipe cards. We rode the subway often as he had a pass. When I was small, he would flash […]
Power Surges
Denise, December 2002 A few years ago I went to visit one of the Quaker Meetings on York Road and was discussing with them the difference between their meeting and the one down at Homewood. “Oh Homewood,” they said, “They’ll march for anything.” I might not march for “anything,” but within a certain political spectrum, […]
Everyone Has a Story
Denise, November 2005 “Expression is the need of my soul.” Archy the cockroach, from Archy and Mehitabel By Don Marquis I used to think everyone should write; that everyone had a story to tell and passionately held beliefs to express. I have rethought that opinion somewhat. Most people should write. For some people, their gifts […]
Rethinking Political Correctness
[W]e who are writers, who are the admirers and creators of language, should be always attuned to the power that language carries to build or to tear down, to exalt or to trample.
The Stoop
Denise, April 2015 Where I lived when I was littlewe all had stoops;stone steps or benches of concrete and brick affixed to the front of the building. Gritty and dusty in the summer heat,bleachers of the street arenabox seats to the daily drama of the west Bronx Waiting for Good Humor,watching for friends,giggling over the […]
Christianity in the United States, 2016
Denise, December 2016 Christianity is backwards and brainwashed in the United States thanks to the special relationship it forged with the Republican party in the early 80s. The history of how that partnership developed is well-known. Here’s the rub. God makes it abundantly clear through the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, through Jesus and through […]