Michael Baldwin – författare

A chronological illustrated analysis of fifty-eight years of work by the collective Art & Language  Art & Language is an artists’ collective that was founded in 1965 by a group of British and American artists. The name Art & Language is derived from the journal Art-Language (first published in Coventry in May 1969), which originated in the work of Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin (from 1966) in association with Harold Hurrell and David Bainbridge, who were its original editors. Art & Language was used subsequently to identify the joint and several artistic works of these four to reflect the conversational basis of their activity which, by late 1969, included contributions from New York by Joseph Kosuth, Ian Burn, and Mel Ramsden.  Art & Language is not only focused on creating artworks but also develops its art theory and is of crucial importance in the understanding and theoretical underpinning of conceptual art in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1976 the genealogical thread of this artistic work had been taken into the hands of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, with whom it remains.

First published in 1959, Poetry without Tears is a book not about what poetry is. The author argues that this book is not concerned with the educational resurrection of a dead art but about the artistic resurrection of education. Poetry is a force released in activity. That is how an educationalist and a poet see it. It is rarely how critics and academics see it. They see it as a series of poems, correspondingly it is as a ‘Collection of Poems’ that it is taught. Basic educational truths are frequently overlooked in our teaching of the arts, and no art suffers more from this than poetry. Baldwin goes on to say that in the end teaching is a creative activity and the creators are the best teachers. This book is a must read for students of both literature and education.

First published in 1959, Poetry without Tears is a book not about what poetry is. The author argues that this book is not concerned with the educational resurrection of a dead art but about the artistic resurrection of education. Poetry is a force released in activity. That is how an educationalist and a poet see it. It is rarely how critics and academics see it. They see it as a series of poems, correspondingly it is as a ‘Collection of Poems’ that it is taught. Basic educational truths are frequently overlooked in our teaching of the arts, and no art suffers more from this than poetry. Baldwin goes on to say that in the end teaching is a creative activity and the creators are the best teachers. This book is a must read for students of both literature and education.

An introduction to EMDR, a proven trauma therapy with the power to heal, cowritten by a world-renowned therapist and a patient who experienced transformative relief through EMDR therapy. Trauma is a part of life. You or someone you care about has probably experienced trauma, whether “big-T” trauma, such as emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or the more common but no less significant “little-t” trauma that can result from divorce, job loss, painful childhood experiences, or any situation where you felt worthless, afraid, or powerless. Untreated trauma can lead to long lasting effects such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and difficulties maintaining intimate relationships. But the good news is that we can heal—and it doesn’t have to take a lifetime. EMDR (which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a unique type of psychotherapy proven to help people recover from trauma and improve the quality of their lives. Cowritten by a patient who experienced transformative relief from trauma through EMDR therapy, and a world-renowned psychologist who explains exactly how and why EMDR works, Every Memory Deserves Respect provides clear information while offering inspiration and hope. Through compelling science, personal stories, and powerful photographic images, we learn how trauma is stored in the brain and body, continuing to cause pain and suffering, and how EMDR frees us by repatterning our thinking and emotional reactions. It explains why talk therapy has only a limited impact on trauma recovery, describes what to expect from gentle and targeted EMDR therapy, and offers guidance on how to find a therapist who is just right for you.

This is the fourth volume of my Passing Strange series of science fiction and weird short stories. It may be the last, since I think I've run out of titles that are variants of 'Passing Strange.' Well, I can always start another series.As with the stories in the other books of this series, I've kept these tales short and plot-based. Each story, tho strange and improbable, is based, in part, on hard science. In order to explicate the scientific aspect, I've appended the author's notes to several of the stories that were heavily based on recent scientific findings.You will note from the previous paragraph that I am continuing to use the words 'tho' for 'though' and 'thru' for 'through,' as I have thruout the previous volumes. I hope other writers will adopt this convention, which I believe eliminates some of the confusion and distraction brought about by the similarity of those Anglo Saxon verbal/visual delinquencies: 'though,' 'thought,' 'through,' and 'thorough.'Several of these stories carry personal associations of some kind. Abomination was inspired when my writer friend Bret and I exhibited our books at a local paranormal cosplay fair, where I observed many people in weird costumes. It caused me to think this might be the perfect place for a real alien to appear without being noticed. The mouth of the Abomination is pictured at the end of that story.The writing of Beastly Bar was a challenge from a friend who sent me a beastly birthday card to base a story on. The card image appears at the end of the story.Catch and Release was inspired by my son-in-law, Jesse, after he returned from a fly-fishing trip in which only catch-and-release was allowed. The fishing fly mentioned in the story is pictured at its end.Mind-Locked was partially the product of witnessing my father's locked-in mind condition for several months before he died.The Paper Knife draws on my career as a librarian. Early on I was tasked with inventorying a group of rare books in a spooky basement of the Fort Worth Public Library.Almost reflects my long-standing interest in both neuroscience and Neanderthals. I have written a thriller with a half-Neanderthal boy as the protagonist and I am currently writing a book on the neuroscience of poetry.Cabal uses the same time-travel conceit and location as the story "e;Elevator Talk"e; in my book Beyond Passing Strange.All the World's A Stage riffs on my experiences with the eccentricities of actors I encountered while producing plays during my library career.The other stories here, as I stated, are based on recent scientific discoveries I found interesting. See the author notes at the end of each for details.As with my other books in this series, these stories were written not only to entertain, but to stimulate thought and conversation. I hope that will be the case for you.

