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Azlan Guttenberg Smith

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  • 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)
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    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.

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