Skip to content

Azlan Guttenberg Smith

  • Welcome
  • VOICES Portfolio
  • Uproar – a quote every Wednesday
  • About & Past Posts
    • 293: “Arranged Like Cheap Furniture” (Tony Medina)
    • 292: “Through Time” (Sandra McDonald)
    • 291: Listen To Your Mascara (Griggs & Chodosh)
    • 290: “Limits of Our Imagining” (Heather Christle)
    • 289: Metaphors “Map Meaning” (Taylor & Dewsbury)
    • 288: “An Ancient Pond” (Matsuo Bashō)
    • 287: “The Hill We Climb” (Amanda Gorman)
    • 286: No ‘Primal Brushstroke’ (Robert Rauschenberg)
    • 285: “His Freedom And Yours” (Zubaida Ula and Bob Moses)
    • 284: “The Phrase ‘Each Other’” (Rumi)
    • 283: “Swirling Between The Rocks” (Ali Liebegott)
    • 282: “No!” (You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown)
    • 281: “As The Music” (Le Guin and Morgenstern)
    • 280: “A Tiny Bit Of Yourself” (Raina Telgemeier)
    • 279: “In The Same Room” (Richard McGuire)
    • 278: “Talking Nonsense” (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
    • 277: “If Water There Be” (Herman Melville)
    • 276: Past The Walls (Warren Buffet)
    • 275: “In The Garden” (James Thurber)
    • 274: “Putting Parentheses” (Jorge Lucero)
    • 273: “A Good Book Listens” (Mark Haddon)
    • 272: “The End” Of Action (Aristotle)
    • 271: “Wait A Day” (Chris Glomski)
    • 270: “Where We Might Begin” (Ocean Vuong)
    • 269: “I Recognized” (Carmen Maria Machado)
    • 268: “An Economic Role” (Sally Rooney)
    • 265: “Next Week” (The Great British Baking Show)
    • 264: “I Started Doodling” (Sydney Padua)
    • 263: “The Ninety-Nine” (Maggie Stiefvater)
    • 262: “Simply More” (Ocean Vuong)
    • 261: “Personal […] Symbols” (Alex Shakar)
    • 260: “Only About” (Tillie Walden)
    • 259: “No Control Over Us” (Tillie Walden)
    • 258: “Everyone I Know” (Tillie Walden)
    • 257: “Too Much Joy” (Ocean Vuong)
    • 256: “Everything Except” (Andrea Hairston)
    • 255: A “Sense of Proportion” (Douglas Adams)
    • 254: Definitions: “Immortality” (Margaret Atwood)
    • 253: “Hear Her Breathing” (Arundhati Roy)
    • 252: Schiller’s Pond (Friedrich Schiller)
    • 251: “Just An Opportunity” (Howell Chickering)
    • 250: “The Silent Church” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
    • 249: “When You Are Calm” (Yoda)
    • 248: “Stay Quietly” (Pascal)
    • 247: In Reading, “Flow Through” (Celeste Ng)
    • 246: “Antipredictions” & Point Positive (Atwood)
    • 245: “Like Cleaning” (Zep)
    • 244: Share Your Story?