Friends since childhood, musicians Max and Larry, simultaneously fall in love with Kitty, but perhaps for different reasons. Larry's ex-wife, JJ, helps Kitty cope with the men's pursuit of her, and JJ falls in love with Kitty herself. Kitty marries Larry, to her regret, and has an affair with Max, which Larry discovers. Their ruined relationships implode on September 11, 2001, as the twin towers collapse. Max leaves to lick his wounds by reporting on the war in Afghanistan. He is blown up, rescued by a Sufi mystic, survives attack by the Taliban, and returns home to joy, rejection, and death. But all is not lost in a universe of infinite possibilities. Roll Back the Sun is perhaps the greatest literary love story since Dr. Zhivago.

Nightmareica is the sometimes anguished, frequently sarcastic, often ironic, response to America's political and social absurdities by Michael Baldwin, a former professor of American Government, civil rights activist, and concerned citizen. His critical and satirical poetry powerfully illuminates how American government has been usurped by Big Business and the ultra-wealthy to serve their own interests rather than the common good. Meanwhile the average citizen is distracted from considering real political and economic issues by addictive but frivolous technologies, by fabricated social problems that divide us into opposing factions, and by cynical wars that are required to keep us uber-patriotic and our weapons industries humming. Like the frog contentedly allowing itself to be boiled alive, Americans continue to work, drug, drive, and gun themselves to death, while telling themselves and being told by their billionaire masters that they are the freest and most privileged people in history. This is a wake-up call presented not in a dry factual essay or statistical charts, but in poetry that finds your mind like a sharp knife.

Love is and has been the most ubiquitous and intense subject of individual and social concern throughout human history. Moreover, love has been a primary topic for philosophers and religionists through the ages. Even as materialistic science came to dominate society in modern times, love became a major subject for scientific investigation through psychology, sociology, anthropology, archeology, biology, biochemistry, and most recently, neuroscience.Love has been the most compelling theme in music, literature, and the visual arts for thousands of years (e.g. the voluptuous female figurines of 35,000 years ago, ancient Egyptian tomb drawings, erotic carvings on Cambodian and Indian Hindu temples, the Bible's Song of Solomon, erotic poetry of ancient Greece, ancient Roman pornographic images, female nudes in European art since Botticelli's Birth of Venus in 1485, and, in modern times, love and sex are a primary focus of popular music, movies, television, literature, and social media). Of course, all the major religions promote the love of God and humanity (however hypocritically) as the basis of belief and worship.As a thoughtful young adult, Michael Baldwin wondered why the importance of love is so universally invoked, and yet how seldom true love is realized. Humanity, while advocating love, engages more in hate, violence, lust for material gain, and the exploitation of power over people and nature. Furthermore, loveless, casual sex and addiction to pornography are now major pathological conditions in modern society.Seeking to resolve for himself the contradictions and ambiguities of love, he researched love's various manifestations (romantic, familial, philia, spiritual, etc.); what we love (other humans, gods, pets, nature, beauty, art, country, etc.); why we love (pheromone excitation, genetic proclivities, brain hormones, emotional tendencies, psychological exigencies, etc.); and, of course, what love is in its essence (still a great mystery until you read my essay at the end of this book).Thus, you will find the poems in this volume have been loosely categorized into nine sections, which explore and hopefully elucidate love from various perspectives. By bringing these several (but by no means exhaustive) facets of love together in one book, Baldwin hopes to stimulate the reader to thinking more deeply about the enigmatic nature of love. Furthermore, in the concluding essay, he describes how he discovered the answer to love's enigma and explain why love is truly the Only Important Thing.

Mantras From the Moon, by Michael Baldwin, consists of 53 Zen poems by Michael Baldwin and 66 full color, public-domain images, many from vintage Japanese woodblock prints. Baldwin also provides basic explanations of the concepts of Zen philosophy and poetry so the reader can better appreciate the poems. This book is a wonderful introduction to Zen and Zen poetry for anyone not familiar with Zen culture. For those who are interested in pursuing more information about Zen after reading this book, Baldwin includes his recommendations for other books about Zen and Zen poetry. These poems and images will appeal to anyone with an interest in Zen or Japanese art.