Wim Coleman

Amid the Ashes of the House of Commons — London, May 1941 And Churchill wept as he saw his beloved House in ruins. —Vernon Bartlett  Deliverance wears thus a mocking face, the last bomb of the last raid stabbing sharp and deep into our moral belly. How ra…

Watching the East Wing of the White House being destroyed brings this poem to mind. (The post includes a recording of me reading it.)

playsonideas.com/2021/05/10/a...

Today a supposed ICE agent approached my Mexican-born daughter demanding to see identification proving she's a U.S. citizen. She showed him her U.S. passport card. The only possible reason he had for approaching her was because she is brown.
If you voted for Trump, you brought this on us all.

More AI musings on my play "The Mad Scene" …

Google AI just came up with this thematic analysis of my play "The Mad Scene."

www.google.com/search?q=Ela...

Voltaire and Catherine the Great discuss American democracy … Wim’s new play Wiser than the Night is a witty and sweeping drama of ideas that asks a trenchant question about democracy: “What went wrong?” Set in 1981 in the wake of Ronald Reagan&#82…

This post is getting a flurry of clicks today from Montenegro. I wonder why …

playsonideas.com/2025/02/17/v...

Ruins for the Future I see this meme pop up from time to time. And yes, I too feel a certain pang about the Library of Alexandria. Even so, I can’t help but wonder if our grief might be a tad misplaced. For one thing, …

But was it such a big deal, really? That's the question Pat and I ask in our current blog post.

playsonideas.com/2025/06/20/r...

Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’ Marci Shore made news around the world when her family moved to Canada. She discusses Trump, teaching history and how terror atomises society

“The lesson of 1933 is: you get out sooner rather than later.”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

HAPPY PRIDE!

Trump shares baseless conspiracy that Joe Biden died and was replaced by a clone Trump shared a Truth Social post written by a supporter that claims Biden was killed in 2020 and replaced, unbeknownst to Democrats.

I can only assume that my Trumpist-Putinist acquaintances are fully on board with this.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Open Arts Forum | Quintains of the Red Death Poetry by Wim Coleman

Thanks to the editors of Open Arts Forum for publishing my poem "Quintains of the Red Death" today.

openartsforum.com/24184-2/?fbc...

Kennedy Swims in Washington Creek That Flows With Sewage and Bacteria

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, shared photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in waters that handle sewer overflow."

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/u...

“The Cruelty Is the Point” It’s been almost five years since I posted some thoughts about Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and how it relates to our times. Revisiting those thoughts today, those thoug…

Our new blog post: thoughts on reading Mark Twain in the age of Donald Trump …

playsonideas.com/2025/05/06/t...

Trump says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold constitutional due process President also says he sees himself as leaving office at the end of his current term and not seeking a third one

He solemnly swore—twice—to preserve, protect, and defend a document he's never read.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump posts image of himself as pope on Truth Social. Critics erupt President’s post comes days after he joked ‘I’d like to be Pope... that would be my number one choice’

And of course Trumpist-Putinists are fine with this as long as it upsets liberals.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Happy Birthday to Mary Wollstonecraft …

"Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison."

Pat's piece "Life Forms, Eventually to Wonder," on display in the Down to Earth exhibit at the Artcenter in Carrboro …

Trump denies aid for Arkansas after storms that killed more than 40 people Latest denial of disaster funding comes as Trump has repeatedly stated he wants to eliminate Fema

“As long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington DC will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River.” —Sarah Huckabee Sanders in January

This is what success looks like.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In the Name of Liberty … Just as an individual, subjected to certain inner pressures beyond his endurance, will suddenly go mad and destroy himself or those around him, so too, apparently, can a segment of society take lea…

Our new blog post about my play "The Mad Scene" and its pertinence today …

Oh, Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!
—Madame Roland before her beheading on November 8, 1793

playsonideas.com/2025/04/10/i...

Issue #14 of our FREE monthly newsletter MUTANT FOXES is our LAST issue! (playsonideas.com/.../2025/04/...)
It concerns many of our books that are about to be removed from schools and libraries.

I Should Have Seen This Coming When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won...

Another conservative heard from—David Brooks:

"Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful."

It is truly a time for shame.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Just ran across this alarmingly timely poem by Adrienne Rich …

"… our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear."

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51092/...

Open Arts Forum | America in 2019 Poetry by Wim Coleman

This poem of mine was published back in 2019. I SO wish it now seemed quaint and outdated.

openartsforum.com/america-in-2...

Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica Australian prime minister surprised after remote external territories – including islands home to penguins – targeted by US president

More government efficiency at work. Now he's going after the penguins, which isn't smart. A trade war with penguins is sure to turn really ugly.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The Gateway of the Soul: Queen Christina and the Death of Descartes — a short play Characters: René Descartes Queen Christina The scene is the royal library in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 1, 1650, at about 5:00 a.m. Queen Christina is dressed in male attire. René Descartes ent…

For René Descartes's birthday, a short play in which I finger his killer …

playsonideas.com/2014/09/24/t...

“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said.

Greenlanders aren't welcoming their liberators with open arms.

thehill.com/policy/inter...

India Is on a Hiring Binge That Trump’s Tariffs Can’t Stop An abundance of motivated young professionals is luring American businesses to base their global operations in Indian cities.

While Trump obsesses about manufacturing, white-collar jobs, "the kind of jobs that American workers envy," are going to India.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/b...

Pat has a painting on the front page of Open Arts today! Click to see it.

openartsforum.com/summer/?fbcl...

“We are hopeful to begin republishing content next week,” Kerry Meeker, a cemetery spokeswoman, said in an email on Friday.

Is that supposed to be reassuring?

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/u...

Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased.

Gather 'round me people
There's a story I would tell
'Bout a brave young Indian
You should remember well …
—The Ballad of Ira Hayes, by Peter La Farge
The most popular cover of this song was by Johnny Cash.

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Musk Email Reaches Italian Workers. It Did Not Go Well. Employees at the Aviano Air Base who serve American forces got a familiar demand to list their achievements. Unions say Italy “is not the Wild West like the U.S.”

Government efficiency at work …

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/w...