I’m still caught off guard by how quickly negative emotions or something approaching nervous dread can creep in, pour themselves a drink, and settle in on the couch with feet up as though they own the place. Minor setbacks in the face of major change, or small realizations that none of this is going to…
Category: Life
Lovely, but Fleeting
After a full day of travel (3+ hours in the car and close to 7 hours on a plane), I arrived in San Francisco Saturday night. I had just enough time to check in to my hotel and Uber my way over to Oakland for a dinner date. We hit it off well, and had…
Unqualified
Sometimes I think I’m not really qualified for this job,the job of my life, I mean. “Homework” by Tony Hoagland Today, I felt wholly unqualified for life. I bounced between trying to write poetry, trying to write a post about trauma, processing the potential challenges of moving (tied to the post about trauma), reading poetry,…
Being Present, Engaging the Senses
In June or July of 2019, I went on a road trip through North Carolina. I had a few interviews lined up and spent time wandering around different cities. I stayed in Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Charlotte. I can’t remember which city or Air BnB it was, but the shampoo they had was the same…
Conflict and Therapy
Thursday nights were therapy nights. We did this every week or every other week for a few months. Trying to recall our routine, I think it must have been every other week, but then something tells me that we had weekly homework or that we would be asked “how was your week.” The frequency only…
Sometimes Expecting the Worst
Oof. On Twitter, I saw a poet say she had time to provide feedback on a few poems (for a fee). She was being recommended by someone else who said that after incorporating the feedback, all of the poems were accepted for publication at various literary journals. Despite being turned off by the prospect of…
The Day after Valentine’s Day (2023)
Yesterday, I thought about writing a Valentine’s Day post, or an anti-Valentine’s Day post. I also thought about doing a phone dump of screenshots of love poems (which quite often aren’t “love” poems). Apparently, the former poet laureate, Billy Collins, has been doing a video blog or podcast or something like that in which he…
Maps and Memories
I feel like I could have or should have been able to predict my afternoon slide into a slump. A slump that has, somewhat intentionally, stretched into an evening slump with a glass of wine. I wish I could describe the feeling better. It’s a bit of a hollow feeling and at times a desire…
Go Birds
I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I spent most of my life living outside of Philadelphia. When people would ask where I’m from, it was easier to say Philly because nobody knew where Bensalem or Yardley were. My elementary school would take field trips into the city to the Franklin Institute which had…
A Good Week
It’s been a good week. Though it’s only part-way over and there’s still plenty of time for Chekhov’s hammer to wreak havoc: Every happy man should have some one with a little hammer at his door to knock and remind him that there are unhappy people, and that, however happy he may be, life will…
Wherever I Go, There I Am
In the day or two after referencing old results of personality tests which suggest that I’m a mediator of sorts who both seeks and brings calm and balance, my web stats reminded me of posts I’ve written that might suggest otherwise. Posts about my various anxieties (generally needing to be early and my discomfort over…
Happy Sunday Y’all
You might as well turn back now. This is one of those list/update posts. As in I’m not sure I have anything to say, but having spent a day in solitude with good music and good books, I feel compelled to say something. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of songs from the band…