— 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
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
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
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
Once you hear the phrase, “Lemonade Everything Was So Infinite” it sort of gets between your ribs and into the cage and soul of you. I first read it via Hélène Cixous in the Reader of her work. I read it in my undergrad years, so long ago now. The line is extracted from the conve … | Continue reading
I remind myself that there is melodrama in Sting’s lyrics for King of Pain so as to keep my comedic distance, these days. He sings,There's a little black spot on the sun today That's my soul up there It's the same old thing as yesterday That's my soul up thereand:I have stood her … | Continue reading
A couple of nights ago, Rob and I watched Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days. You can watch the trailer here, and here: a review in the Guardian by Wendy Ide. Ide says, “It should be the most soul-crushingly bleak film ever made – a Groundhog Day grind with added despair and urinal cakes. … | Continue reading
This week’s book stack has a photography theme. I know I’ve mentioned Tim Carpenter’s To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die before, but it’s probably one of my favourite books on the subject. I would say it has an appeal for writers, artists, and other creative folks as well. Anyo … | Continue reading
I played basketball in high school and at one point in my early twenties was so in love with weight training. I really found some poetry in it, honestly. If it had been even in existence in my youth I would have loved to have played women’s hockey. (My uncle had played pro hockey … | Continue reading
We’ve all heard this line, “I’ll have a little bit of everything.” It’s one thing to take it and another to have it dished out to us. And here’s the song by Dawes, which starts in a pretty tough way, CW. It made me think of the people I know who ended their lives (my brother anot … | Continue reading
Today’s post is destined to be an old timey ramble, where I share just a bunch of stuff I have been inspired by or enjoyed of late. Enjoy what you enjoy, is a line from Woolf, that I endorse. Take your inspiration where you are able! The first thing that I’ve found to be inspirin … | Continue reading
I’ve written and posted elsewhere about reading on holiday in Rome. In these photos I’m sitting in Colle Oppio and Terme di Traiano Park or Oppian Hill Park near our apartment which was near the Colosseum. Admittedly, I’m sort of “fake reading” for the photos here, but we actuall … | Continue reading
I keep writing a word down on a sticky note, and then I toss it out for one reason or another, and eventually write it down again. The word: conditions. Conditions. Conditions. What am I trying to remind myself of here? My screensaver on my computer all this last year has been a … | Continue reading
Last year, I declared it to be the year of “my All.” And while I wouldn’t take any of it back, it played out in really interesting ways. Most of them good but with a few unexpected moments thrown in for good measure — because health (mental and bodily), because spread too thin, b … | Continue reading
Is there anything more bookishly pleasurable than reading on holiday? And feeling that you brought along the exact correct books for your time away? I’ve read three books so far on my time in Rome this November and dipped into a few others. But the three that are just A+ chef’s k … | Continue reading
I’m really grateful to all those who are able to say things at times like these. I think I even used to be one of them. Right now though I feel like I’m sort of crawling to a bit of a finish line. My health is rubbish right now tbh, the insomnia has ramped up, the work I do in my … | Continue reading
I think a lot about being “right-sized,” and I think a lot about living in the multiple registers. I’ve been thinking and talking with other creatives about tall poppy syndrome. I’ve been thinking (ongoingly) about what it means to live the creative life. The how of it the why. I … | Continue reading
There are some thoughts/quotations that just get more and more true:“To look at something is such a wonderful thing of which we still know so little.” That’s Rilke. … | Continue reading
I’m always reading something but I’m probably worse than ever at floating from book to book to book…and so on. This is not a bad method in so far as comparing ideas, and seeing how one mind sparks off another. It means it takes quite long to actually complete a book, though! The … | Continue reading
There is a poem in Adam Zagajewski’s last book of poems, Asymmetry. For a while I couldn’t read the book, and then it called, became as clear as a bell, inviting me in. Saying what I needed to hear at the exact right time. Which is what poems miraculously do! (When the humans in … | Continue reading
Lars Iyer’s My Weil opens “Monday Night.” It opens, “The postgraduate social.” And omg it opens, “Room-temperature prosecco.” Really that’s all you need for you to know whether you want to continue or not, right? And yes, I wanted to continue. I was reading the ARC (advanced read … | Continue reading
God I loved this book. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. Maybe it’s a bit of a dumb comparison but the feeling of reading it was the same I had when I watched the ending of Picard. It just gave me everything I wanted right now. The first sentence is really modern day Jane Aus … | Continue reading
“You are dreaming for humanity,” is what Jean Valentine once said to Hafizah Geter in a Paris Review interview on poetry. If you’re a poet interested in line breaks, Valentine is the place to learn. Geter says of Valentine’s:“It makes you trust yourself to the gap. Using everythi … | Continue reading
I’m a fan of the work of Cindy Sherman, which is I suppose why once in a while I have to play around with movie characters. Fairly recently I wrote a post about Rear Window, a Hitchcock film, and today, I’m revisiting a Stanley Donen film, Indiscreet (1958). I have a particular f … | Continue reading