We crossed the imaginary line into panhandle Texas, having rolled down from the peaks of Colorado and dogearred the corner of New Mexico, almost immediately a story of Texas being written across our windshield, our vision increasingly consumed by the corpses of winged insects, cataracts clarifying the point, as if Read more…
I’ve described my approach to vulnerability in podcast conversations this way: It’s like a high flag staked in the ground or a flare shot into the sky, a signal to others who want connection to come this way. Maybe it’s orange. Or white. I visualize this happening in a flat, Read more…
I wrote on the blog in February about my first attempt to check into all the hype over writing with artificially intelligent chatbots, like ChatGPT. I couldn’t break through the waiting line then. I’ve now gone back to see what the buzz was/is about and test out a few things. Read more…
A short walk along the Arkansas River in central Colorado, a seat on a boulder at the water’s edge. Meditation. & Poetry, unpolished. A flow I call poetic notings from time spent in nature come to mind, and I listen: The water at the river’s edge expands and contracts, inhales Read more…
“Lunch” A sandwich: One slice of Italian white bread An almost liberal application of mayonnaise Four thin slices of smoked turkey, edges interlaced in the center of the sandwich Abundant mustard spread unevenly Eight round dill pickle slices in a single layer Seven Fritos Scoops! corn chips in a single Read more…
Overview: In this solo episode (ep 152), Adam Williams connects the dots of two creative works he made years apart. And he shares “Catch,” his poem of nostalgia and wondering about his last game of catch with “good ‘ol Dad.” (Released on podcast on July 25, 2023) Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and other 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…
Overview: In this solo episode (ep 149), Adam Williams cites psychotherapist Barry Michels’ line, “It is a tragedy to die with our song unsung.” He then lays out the simple and meaningful questions we all owe it to ourselves to ask to keep that tragedy from happening. (Released on podcast on 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…
Overview: In this solo episode (ep 148), Adam Williams talks about his not-quite-forgotten chapbook of poetry and photography, San Agustinillo. He shares two very short poems — “The Palm” and “The Moon” — from that project several years still in the making. (Released on podcast on June 27, 2023) Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and 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…
Overview: In this short solo episode (ep 140), Adam Williams adds to his occasional series, “A Poet Was There,” and features poet Brian Turner and work from his first collection, “Here, Bullet” (2005). He also reads three of Turner’s poems from that book, including the title poem. (Released on podcast Read more…
Overview: In this short solo episode (ep 132), Adam Williams shares the pure gold of what we’ve been looking for and a way to get there, amid his reflections on Maya Angelou’s line, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” (Released Read more…
Overview: In this ultra-short solo episode (ep 128), Adam Williams shares “a poem from somewhere, for whomever needs it.” For anyone who knows feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression, this short poem, “Spark Cloaked But Burning,” is one of compassion and solidarity. (Released on podcast on Jan. 25, 2023) Also Read more…
Overview: In this short solo episode on the Humanitou podcast, Adam Williams shares a couple poetic examples of his awareness practices while on a trail hike. (Released on podcast on Jan. 21, 2023) Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and other players. EP 125 SHOW NOTES, LINKS & TRANSCRIPT Connect with Adam Williams Humanitou on Read more…
I’ve been aiming for simplicity in creating and all things for so many years. It’s one of those cyclical things that comes back around every so often, probably when my efforts have become overly wrought again, and it reminds me that I haven’t learned the lesson yet. Simplicity, it seems, Read more…
After time away from various creative veins (I’ve written about the hiatus), I have begun to think in lines of poetry again. I wrote a poem in the shower on one recent night, a poem with a particular still life photograph of river rocks stacked in my mind, a poem Read more…
Poetic notings of an afternoon in July 2021 while reading on my front porch in Colorado: A winged yellow insect appears on the page I am reading, walking northward, parallel to the epic’s spine. It pauses in the gap where the sentence soon will end, “Music erupted in the [insert Read more…
Many writers or otherwise creative, artful beings know the story below well, I dare say. Here is an abridged version of “Christmas poem to a man in jail” by Charles Bukowski. hello Bill Abbott: I appreciate your passing around my books in jail there, my poems and stories. if Read more…