The practice of writing a blog for eons has made me alert to patterns, words, ideas, that arise and repeat in a week (or a more sustained period). Eventually I realize, ah-ha! that’s the post I ought to be writing. And this week it was the word joy. Which, given our political wor … | Continue reading
— We recently watched Flowers, a Basque film. It’s described thusly: “Three women's lives intertwine when a tragic event jolts their lives into a new reality, and brings with it the delivery of anonymous flowers.” In the end, I think the flowers are a major character in the film, … | Continue reading
I’ve talked about vertical time here before but I thought it might be a good thing to think about at this time. And how do we now as humans, some of us who happen to be creators — maintain our mental health and also our desire and ability to create. (All of which go hand in hand) … | Continue reading
Last November we were fortunate enough to travel to Firenze and we were able to visit Santa Maria Novella where the well-known Masaccio is. If you’ve ever taken an art history class you likely learned about how this particular work — is “one of the first and foremost examples of … | Continue reading
— I’ve been under the weather with the recent version of the plague — feeling as bad as when I had Covid a few years ago. Well enough though to take various books off the shelf and read passages and to read a few novels, too. — There was a time in my life when I read a lot of Hol … | Continue reading
— Let something call to you — a beautiful or frivolous object, a word, a picture, and then follow it, learn about it, ask questions about it. Maybe it’s a glitter ball, maybe it’s a typewriter. — Disco balls or Glitter balls were patented in 1917, used in nightclubs in 1920. We k … | Continue reading
As artists, it is perhaps time to brush up on the terminology around hope. Despair, too, sure, but hope. And, let me say that when I say “artists” I mean, anyone who is in a state of becoming, persistent dreamers of possibility, and believers in the lovelinesses which have not ye … | Continue reading
The epigraph to Dorianne Laux’s book on craft for poetry is this: “You can do your life’s work in half an hour a day.” — Robert Hass Some days I find it wildly surprising that it’s been a million years since I wrote and / or taught poetry. If I were in some magical confluence, ab … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A Song The Decembrists’ song “This is Why We Fight” keeps … | Continue reading
How to live like an artist now? Always tacking on that now…..because the now is a constantly shifting ground, isn’t it? As I’m grinding at the day job now 4 days a week (when I used to work 3) I find everything is getting away from me. This is fine. The balance which was never ba … | Continue reading
– “As opposed to beauty, the sublime does not cause an immediate feeling of pleasure. As in Burke, the initial sensation in reaction to the sublime is pain or displeasure. The sublime is too enormous, too huge for the imagination, which cannot capture it and is unable to condense … | Continue reading
After a very long NY Day post, I’ll follow up with a quick read for this one. I feel like I’ve lived a few lives in the last couple of weeks thanks to the news cycle. And we’ve been doing “this” for so long that any of us who live like artists are done with making a case for beau … | Continue reading
There is the practice of choosing a word for the year ahead. Some people find it to be profound and centring, others, not so much. As for me, I think this year in particular, one word is just not enough. I’m jotting down 25 words for 2025 in this post because I want to be flexibl … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A Song This was one of my favourite albums when it came o … | Continue reading
The introduction by Alberto Rios to The World Has Need of You: Poems for Connection is a wonderful thing. I’ll discuss the book in an upcoming poetry club post, but in the intro Rios writes about when he visited schools to give talks, saying, “Every pencil is filled with a book.” … | Continue reading
The entrance to the library in Thebes in Ancient Greece was inscribed, a “healing place for the soul,” I read in an article in the New Yorker by Ceridwen Dovey from 2015 titled, “Can Reading Make You Happier?” I’ve saved this article for ages in my bookmarks and click on it from … | Continue reading
For today’s post I want to start off with a little library story then I’ll briefly chat you up about 3 books: What I mean to Say by Ian Williams, At a Loss for Words by Carol Off, and The Soul of Civility by Alexandra Hudson. Interestingly, these books are very much in conversati … | Continue reading
— I’m looking for a (new to me) way in this space to express things about beauty, at a time when we have to hold our anger and disappointment and fears in one hand, and fiercely attempt to hold joy and beauty and goodness and truth in the other hand. For now, I’ve the thought tha … | Continue reading
The Japanese concept of kaizen is something you have most likely come across. And I was reminded of it as I (once again) flipped through Exhausted by Anna Katharina Schaffner. If you have heard of kaizen, it’s probably used with reference to the “Toyota Way” which is when the com … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A Song Jon Batiste is a delight and a genius. Really, nee … | Continue reading
The Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey by Homer came out in 2018, and I meant to seek it out, and then life got away from me, there was a pandemic, etc etc. and here we are. Recently I wanted to refresh my understanding of the term, xenia, and this is what led me back. Let’s … | Continue reading
I keep returning to Rilke these days, particularly Letters on Life. The section “On Work,” speaks to me. If you don’t own a copy, I gotta say, that volume just gives and gives. Today I read this: “Get up cheerfully on days you have to work, if you can. And if you can’t, what keep … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A SongYou Are the Light by The Innocence … | Continue reading
I read this quote on Instagram recently and it hit:“But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.”— Haruki MurakamiIn the header photo (please read in the browser to see if you’re in the newsletter), there is a detail of Pan from the Capitoline Museum in Rome, I took … | Continue reading
