A new work. “Don’t be fucking ridiculous … I just wear stars! (General Baron Jacques)” I love how making art is an ever-evolving process. If you look back at the earlier works in this series, which I loosely refer to as “abstract scrawls” and have made 75 to 80 so Read more…
Nearly five years ago, I published my poem “Catch” on this blog. In the time since, I’ve written and created many more works of various kinds. This includes a photograph of a found baseball in my {Un}Reverence still life photography collection. Seeing a large, framed print of that photograph on Read more…
Something that’s been in the back of my mind for many years, even long before I was a practicing artist, has been occasionally encountering non-artists looking at art and saying, “I could do that.” It oversimplifies what artists do. Even before I was actively pursuing my creative potential, I somehow understood Read more…
The Irish poet David Whyte surely speaks to countless souls with his poem, “What to Remember When Waking.” He posted only a small piece of it on social media yesterday, the first stanza plus the opening line of the second. It drew me in to search for the whole of Read more…
Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, says, “The things we make are a reflection of who we are in this moment, and that’s all it is. It’s not more than that. It can go on and mean more than that, but that’s not in our control.” The other day, I Read more…
These weekly roundups are an extension of “The Log Book of Doings,” which I keep daily in a handmade journal gifted to me by my wife, Becca. I use the Log Book of Doings for recognition of creative accomplishments and as motivation to keep going in the various facets of Read more…
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in his poem, “The Voiceless”: Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them. Psychotherapist Barry Michels cited that line of Holmes’ poem in “The Tools,” the book he co-authored with the psychiatrist Phil Stutz. And then Michels wrote: “It is Read more…
I recently wrote that self-study is the point. True. And at the heart of self-study, and so much else, is vulnerability. So now I am saying, vulnerability is the point. And that’s true too. Vulnerability is the point and, through that vulnerability, we are constantly becoming, learning ourselves and going Read more…
As I keep saying, I’ve been using a practice, “The Log Book of Doings,” as recognition of daily creative accomplishments and motivation to keep going in the various facets of my work. These weekly roundups are an experimental extension of the Log Book of Doings. It’s useful to me to Read more…
As I’ve written before, in “What Sets a Poem in Motion,” poetry often starts flowing in my mind when I’m present and open to it. It doesn’t take much to set it off. On hikes, in the shower, meditating. Anywhere, anytime. As long as I’m not brain-deep into spinning on Read more…
Before the pandemic, I had said on this blog that I was writing a chapbook of poetry from a two-week family trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. We stayed in a small village on the Pacific coast, San Agustinillo. I had written a solid number of related poems between 2018 and 2020, Read more…
As I said in the previous weekly roundups, I’ve been using a practice, “The Log Book of Doings,” as recognition of daily creative accomplishments and motivation to keep going in the various facets of my work. I like and use lists. Functionally and creatively. These weekly roundups are an experimental Read more…
The other day, I sent out the first Humanitou email newsletter in nearly two years. It used to be a monthly thing. I did it with subtle, quiet purpose this time, and said I don’t know when I might do it again. Then I ignored its “success” and “failure,” as Read more…
ChatGPT is shaking up the content world at the moment. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s an A.I. chatbot that launched in November 2022. It’s artificial intelligence that is capable of text conversation and writing content. This potentially opens a Pandora’s box about ethics in writing and publishing, and possibilities Read more…
One of my sons lies in bed, thinking. He reads there a lot too. But sometimes, when I go in to tell him goodnight, he’s just lying there, eyes open, no book in hand. Like last night: “What are you doing?” “Thinking.” “About what?” “I don’t know yet. I need Read more…
As I said in the previous weekly roundups, I’ve been using a practice, “The Log Book of Doings,” as recognition of daily creative accomplishments and motivation to keep going in the various facets of my work. I dig lists. Functionally and creatively. These weekly roundups are an experimental extension of Read more…
tapaḥ-svādhyāyeśvara-praṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ (PYS 2.1) “You must be fueled by a burning desire to continuously study the Self, which is only available in the present moment, and to devote your self wholly to this effort – these are the actions to be taken to attain Yoga.” ~ Sharon Gannon, Jivamukti Yoga Read more…
Because of my unexpected dive into the poetic ocean of Vuong this morning, which I wrote about separately from what follows here (Read “A Revelation: Ocean Vuong”), my curiosity carried me into the jaws of Google, where rabbit holes tangled and infinite can pull me in like black holes that Read more…
Soon enough, or maybe not soon enough, Ocean Vuong will be centered in the occasional series I keep, “A Poet Was There.” I need time to read more, digest more, breathe. In the past several years, the name Ocean Vuong has seeped into my mind here and there. It was Read more…
As I said in the first of these weekly roundups, I’ve been using a new practice, “The Log Book of Doings,” as recognition of daily creative accomplishments and motivation to keep going. I also seem to enjoy list making and have been fascinated by list-oriented creative projects I’ve seen by Read more…