. . . I rose again out of bed and came downstairs to begin the day. I found my way to the meditation cushion this morning, but circuitously and late. One of my projects for myself post retirement (going on the third straight year and still not yet mastered) is the development of a routine,Continue reading “On the Third Day of 2025. . .”
Tag Archives: writing
The First Day of 2025. . .
. . . was spent doing all of the things (or most of the things) I love and want to do more of. To wit, a list: There could almost not be a more perfect day. I would have liked to have spent more time with my parter. But she was super engaged in herContinue reading “The First Day of 2025. . .”
Turning 60!
I’m writing on the occasion of my 60th birthday, December 4, 2024. We ascribe a special significance to those birthdays that begin a new decade. Something in us needs a marker, a milestone, a number with a zero at the end. We like that. I think it’s true that the last time I wrote aboutContinue reading “Turning 60!”
NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations
The point of any kind of forced creativity experience or challenge is to simply do the creative thing you want to be doing but perhaps wouldn’t be doing otherwise. I am all for it. I’ve done more than a decade worth of a poem every day in April, I’ve participated in songwriting challenges that resultedContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations”
It’s National Novel Writing Month!
Here we are on the precipice of another year of attempting to write 50,000 words in a single month for the ritual of NaNoWriMo. This will be my third effort. I go into it this year with a bit of trepidation. I worry that the politics of the nation will be too much of aContinue reading “It’s National Novel Writing Month!”
I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO
In both Novembers of 2022 and 2023 I wrote 50,000 words for the National Novel Writing Month challenge. The results were two sloppy, hastily written rough drafts of novels. I would expect nothing less from such a challenge, the purpose of which is not to write a masterpiece, but to spill out as quickly asContinue reading “I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO”
Gone So Long, I Been Gone So Long
Sorry about that. I mean, I realize no one has been holding their breath, so the apology is mostly self-talk, or self-writing, as I think I do this blogging activity more as a personal practice and discipline than anything else. I don’t mean to imply that I am not mightily grateful for the readers IContinue reading “Gone So Long, I Been Gone So Long”
#542: On the Note Wendell Hawken Wrote to Me, the One I’ve Been Using as a Bookmark in Her Book of Poems
The note she wrote to me almost a year ago, the one I’ve been using as a bookmark as I’m reading her poems, says: “Michael – thought I was out, but I found one.” Even though it doesn’t take me long to remember what she was trying to say, I love the ambiguity of itContinue reading “#542: On the Note Wendell Hawken Wrote to Me, the One I’ve Been Using as a Bookmark in Her Book of Poems”
#539: 1434–Behind
So, my artist and musician friend Curtis Settino just had an exhibition of a sculpting project he’s been working on for a number of years. His sculptures are these mostly fantastical creatures, some standing just six or seven inches off the ground, others four or five feet tall, all representing the action or theme ofContinue reading “#539: 1434–Behind”
#538: I Can’t Read
I can’t read shit anymore. David bowie I love to readbut I find lately that I can’t read shit, just like Bowie sangin that song by Tin Machine: it seems that “I can’t read shit anymore.”I blame the internet and stupid smart phonesfor turning myattention spaninto squirrel brain.Did you knowthat squirrels can’t remember where theyContinue reading “#538: I Can’t Read”