I’ve been writing this long poem (80 plus pages as of this date) about poets and poetry (and anything else that crosses my mind). It’s returned my attention to creating art, the process of it, and what that is or isn’t. While this historical moment has largely obviated any centrality in the greater social consciousness […]
Personally, since the election results rolled in, I’ve made an effort to limit my intake of political news through watching as much sports as possible. There are winners and losers there as well, but it stays confined to the field or the court, and—wonderfully—doesn’t rely on anybody’s ignorance about what’s taking place there to determine […]
There’s a moment of exchange about Bob Dylan and fame I heard one day at the Naropa summer writing program that’s always stuck with me. Marianne Faithful, who’d been a popstar in the mid-sixties, a Mick Jagger and Keith Richards girlfriend, and had revived her career in the 80s, was on a panel with Allen […]
“That is exactly what happens when you have a national leader in one of the realms [of delusion]–the whole nation becomes part of that realm.” –Chogyam Trungpa, Transcending Madness Infamous Roman emperor Caligula (12-41 C.E.) comes to mind when considering Donald Trump—a leader who became a sure sign of power hungry greed over genuine public […]
“Let me put it baldly. The two halves are: the HEAD, by way of the EAR, to the SYLLABLE the HEART, by way of the BREATH, to the LINE” –Charles Olson, “Projective Verse” It seems extravagant, suddenly, or maybe merely perverse, to concern oneself with the philosophy behind how to write poetry, i.e., a poetics, […]
I wish I could ignore it all and live a life of relative peace. But I can’t look away. Within a few days, an assassination attempt on Donald Trump missed his skull by a half inch, further burnishing his heroic martyrdom with his base; his self-appointed judge threw out his stolen documents case, based on […]
The profoundly dispiriting spectacle of the Biden-Trump debate, featuring a dottering old man who struggled to finish his sentences or stay on topic vs. a highly energized old man who lied relentlessly to the point of psychosis and often couldn’t be bothered with any topic except immigration, had to be a low point in my […]
What I write in this space amounts to the kinds of things that preoccupy me, and lately I’ve been preoccupied by love—romantic love. It’s not because the new Taylor Swift album just came out (though it does play its part in this), predominantly a slow burn weighted heavily on the agonies rather than the ecstasies. […]
Melodious Funk writing a language nobody cares about much less speaks in a little corner of the unknown universe we cling to it we’re proud of it we even think there’s some reason to preserve it & so we keep on writing as if somebody’s going to read it hello out there As I’m one […]
Five to six days a week, I think about prisons. In fact, I go to a desk in an office, and sit down with a pile of mail sent from prisons around the United States (and sometimes from other countries as well). I respond to help them with their lives, however I reasonably can, mainly […]