    • 243: “Listen Harder” (Samuel Beckett)
    • 242: “Where To Go” (Jennifer Hayden)
    • 241: “The Heart You Were Given” (Meagan Cass)
    • 240: Being, Becoming, & Turning (Yu and Bechdel)
    • 239: “Beyond One’s Grasp” (Alex Shakar)
    • 238: “Prepared To See” Differently (Emerson)
    • 237: “Prepared To See” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
    • 236: “One’s Own Motives” (Sharon Traweek)
    • 235: “She Reaches Over / To Me” (Janet Wong)
    • 234: Building Sandcastles (Alison Bechdel)
    • 233: “An Ongoing Thing” (Linda Hogan)
    • 232: “Arrive With Every Step” (Thích Nhất Hạnh)
    • 231: A Walk With My Niece (Tagore)
    • 230: Unconscious Caves (Joseph Campbell)
    • 229: “Half-Known World” (Robert Boswell)
    • 228: How To Change A Tire (Stanley Elkin)
    • 227: “I Dreamt I Went”
    • 226: “Being Lost” (Leanne Simpson)
    • 225: “A Lot of Voices” (Zadie Smith)
    • 224: “The Child on the Shore” (Le Guin)
    • 223: “Poets Aren’t Very Useful” (Ogden Nash)
    • 222: Flashlights And Trees (Brosgol and Emerson)
    • 221: “You Will See” (Linda Hogan)
    • 220: “Delete ‘I Believe’” (Linda Brodkey)
    • 219: “The Fragility of Mortals” (Madeline Miller)
    • 218: “A Practice of Mystery” (TC Tolbert)
    • 217: “So I Bought You A City” (Dina Guidubaldi)
    • 216: “The Adding In” (Gordon Neufeld)
    • 215: “Only Connect” (Kathleen Yancey)
    • 214: “Where I Can See No Further” (Anne Carson)
    • 213: “Tolerate Losing” (Mark Helprin)
    • 212: “A Weaver Without Wool” (Madeline Miller)
    • 211: “Right Through You” (Thompson-Spires)
    • 210: “I Am Not Trying To Rob You” (Tolkien)
    • 209: “A Myth That Tells Them” (James Welch)
    • 208: “Arguing With A Dead Man” (Ian McEwan)
    • 207: “His Share Of The Work” (Jack London)
    • 206: “Proof Of Your Existence” (Wright & Fridlund)
    • 205: “Wolves Would Swallow Me Up” (Burnett & Klassen)
    • 204: “Grazes Dreams” (James Tate)
    • 203: “What’ll You Fall For?” (Miranda & Albert)
    • 202: “Which of Them Would Win” (Theodora Goss)
    • 201: Artichokes & Emotions (Wolff & Guttfreund)
    • 200: “Dazzle Gradually” (Emily Dickinson)
    • 199: Remembering Rishi (T. S. Eliot)
    • 198: “I Can Lose” (Doctor Strange)
    • 197: “This Whole World” (Franz Wright)
    • 196: “One Disease, Long Life” (Benjamin Hoff)
    • 195: “Untie The Knot” (Khrushchev & Thompson)
    • 194: “To Cradle The Boy He Was” (Janice Harrington)
    • 193: “Charming Gardeners” (Marcel Proust)
    • 192: “Hoot Owl, Martin, Crow” (Janice Harrington)
    • 191: “…still.” (Ted Sanders)
    • 190: Making Faces At The World (Thackeray)
    • 189: “Listen” (Krishnamurti & Le Guin)
    • 188: “The Art Of Losing”
    • 187: “To Injure An Opponent” (Morihei Ueshiba)
    • 186: “Every Word Is Part Lie” (Emily Fridlund)
    • 185: “Whenever You’re Right” (Ogden Nash)
    • 184: “Limits of My Language” (Wittgenstein)
    • 183: Isn’t It Romantic (Wendy Wasserstein)
    • 182: “Pick Up And Go” (Lynn Nottage)
    • 181: “Everyone Knows This” (Lao Tsu)
    • 180: “To Be Somebody” (Danielle Evans)
    • 179: “Issik” (Becky Chambers)
    • 178: “An Attempt At Song” (August Wilson)
    • 177: “Nested There Harmoniously” (Claire Vaye Watkins)
    • 176: “The Next Ten Years” (Margot Livesey)
