It’s amazing how quickly the mind jumps from one thought to something only tangentially related to something else tangentially related to that. In the span of a few minutes, I went from thinking about the vast wasteland ruins of the internet to starting a literary journal in 1996 to my long-standing interest in building things…
Category: Writing
A Brief Thaw
Last night I started on a short art project called kickstart your art. It’s a series of prompts and short videos intended to get you moving in the direction of creating art every day. My friend Stacy is doing it and suggested I join her. It’s a 10-day program consisting of 10 minutes a day….
Icing Over
Yesterday was President’s Day. The office was closed. It was overcast and cold, but uneventful. Following along on Twitter, the news out of Memphis, where I used to live, was all about the ice and snow that was crippling the city. They’re not set up for winter weather. I think the city has a total…
Starting Over (Maybe)
Today again I am hardly myself.It happens over and over. Mary Oliver “Reckless Poem” After my ramble about music and writing and memory, I spent a few minutes trying to capture with words the colors of snow at midnight – glowing against a cloudy purplish sky as if emitting its own pale light. In what…
More of the Same
It’s dark out. I can see the silhouette of a dog against the sliding back door light of the house behind mine. I can’t tell if the dog is waiting to be let in or waiting to be let out. My cat, Nick, is sitting on the floor a few feet away from me. His…
Warming Up
In an attempt to get back in to the habit of writing, if not everyday at least a few times a week, I’ve been rereading a number of old blog posts and some of the poems and vignettes I’ve written. I always feel a little odd turning to my own writing for inspiration. To be…
Unfinished
A man in a long coat stands in a field on a narrow path surrounded by tall grasses yellowing in the late autumn sun. His shadow stretches and slants in front of him bending upward at the path’s edge. The sky is a shade of blue so rich and thick that it seems mismatched for…
Mojo Risin’
Well, I just got into town about an hour agoTook a look around, see which way the wind blow…Motel money murder madnessLet’s change the mood from glad to sadness – “L.A. Woman” by The Doors I was up early this morning. The cat came in at about 3:30 and nudged me a dozen or so…
Riddles and Rabbit Holes: Goethe, Jazz, and Billy Collins
Last night, my mind was all horns punctuated by drums, fast hi-hat, and quickening bass. I was trying to read poetry and kept hearing the song “We Six” by Paul Chambers. I had to look the song up in my library to get the title. It’s fast and crazy and starts a little cacophonous before…
Winter Descending, Mid-November Night
The trees have lost their color and the mountains on the drive to and from work are mostly brown. In the mornings, there’s a still and quiet beauty to them – their soft rolling tops yawn in the shadows and light of the rising sun. But tonight, as I drove home, the sky felt serious…
More News at 11….
I begin this post wanting to justify the long silences between blog posts. I feel guilty – partially to those of you who, with some regularity, read what I have to say, but mostly to myself. Life gets busy. That should be an acceptable enough excuse. But for the past year, I’ve been trying to…