This morning I, Matt Uhler, am in a familiar loop. I’d like to put more time and effort into writing. I haven’t had any success (publications or new readers) to justify putting more time and effort into writing. I don’t send much out for publication and I do nothing to promote my writing, which might…
Category: Life
A Spider in the Kitchen
When I was young, I once got in trouble and had to stand in the corner. Ok, probably more than once. But on one occasion, there was a spider in the corner and I begged to be allowed to leave. I’m pretty sure I cried too. Instead of reducing my sentence or granting me clemency,…
Sundays Are…
Sundays are sometimes a wreck. If I have emotional roller coaster days, they’re usually on Sundays. I read a lot of poetry on Sundays. I look out the window a lot on Sundays. I try to do some writing and usually get the groceries. I used to hate getting groceries and now when I find…
Love Lessons from the Gottmans
It’s cuffing season – “that magical time of year during the colder, winter months when people are more compelled to start relationships. It usually runs from late fall, through winter and up until the warmer days of spring and early summer.” Oddly, almost all of my significant relationships started in the frolicking days of summer….
Sometimes on My Mind but in Different Ways
Last week I started texting with a woman from California. We talked late one night and I found myself frequently referring to my recent past as “a few years ago.” It seems everything in my life happened a few years ago – all of my dating history falls into this category, my recent jobs, my…
The Stories We Tell
I’m near the end of the cup, and the coffee has gotten cold. I’ve been sitting at the computer half-paralyzed by a big bugaboo of mine: purpose (story and audience). The other half of my morning paralysis has been a reconsideration/expansion of that notion that dating lots of people is really about falling in love…
Going a Few Rounds
It’s football season, which means my dad and stepmom have been coming to the house on home-game weekends. The last few times they’ve visited, I’ve felt this urge – at the end of the night before I go to bed – to want to call or text someone as part of some end-of-day unwind conversation….
Galleon
An observation… I went on to a website (syllable count dot com) because I wanted to verify that galleon was three syllables (in my head, my bastard tongue and speech can quicken and make the word sound like two: gal yun). Most of the ads on the site were for a website called money metals…
Attention and Avoidance
The other day I went to the pet store. I needed to get treats and poop bags. In one end and out the other. 120 poop bags – that’s almost two months’ worth of shit that I’ve committed to picking up. The cashier was new and wasn’t sure how to exit the current register screen…
On the Quiet Shores of Melancholy
This morning I woke up from a dream feeling sad. A lot of the details escape me (duh, it was a dream), but the feeling lingered and left me a little slow and dazed. In the dream, I was friends with, and maybe dating, a very pretty and elegant woman (who might have looked like…
Boxes in the Basement
I was off to such a good start today…. I read a little, I submitted a batch of poems to a journal, I revised a poem or two (or at least reread them with an eye towards revision), I vacuumed and straightened up… and then I hit a wall (my boxes in the basement). There…
How We Disagree
I wish people who love each other would say to each other, when they fight, “Please – a little less love, and a little more common decency.” -Kurt Vonnegut When my stepmom asks my dad if the heat is still on, he responds by asking in a mocking and almost harsh tone, “What’s wrong? Are…