3 poets, 4 books of poetry today! I had just started reading American poet Morgan Parker’s There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé when books by Canadian poets, Lynn Tait and Margo Wheaton arrived in my mailbox. This afternoon, I sat outside and re-read them, spending a bit … | Continue reading
By now the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Tr*mp has been well-dissected. Kamala Harris closed her comments saying among other things, this:“I'll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor. I was a D.A. I was an attorney general. A United States senator. And now … | Continue reading
How will you live like an artist today? This is the question I keep asking myself and I try to throw it out there into the wilderness too. We all know the answers, but we need to hear them again and again. We need to listen to the work, our life’s work, most of all, because it te … | Continue reading
I’ve often written here about the Patrizia Cavalli book my poems won’t change the world. So I won’t quote again from it today. I had a note from a fb friend sharing her poetry, Federica Galetto, whose book is Ode from a Nightingale, translated by Chiara De Luca. And I have anothe … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A Song Black Dog by Led Zeppelin. As someone who came of … | Continue reading
Let me begin by saying, I think I’ve lost my enthusiasm? Yes, I do continue to shock myself. I did a quick search to see how frequently I’ve talked here about being an enthusiast, an enthusiasm enthusiast, or to generally enthuse, and it does come up fairly often. The imperative … | Continue reading
Life will present us with all sorts of interesting problems to solve whether we want them or not. And I know I’m speaking from a place of privilege to even voice these problems — as someone who can afford internet in the home, for one thing. (My day job teaches me that this is no … | Continue reading
Over the last few years I seem to always have a book on the go that I refer to as my therapist. And lately, Pema Chödrön’s, "Welcoming the Unwelcome” is my go-to. It has all the answers I need to currently “fix” things in myself, honestly, but of course, the practice is always tr … | Continue reading
It’s been an intense time in my household. Rob has been photographing our peonies and I’ve been photographing him at work. I’ve been documenting the garden, documenting his finished paintings, updating his website and social media. Making reels. Honestly, it’s also very fun. But … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” … | Continue reading
I noted the line by Rumi in my book Apples on a Windowsill….that our eyes are small but with them we see enormous things. And I think as artists we need to remember that. I’ve felt so powerless of late, so overwhelmed. And. I’ve kept looking, seeing, registering, noting. This hel … | Continue reading
What even is an artist? a writer? a creative? Let’s consider the following quotation by Hélène Cixous:“I call “poet” any writer, philosopher, author of plays, dreamer, producer of dreams, who uses life as a time of “approaching.””I feel fortunate that I came across this definitio … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” 1. A SongDownbound Train by Bruce Springste … | Continue reading
I led off this section titled Repair Shop with the opening to the book I’m working on right now. And the subsequent entries may or may not make it into the final edits, but are part of the process, regardless. Today, I wanted to show you a recent ‘fix.’ I’ve been thinking about a … | Continue reading
I have about 10 million things to talk about in this new section of the all-glowed up version of TwB where I plan to delve into how to live like an artist. And why that even matters. Of course it matters to those of us squeaking through our lives as artists/writers/creators, but … | Continue reading
Here is today’s mixtape in the effort to live the words of Goethe, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” The picture I’d like to look at is by Wayne … | Continue reading
In January of this year, I was asked to read at the long-running Olive Reading Series in Edmonton. I don’t think it could have been any colder that evening though a number of people still made it out. My book, Apples on a Windowsill, had just arrived out in the world, though we w … | Continue reading
For today’s mixtape / Goethe-inspired offering, we have a song by Andrew Bird, a poem by Jessica Walsh, and a picture by Mary Pratt. Let’s first recall the line by Goethe: “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were … | Continue reading
It’s delightful chance that the two books with which I start my inaugural “Poetry Club” post have covers that coordinate so well. As luck would also have it, before writing this post I opened the book by Jan Zwicky titled, Once Upon a time in the West: Essays on the Politics of T … | Continue reading
I think it is time for a tiny refresh/reboot….TwB 3.0. I’ve been writing and sharing in this space for quite some time now — since September of 2016 to be exact, with this post. And before that I wrote other blogs, which have long been archived, deleted, or made private. Before a … | Continue reading
I continue to find help and solace in several books, and ongoingly the book Exhausted by Anna Katharina Schaffner which I have written about here. She quotes Josh Cohen on burnout being “a small apocalypse of the soul” and I think about that moment a fair bit — how it’s not neces … | Continue reading
Perhaps one of the delights of a new Ondaatje book arriving is learning how others read his work, or first came upon it. I like reading the stories interviewers tell. The way he once took a Robert Frost quotation from his wallet and read it to a reporter, which I came upon in the … | Continue reading
Many years ago, I bought for myself a print of a Mickey Smith photograph. Her work still makes my heart sing. Of it, Louis Menand says, “One important thing about the images is their found-ness. The photographs are taken from life; they’re not made from props in a studio. The art … | Continue reading
Over the past several years I’ve from time to time met a writer who expresses being stuck or stymied or burned out, and I’ve pretty much always recommended that they try asemic writing as a warm-up exercise. It’s a practice that I often begin my day doing and I think is perhaps u … | Continue reading