Notes toward a personal essay about the murder of trade unionists in Colombia by soft drink bottlers and about how the political is the personal: “disfruta la magia” To believe a thing is made from people is to forgive. It’s the things that make the people here: the things made of people there. I was… Continue reading “disfruta la magia”
Category: Writing
Flash Fiction: “Crazy on You”
“No matter how good you are, there will always be someone better.” Michael didn’t remember these words when he heard the song on the radio. He remembered another of his father’s expressions instead: the wordless joy on his face when he watched his son play the bass all those years ago. Dad would bring home… Continue reading Flash Fiction: “Crazy on You”
Muir’s Notebooks: Thinking and Working in the Age of Distraction
Not long after the guns of the Civil War fell cold in the 1860s, John Muir opened a notebook and inscribed his name on the frontispiece. “John Muir, Earth-Planet, Universe,” he wrote, situating himself as firmly as any of us may hope to do so. And then he started walking, a thousand miles or so,… Continue reading Muir’s Notebooks: Thinking and Working in the Age of Distraction
Sixteen Pines
Sixteen pines mark my quarantine transectthis little quadrangle a world of worlds of being and becomingof platonic forms shapingfuture dream etudes where I spin in Fibonacci circles to see it alland always fail These sixteen pines a Myrmidon crewserving petulant songbirds dashingfrom light to shadow Their songs the hymns of Ithacathe hymns I have always… Continue reading Sixteen Pines
Firelight Composite
From inky black, pull starry futureTo drape o'er young shoulders and wish it soNow wash the garment in strange elixirsBell upon chime, we watch the spring days goShed the cloak of night in diurnal climesTo sweat o'er the troubled skein of the selfNow in the dog days to heaven you climbBell upon chime, place the… Continue reading Firelight Composite
Verses on a Plague Night Walk
When the sodium lights first come on Those are the moments Those moments of departed daylight Departed vision Those adolescent moments of endless Possibility . Each footstep a promise to the future Each breath an assurance of its promise to me . Tonight we walked the twenty-something streets In those adolescent moments Senses awakening to… Continue reading Verses on a Plague Night Walk
Imayo for March 18
Laurel leaves falling in spring -- they strike the ground delicately and finally Sun's transit across the drawn windows -- it traced a lonely analemma until today Until today things were as they were -- the world our grandparents built spinning its human orbit Tomorrow we shall build anew -- raking the endless leaves in… Continue reading Imayo for March 18
Chicago in the Rear-View
Well, it’s all over now save for the thinking. Of course, what is anything but thinking? Walking, eating, even breathing, are just thinking in motion. Travel is no different. The sights, sounds, smells, and feelings we seek by traveling are, at bottom, just another way of thinking through the world. The trip I’ve been thinking… Continue reading Chicago in the Rear-View
Happy Thanksgiving, Grand Marshal Andrew Jackson
King Mob on the Meridian claimingthis land is ours in the affirmative mode which animates eventhe Communists here the three-pounds of flax who wax zen on the temple mounds of the erased Shuck oysters and weave thefolksonomy of despair from threads golden likethe ever yellow afterglow over the bay belowyou sing of this place like you own it,… Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving, Grand Marshal Andrew Jackson
Prompt 2: Tension
Close your eyes and check in with your body. Start with the top of your head and scan down to your toes. Check for places where you’re holding tension. What’s your posture or pose like? Where are your muscles relaxed or contracted? Write about your current state. People say we “hold tension” like it reflects… Continue reading Prompt 2: Tension