    • 175: John Muir & Sleeping Outside
    • 174: Ramen and Tea (Ursula Le Guin)
    • 173: Romance and “Self-fulfillment” (Wendy Wasserstein)
    • 172: “Conscious Suffering” (Mahatma Gandhi)
    • 171: “Like Two Great Tears” (Neil Gaiman)
    • 170: “What Do You Want?” (J. Robert Lennon)
    • 169: “Reasons Behind This Stuff” (David Foster Wallace)
    • 168: “A Flute Can Be Made Of A Man” (Ross Gay)
    • 167: “Some Secret Plan” (Yuri Herrera)
    • 166: “A Time For Simplicity” (Margaret Edson)
    • 165: “Love Your Self’s Self” (Anne Sexton)
    • 164: A “Connection Between the Past and the Present” (Wendy Wasserstein)
    • 163: For Myself, But Not Only For Myself (Rabbi Hillel)
    • 162: Pessimism Is “Not A Philosophy” (Immortal Technique)
    • 161: “Get Over It” (Ezekiel J. Emanuel)
    • 160: “Summer Resort” (avogado6)
    • 159: What “The Planet Does Not Need” (David W. Orr)
    • 158: “Not The Only One” (John Lennon)
    • 157: “Wyrd” (Mishell Baker)
    • 156: “Defiance Rather Than Hope” (J. R. R. Tolkien)
    • 155: “Clere” (Leonard & Kingsnorth)
    • 154: The Questions Inside “Silence” (Kwame Alexander)
    • 153: A “Full Complement of Beavers” (Ben Goldfarb)
    • 152: “Everything We See Hides Another Thing” (René Magritte)
    • 151: “If We Didn’t Love Each Other” (Kwame Alexander)
    • 150: “Everybody Has To Work, Right?” (Bá & Moon)
    • 149: “Good As New” (Jim Butcher)
    • 148: “Separate Selves” (Christopher Moore)
    • 147: “A Subgenre of Sci-Fi” (Mindy Kaling)
    • 146: “This Room Is Not Clean” (James Thurber)
    • 145: “My Skull” (Caitlin Doughty)
    • 144: “From A Far Horizon” (Harlan Ellison)
    • 143: “Only One Kind Of Life” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
    • 142: “That Voice of Ugly Truth” (Sabina Murray)
    • 141: “The World Had Shrunk” (Noy Holland)
    • 140: Reckless, silly, right (Abbie Hoffman)
    • 139: “Not Instead of a Thing” (Diana Wynne Jones)
    • 138: “A Line Going For A Walk” (Paul Klee)
    • 137: “Outside Your Apartment” (Anselm Kiefer)
    • 136: “An Air Of Complete Boredom” (Stephen Hawking)
    • 135: “The Shoulders of Giants” (Isaac Newton)
    • 134: Twenty Minutes of “Courage and Imagination” (H. G. Wells)
    • 133: Mammals and Dandelions (Neil Gaiman)
    • 132: “If He Cannot Tell Her” (Sarah Perry)
    • 131: “The Arrogance of the Artist” (James Michener)
    • 130: “Detached” (Lao Tsu & Frederick II)
    • 129: “What I Am Taught” (Nnedi Okorafor)
    • 128: “The Obligation To Try And Be Beautiful” (Sarah Perry)
    • 127: “I Didn’t Get My Dad” (Benjamin Alire Sáenz)
    • 126: “I Hope We Never Die” (James Goldman)
    • 125: “The Spoken Relationship” (Russell Means)
    • 124: “My Mind Rebels At Stagnation” (Arthur Conan Doyle)
    • 123: “Always Beginning” (Rainer Maria Rilke)
    • 122: “Feel The Noize” (Slade)
    • 121: The Eye Doctor and the Homeless Man
    • 120: Chabon’s Questions (Michael Chabon)
    • 119: “Her Own Society” (Emily Dickinson)
    • 118: “I Don’t Wait” (Ted Sanders)
    • 117: “And Re-Enact at the Vestry-Glass” (Thomas Hardy)
    • 116: “The Same Good Things” (Richard Wilbur)
    • 115: Scribbling, Typing, Writing (Kerouac & Capote)
    • 114: “It Is Not My Playing” (Star Trek: TNG)
