eileen chengyin chow

"I feel no sense of caution or restraint, nor do I have any doubts, finally. Something has come full circle. I commit the same errors as in the past but they are no longer errors. There is only beauty, passion, desire."

-Annie Ernaux, "Getting Lost" (tr. A. Strayer)

maybe Paterson?

it's a lovely film, not great nor profound and a bit sentimental - but with wonderful young actors and a very good Robin Williams. And it's a film of persuasion for the non-poets, so not surprised that you didn't see it.

Seen it (of course)

this thread makes me realize how much i have always happily embraced the zeitgeist - even as a teen in taiwan, i have seen/read/played all of the movies/books/games that folks below (presumably growing up in the west) have not

These elections are so important, Durham! Please make a plan to vote during the current primary and then the (very quick) general election.

fantastic!

I have been younger in October /
than in all the months of spring

-W.S. Merwin, who understands (we share a birthday — the last day of September)

“The Love for October”
#everynightapoem #October1st

"Ten Dispatches About Endurance in Face of Walls” (October 2004) I The wind got up in the night and took our plans away (Chinese proverb) #everynightapoem #ofsorts

The wind got up in

the night and took our plans away

-John Berger,
"Ten Dispatches About Endurance in Face of Walls”

#everynightapoem #ofsorts

‘I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring’.

Me too! Arriving at the end of September, all ready for the nights closing in.

the wind was busy last night

Kaohsiung, September 2025

📷: Contax T2
🎞️: Kodak Tmax 100 (exp. 2000)

#AnaloguePhotography

A wonderful companion resource site created by our research librarians Matthew Hayes and Adhitya Dhanapal, on the Immigration Act of 1965 and its legacies
sites.duke.edu/aadssymposium/

Poster for Six Decades Later: Legacies of the 1965 Immigration Act, Duke University Asian American Diaspora Studies Program

Today and tomorrow: "Six Decades Later: Legacies of the 1965 Immigration Act" at Duke and UNC - featured speakers include Madeline Hsu, Mae Ngai, and Pawan Dhingra - join us if you're in town!
asianamericanstudies.duke.edu/conferences/...

A wonderful companion resource site created by our research librarians Matthew Hayes and Adhitya Dhanapal, on the Immigration Act of 1965 and its legacies
sites.duke.edu/aadssymposium/

Poster for Six Decades Later: Legacies of the 1965 Immigration Act, Duke University Asian American Diaspora Studies Program

Today and tomorrow: "Six Decades Later: Legacies of the 1965 Immigration Act" at Duke and UNC - featured speakers include Madeline Hsu, Mae Ngai, and Pawan Dhingra - join us if you're in town!
asianamericanstudies.duke.edu/conferences/...

Hope - not as something you have, but something you practice into being.

It is what the philosopher Jonathan Lear has called “radical hope” - “directed towards a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is.”

Vale Professor Jonathan Lear (1948-2025)

Photo of Jonathan Lear in glasses Jonathan Lear 1948 - 2025 Philosopher, psychoanalyst, teacher Image ht harvard up

"It is not only good but wondrous that there should be mourning [...] In response to loss, we make meaning: re-creating in memory and imagination what we have lost and reanimating forms of life that might otherwise disappear." —Jonathan Lear Imagining the End Image via harvard up

Safe travels to Professor Jonathan Lear, whose words and thoughts transported so many of us.

His radical hope remains.

That entire week, I was in awe of how seriously he took Freud as a way to think through our lives, and how seriously he took every student in the class. 2/2

Sad to see this news, belatedly. I was lucky to attend a week-long seminar with Lear as a graduate student, and he was incredibly kind despite (or perhaps because of) how green I was. 1/2

"Ten Dispatches About Endurance in Face of Walls” (October 2004) I The wind got up in the night and took our plans away (Chinese proverb) #everynightapoem #ofsorts

The wind got up in

the night and took our plans away

-John Berger,
"Ten Dispatches About Endurance in Face of Walls”

#everynightapoem #ofsorts

Scan of a typed letter from 1970, from Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, addressed to "Joel Lipton, 622 N. Foothill Road, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210" It reads: "Dear Joel: I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen than it has ever been before. Certainly all any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy. Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call "American Virtues" who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities. Sincerely yours, Charles M. Schulz" At bottom is an illustration of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, a kite wrapped around the dog house.

Written 55 years ago, Schulz's heartfelt clarity cuts through the noise, even today.

h/t @tisserand.bsky.social

Thank you!

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

Tang poet Liu Yuxi 劉禹錫 (772–842) wrote in 秋詞 "Autumn Song"

自古逢秋悲寂寥
我言秋日勝春朝
晴空一鶴排雲上
便引詩情到碧霄

Since ancient times, autumns are met with sadness and loneliness
I say autumn days outshine spring morns
As a crane soars above the clouds in clear skies
My poetic sentiments are drawn to the azure heavens

Hope is a muscle, not a mood.

I have been younger in October /
than in all the months of spring

-W.S. Merwin, who understands (we share a birthday — the last day of September)

“The Love for October”
#everynightapoem #October1st

photo of Jane Goodall in Taipei in a public lecture, a stuffed animal monkey holding a banana is on the desk beside her

I am so sorry to hear the news.

Jane Goodall has passed away, October 1, 2025. She just spoke in Taipei in June: "Young people are the future...we've been stealing their future for a very long time..So we've got to spend time with them and help them understand [that there] is a way forward."

Gym bros, monks, retirees: thousands descend on Taiwan town to clean up after devastating flood Trains packed with volunteers arrive at tourist town of Guangfu, days after typhoon sent millions of tonnes of mud and water crashing through its streets

People can still be kind 👍 - great dispatch and pics from Helen Davidson www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Happy birthday -