Because they do write songs for the brown eyed girls...

...real classics, too. ;)

Miss you, dear.

Hiraeth

"The Welsh word hiraeth has no equivalent in English. It often translates as “homesickness,” but the actual concept is far more complex. It incorporates an aspect of impossibility: the pining for a home, a person, a figure, even a national history that may never have actually existed. To feel hiraeth is to experience a deep sense of incompleteness tinged with longing."

Today

For Cole on a Monday

“I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants


“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
― Leonard Bernstein


“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye


“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums


“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons


“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman


“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut


“Always be a poet, even in prose.”
― Charles Baudelaire


“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London


“People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy.”
― Joss Whedon

strangled silence

you took my words again
i knew just what i wanted to say
and then i turned around and saw your eyes
softening into the lazy afternoon light
...
...
...
and i forget.
i forget.
i forget about my latest story
existential breakthrough
or the eggs that we need to add
to the shopping list
so we can eat tomorrow.
...
...
...
and then you ask me what i'm thinking
you ask me what i mean
and again--
again--
again i am revealed a stuttering fool.

my worst nightmare.

again.
and again.
and again.
i voluntarily enter
the strangled silence

--the place where you are--

till my words are so twisted around
so pressurized
they drip. out. my eyes.

never doubt that i love you, darling.

i lose my words for you.

Delayed Response

I got the text. I did.

A week ago--two? I looked down while walking, glancing at the talking, plastic box in my hand, suddenly shocked by the flame in my cheeks.

I turned to show it to Cole, and she did a little dance across the tile floor.

Beautiful--beautiful.--beautiful?--doesn't fit--don't have anywhere to put that. Spontaneous, unasked for.



Undeserved.



I didn't reply. The place for my words all filled up with feelings.


But I want you
to know
that I heard you.

And Johnson's small heart...

...grew three sizes that day.

new york city

FRIDAY

Only Jesus knew what was coming // johnson

Long drives need music and books // byron

And that’s when I understood Watsky // sand
We settled into each other’s space // cole

SATURDAY

Blonde boys make the best drivers // johnson

I left my headphones in Virginia // sand

The anger was for your protection // cole

God got us to our doorstep // byron

SUNDAY

Wow, so transubstantiation really is important // byron

His earnest belief made him lie // johnson

Underdressed in the presence of royalty // sand

We didn’t turn on the TV // cole

MONDAY

Giddy sick broke and too happy // cole

I prefer people watching to shopping // byron

Lost among a sea of words // sand

Everyone's looking but no one sees // johnson

TUESDAY

Road-trips and remembrances help make stories // byron

I gave him cigarettes, not money // sand

Her words unlocked both of them // cole

Ten year anticipation made me choke // johnson

WEDNESDAY

I was a time traveler’s tourist // sand

Snow covered all my past sins // johnson

Your nostalgia is greater than mine // byron

Your fall took me with you // cole

THURSDAY

Cold weather, warm strangers, good friends // byron

Standing alone among millions, he cried // johnson

All the words melted away today // cole

Take some of my body heat // sand

FRIDAY

Subway windows are haunted by faces // cole

His plane ticket was his escape // sand

Walk a mile, drive five hundred // byron

Saying "heading home" is a lie // johnson

SATURDAY

We didn’t leave Sand at McDonalds // johnson

“I love you.” “You’re stupid too.” // sand

I was awake for 22 hours // byron

I realized your floor was home // cole

for sand

can't handle.

Love the Details

“All bad writers are in love with the epic.”
--Ernest Hemingway

Avoid Absolutes (and yet...)

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.”
-- Anais Nin