    • 113: “Frightened By Fairy Tales” (Wislawa Szymborska)
    • 112: “Let’s Be Honest” (Randall Munroe)
    • 111: Pascal’s Sides (Blaise Pascal)
    • 110: “Freedom Is An Illusion” (Jonathan Stroud)
    • 109: Simon’s Mother (Saul Bellow)
    • 108: Mampanyin’s Permission (Yaa Gyasi)
    • 107: “As A Poet” (Richard Wilbur)
    • 106: “The Battlefield Called Vigrid” (Neil Gaiman)
    • 105: The Backfire Effect (The Oatmeal)
    • 104: “There Are Worse Things” (Grease)
    • 103: “Inviolable, Vulnerable, Alive” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
    • 102: “The Best Way” (Bill Watterson)
    • 101: “Without Even Thinking About It” (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
    • 100: “Look Around, Look Around” (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
    • 99: “Wanted To Love You” (Seanan McGuire)
    • 98: A Wonder of the World” (Jo Walton)
    • 97: “Like Sleep” (Lawrence & Lee)
    • 96: “Wait For A Time” (Saint-Exupéry)
    • 95: “The One You Feed”
    • 94: “Emotional Granularity” (Lisa Feldman Barrett)
    • 93: “Make Room For What You Are” (John Scalzi)
    • 92: “I’ll Meet You There” (Rumi)
    • 91: “Nothing But The Night” (A. E. Housman)
    • 90: “The Pattern That Everything Makes” (Jo Walton)
    • 89: “Irreverence” (Mary Ruefle)
    • 88: “It Needn’t Be A Race” (Simon Sinek)
    • 87: “Memory Is Redundant” (Italo Calvino)
    • 86: “You Are In This Water” (Yaa Gyasi)
    • 85: “How To Walk” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
    • 84: “It’s What You Are” (Charley Thweatt)
    • 83: “Among the Green Leaves” (Jane Goodall)
    • 82: Hephaestus (Saul Bellow)
    • 81: “More Like Gardening” (N. K. Jemisin)
    • 80: “The Breaking of the Shell” (Kahlil Gibran)
    • 79: “Staging These Fears” (Marina Abramović)
    • 78: How Sweet It Tastes (David Mochel)
    • 77: “Beat A Rattlesnake To Death” (Michael Chabon)
    • 76: “What Do You Do With an Idea?” (Yamada & Eliot)
    • 75: “How Sweet The Sound” (John Newton)
    • 74: Why We Frame A Painting (Billy Collins)
    • 73: “Without Folly” (La Rochefoucauld)
    • 72: “Sons and Daughters” (Khalil Gibran)
    • 71: “The Same Structure” (Edwin Leahy)
    • 70: “Without Water” (Angeles Arrien)
    • 69: “Only In Relationship” (J. Krishnamurti)
    • 68: “Wonderfully and Only Half-Understandably” (Aldous Huxley)
    • 67: “A Gift To Somebody Else” (Leahy & Wallace)
    • 66: Three Poets (Kipling, Whitman, & Sexton)
    • 65: Sweeping (William Wordsworth)
    • 64: “As Strong As The Whispers” (Angeles Arrien)
    • 63: “Do, or do not.” (Yoda)
    • 62: Princess Ulga and the Giants (Ted Naifeh)
    • 61: “Not Because They Are Easy” (Bill Bryson)
    • 60: “Among Geniuses” (Edmond Rostand)
    • 59: “A Beautiful Little Fool” (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
    • 58: “You Was Never My Age” (West Side Story)
    • 57: “Passion By January 1st” (Julie Lythcott-Haims)
    • 56: “Why Be Out Here” (Philip Larkin)
    • 55: “That Matches His Desire” (Naomi Novik)
    • 54: “A Branch of Cartography” (Michael Chabon)
    • 53: Comfort And Cherry Blossoms (Peter S. Beagle)
    • 52: “Remember” (Ethel Cook Eliot)
    • 51: “A Living Legend” (Louis L’Amour)
    • 50: Not A River, But Rain (John Updike)
