Author Archives: Assistant Director

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. In praise of fathers and mothers.  No, not the ones we are born to – I’d hope we need no reminder for that gratitude.  I mean those cultural/spiritual/societal patriarchs and matriarchs that materialized … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. The first thing to know about literary ‘translation’: it’s an impossibility – especially when it comes to poetry.  Not only are there rarely direct equivalencies between languages, there’s the matter of those … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. The new, for better or worse, is perhaps the most prized quality in art-making: the cutting-edge creative style, voice, or subject matter.  But in truth all creation, even the most radical, has … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. Everyone loves a good ghost story – Charles Dickens understood that – not to mention the dream of second chances.  So when old Mr. Scrooge is visited by his phantom possibilities, we … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. People are always creating systems to classify/categorize/pigeonhole individuals, often with little success.  Yet I believe I can neatly divide humanity into two distinct groups: those who collect and those who disperse.  (I’m of the former category, … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. “Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices…And then…we, who always think we are small, will feel still … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. I’m baffled – let’s start with that.  And often frustrated, angry and, yes, ashamed.  We are forever living – all of us – inside the echo of George Floyd’s pleas for help.  Inside the … Continue reading →

Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s Poet Laureate, is today’s guest blogger. It’s not the turkey – though symbols and traditions do foster a sense of continuity.  It’s not just the table heaped high with all manner of delicacies – though it’s rare that … Continue reading →