Gamma Senmin, Soga Shōhaku (1730-1783). Freer Collection, Washington.
PATRICKLAWRENCE.US serves several purposes. As an archive of the columns, commentary, and essays, it makes this work available in one place for the first time. The site also introduces my books and provides readers or those with professional queries several ways to connect. You can help sustain the work via Patreon. This is also home to an occasional journal, Cú Chulainn.
“These are my footsteps.”
——Sam Francis
Featured.
Beyond a Failed Narrative - December 17, 2022 - Americans are living a failed national narrative. Our almost universal belief in our exceptional status as a providentially “chosen people” suspends us in a beguiling myth beyond the reality of history. On September 11, 2001, we reacted with an almost...Recent work.
“Graham Platner and the machines of power.” - July 16, 2026 - The Floutist responds to its readers. 16 JULY—Many readers, scores, responded with exceptional insight to the piece we published after Graham Platner was forced to withdraw from the contest for a Maine Senate seat. We read the comment thread carefully,...
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Return of Co-Existence - July 10, 2026 - In Ankara this week, NATO committed to building its very own military industrial complex, pursuing the same “total security” doctrine that some Israelis, in their case, now see backfiring. Ezra Klein, one of the resident Zionists in The New York Times’ opinion section (or is everyone appearing...
“The political assassination of Graham Platner.” - July 10, 2026 - The futility of change ‘from within.’ 10 JULY—The clearest things said about Graham Platner as he was forced to suspend his triumphantly buoyant campaign for a Maine Senate seat this week came from Graham Platner. Here is a little of what...Cú Chulainn.
Cú Chulainn stirred,
Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard
The cars of battle and his own name cried;
And fought with the invulnerable tide.
——Yeats, Cú Chulainn’s Fight with the Sea,
1892