    • 49: “Swimming All The Time” (Terry Pratchett)
    • 48: “Calvin” (Bill Watterson)
    • 47: Two Views On Time (J. R. R. Tolkien)
    • 46: “Work For Two” (A. E. Housman)
    • 45: “Far From Shore” (Bill Bryson)
    • 44: “Different Universes” (Bill Bryson)
    • 43: “Nine Tenths of Alchemy” (Patrick Rothfuss)
    • 42: “The Answer to the Great Question” (Douglas Adams)
    • 41: “Shine Upon Them” (John Keats)
    • 40: “A Good Heart” (Kristin Cashore)
    • 39: “Darkness” (N. K. Jemisin)
    • 38: “An Apology” (Amity Gaige)
    • 37: “All The World’s A Stage” (Shakespeare & Whitman)
    • 36: Days, Not Moments (Margaret Atwood)
    • 35: “Nothing Happens.” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
    • 34: “The Walrus Said” (Lewis Carroll)
    • 33: Diastolic, Systolic (Kim Townsend)
    • 32: “The Long Language of the Rock” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
    • 31: “There Must Be A Result” (J. Krishnamurti)
    • 30: “Right Rather Than Righteous” (Stephen Hawking)
    • 29: “What I’ve Been Teaching” (Ernest Gaines)
    • 28: “Too Much With Us” (William Wordsworth)
    • 27: “Tumbled” (Neil Gaiman)
    • 26: “In This Together” (Monika Kørra)
    • 25: “Not As They Seem” (Buddhist Teaching)
    • 24: “The Belief” (David Mochel)
    • 23: “Creative Reading” (R. W. Emerson)
    • 22: “Enough Words of Power” (Le Guin & Wodehouse)
    • 21: “Here We Stand” (Walt Whitman)
    • 20: “Earth’s The Right Place For Love” (Frost & Minchin)
    • 19: Trivially, Darling (Oscar Wilde)
    • 18: “In The Problem Itself” (J. Krishnamurti)
    • 17: “Like Love” (Raymond Chandler)
    • 16: “Be A Beginner” (Rainer Maria Rilke)
    • 15: “Our Roots Are In The Dark” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
    • 14: “The Hands of Strangers” (Margaret Atwood)
    • 13: “They Also Serve” (Milton & Tagore)
    • 12: “I Dream” / “Beyond Ideas” (Shaw & Rumi)
    • 11: “Never Grand” (Aldous Huxley)
    • 10: “Wednesday” (Norse Mythology)
    • 9: “A Succession of Masks” (W. H. Auden)
    • 8: “Beyond Confusion” (Jon Krakauer)
    • 7: “Her Own Emotions” (Neil Gaiman)
    • 6: “The Surest Sign of Wisdom” (Michel de Montaigne)
    • 5: “Living Truthfully” (Sanford Meisner)
    • 4: “Only the tears” (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
    • 3: “That You Might Know Me” (Arthur Miller)
    • 2: “The richer for regret” (Richard Wilbur)
    • Quote 1: Uproar’s Idea (Michel de Montaigne)
  • More

    Welcome!

    I’m Azlan Guttenberg Smith, MFA, an educator and public humanities researcher based in Illinois. Here you’ll find examples from my collaborative research series, Voices, and my weekly Uproar musings.

    Share this:

    • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
    • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 69 other subscribers
    Blog at WordPress.com.
    • Subscribe Subscribed
      • Azlan Guttenberg Smith
        • Join 69 other subscribers
      • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
      • Azlan Guttenberg Smith
      • Subscribe Subscribed
      • Sign up
      • Log in
      • Copy shortlink
      • Report this content
      • View post in Reader
      • Manage subscriptions
      • Collapse this bar
     

    Loading Comments...