(((time))): see what’s become of me

“I find I can get prose written in just about any circumstances, but I’ve never been able to write poetry, which I find infinitely more satisfying, without having vast tracts of dead time. Poetry requires a certain kind of disciplined indolence that the world, including many prose writers (even, at times, this one), doesn’t recognize […]

Definitions of lazy

Why is reading prose lazier than poetry? I had thought there was no why, only the simple truth that anything with more words and complete sentences will roll more gently into our brains. But today as I considered reading poems of varying power on my left hand, and dense, layered, sharpened essays on my right…I turned right. […]

Hacking, not writing

I thought I might, after dinner, take a swing at writing a post. Then I remembered I hadn’t printed some handouts for a conference session I’m leading tomorrow. When I sat at the computer, I realized I hadn’t generated my speaker’s notes. As I opened up each slide deck (I’m leading three different sessions), I decided […]

It doesn’t feel like a block

It doesn’t have a “writer’s block” vibe to it, this not-posting-regularly. The result is the same, but the interiority… …more like acedia: “…a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one’s position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one’s […]

Summer rhythm

Today truly feels like summer: paralyzingly stinkin’ hot. Interestingly enough, today My Sweetie and I have fallen in the old-school summer rhythm…some because of the heat but some out of synchronicity, I expect.  Do you know the summer rhythm?  It’s not so common now, what with hard-core air conditioning in most of the places we […]

Two steps back

What I considered for (yester)today: Gym | dropping My Sweetie at work | mowing lawn | laundry | grocery shopping  Notice how these are all an hour, mostly two or more, apiece? What I did (yester)today: Breakfast | one present | dropped My Sweetie at work | gym | phone call | clean myself up […]

Maybe there’s not enough compost

Not sure why I blanked out yesterday, or am blanking out now. I did manage to squeak in submissions to three journals, thus maintaining My Streak (whew!). And had the dubious pleasure of my shortest rejection turnaround EVAR: one hour. Kid you not. My studio partner suspects a rejection-‘bot, as in, “I could write a […]

art as therapy | art as worship

[previously written, 2014/03/26] One difficulty I’ve had when grappling with “art” and “worship” alongside each other is the slipperiness of how I think, and folks that I talk to think, about these things when they’re juxtaposed. Let’s start with the strand of absorbing art, music most frequently, as an aspect of the worship service — […]

Commercial triumph

Today I started celebrating my birthday by spending my parents’ money on trousers that fit my CURRENT shape. Yep, that has been A Thing…cinching and pinning the fabric on is not comfy.  After a full day’s hunting and gathering? Seven pairs of trousers, a handful of tops, and two thoroughly frivolous handbags. A solid beginning […]