Category: articles
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Greenwood’s Portcullis
Greenwood’s Portcullis comes from The Greenwood Poet, a book that came out today as part of my ongoing romance with doubling my years on odd years and then writing that many poems. I spent a couple of years, off and on, writing about the gothic fantastic and the environment and death, before and after COVID…
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Diabetic Jokes
Diabetes gets old. Diabetic jokes do not. I still laugh when my wife says, “I’m low,” after having a needle in her all day. Or, after having a bout of sugar-related uncontrollable emotion, yelling, “I’m so high right now!” People have asked her in restaurants if she’s playing video games and I almost lose my…
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Detective Writer Podcast
Sally at the Detective Writer podcast had me on to talk about the inspiration behind the sequel to Bell Hammers as well as my character Snatch who shows up in several short stories. We talked while a massive harvest moon loomed over the 46th street hill and our conversation spanned all manner of inspiration, praxis,…
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The Presider of the United States
Whatever else the job of President of the United States might entail, it at very least entails presiding. The Presider of the United States must sit before the most boring meetings in the country. And if you want to know what that feels like, just sit in on the minutes reading from any Rotary or…
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Alice’s Prayers
After she was cast back to Umbravia by the evil Duke Cattivo-Piede, for false entry into Leoht, Alice could never forget her first-and-always love Aldun. Since her return to her homeland, her only wish was to return to that land of silver flowers and sapphire moons. And the crystal blue eyes of Aldun. Every night…
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Name Your Knot
I remember being at Camp Joy in Boy Scouts and going to knot-tying class that insisted you name your knot — was there with a dad named Jim — my buddy Andy’s dad. And we all sat around and tied our knots and Jim was working his way with a knot in the back of the…
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The Power of Rhyme
The following excerpt on THE POWER OF RHYME comes from our longtime contributor, Jeffrey Burghauser‘s new book entitled THE HEAVY LIFTING: A BOY’S GUIDE TO WRITING POETRY. It was provided graciously by his publisher: It doesn’t require any particular skill to throw balls into the air. To catch them, however, is a different story. Not…
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Urban Scavenging and Falling Fruit for Freegan Folk
Bit blurry, but these Juneberries hanging from a lone couple branches underneath sheet scaffolding in a construction project down the block illustrate the urban scavenging I’ve dipped my toe into. It started recently with mulberries we remembered in the Bay Ridge community botanical garden (a rather huge installation of neighbors that rivals many government-backed and…
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Outdoor Types
In Carthage, Missouri, every once and awhile you’ll catch outdoor types bringing mattresses in the beds of their trucks to the drive in theater. They get frisky, but mostly just make out. If they do anything else, it’s not like the squeaking of truck suspension interrupts you while watching Pixar films with your kids. They…
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Cussing and Kissing Because of all the Things You’ve Done
Saturday; October 8th 2022: Zionist in Tehran literally means someone who is the cruelest. “They’re all zionists boy, worse than Zionism. Look at them; they’re tall.” An old man got close to me and whispered with malice. I mocked him. “Be very careful.” he answered: “cause we need you — all the young — healthy…
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Etsetara 002 : Map Key
Hello! Tara here, here’s another Estetara miscellany of my internet links for Thursdays or Fridays. So here’s my attempt to show a map key or two: 1) The Deep Sea If you want a deep deep deeeeeeep dive into the Abyssal Zone of the sea, go to Neal Agarwal’s new science scroller. 2) Put a…
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PROSODY
The following excerpt on PROSODY comes from our longtime contributor, Jeffrey Burghauser‘s new book entitled THE HEAVY LIFTING: A BOY’S GUIDE TO WRITING POETRY. It was provided graciously by his publisher: “PROSODY. Noun. \ ʹprä-sә-dē \ [a] The study of versification, especially the study of metrical structure. [b] A particular system, theory, or style of…