For the first time in my life, I was not with family during Thanksgiving. For the first time in my life (other than when I was a baby, I’m guessing), I did not have turkey on Thanksgiving. For the first time I can remember there wasn’t a TV with football on in another room on…
Category: Life
THANKSGIVING 2018
Ever since getting in to the habit of writing every day, I’m finding that I want to spend more and more time writing. I will always struggle with the self criticism, and I will always struggle with the question – why should anyone care? I can’t answer that question, other than to say, you shouldn’t…
DETAILS AND NARRATIVE
As I mentioned yesterday, B, my ex-fiancee, wrote to me on Friday night. She found this blog. She’s upset with the amount of detail in it, and that it has real names and faces – mainly hers and mine. She’s emailed again and wants to know why I can’t just use initials, and why I…
TIME
The other day I ended a post suggesting that I need to write about time – specifically, as it relates to interests and schedules, work, and relationships with friends, family, and partners. Since moving to Memphis, my schedule has been pretty jacked up. My interests have been all over the place and time has been…
INTERRUPTED
I could hear her scream “two weeks…..” as she fell off the cliff. This was an inside joke my ex, B, and I had. Two weeks in to our relationship, we went on a hike with my friend Jen. Jen took a picture of us – it became one of our favorites. As we posed,…
STANDING IN THE SUNLIGHT
When my wife and I decided to get divorced, I can remember one night that was extremely emotionally difficult and also liberating. In retrospect, I’m amazed that it really only took one night to dive in to the depths of what was happening and also emerge with a new outlook. I was the one who…
DIGITAL CLIPPINGS
Clippings: that was the term my ex-fiancee gave to the lines of poetry she would jot down in her journals – they would be jumping off points for her poems. I think anyone that has done any writing is familiar with this practice – you see something good, you write it down, store it away,…
MY MONTH IN MEMPHIS
On October 17, 2019 I pulled the Penske truck up to a spot just across the street from my building. I “checked in,” brought the cat in, and then spent the next few hours helping the two guys I hired unload my furniture and get everything in to the apartment. I returned the truck, walked…
LEARNING TO RUN
A year ago on this date (11/17) I completed my first race, the Philadelphia Half Marathon. It was cold, it was early, it was one of those mornings when the sun was bright and you could see your breath in the air. I was nervous, the wait to start was exciting and long. There’s an…
WRITING, EXPLAINING, READING
I’ve been trying to post a new poem every day. These are all poems I’ve written over the past year. If I don’t write some new ones, it’ll be a short run of posts. Before posting, I re-read it, sometimes make edits, sometimes think if it’s what I want to put out there. Yesterday I…
HOLDING BACK: JEALOUSY, SHAME, AND FEAR
A lot of what I write is based entirely on my personal (and recent) experiences – original to me, but not original in the sense of human emotion and expression. Since almost nothing is original (not going down that path), a much better, more disciplined writer would blend their thoughts with those that have come…