An Alphabetical List

The following is an alphabetical list of topics and/or possible chapter titles for a book I was working on in 2011. At this stage, it was autobiographical. It eventually morphed and became the novel, Dear…

Plunging into the Work

Conversations with Christopher Isherwood Edited by James J. Berg and Chris Freeman University of Mississippi Press, 2001 One summer a few years ago I went on a binge of some of Christopher Isherwood’s books, particularly…

The Writing Life/1

At My Wake, Someone Will Hear Someone Else Say… “He was always telling me to share my writing…” “You, too? He said that to me, like… weekly!” “Weekly? He’d badger me daily for a fortnight…

A Love Letter to Grief by Jessi Dyer

Grief you motherfucker, You robber of joy, You thief in the night, Stealing and killing. Burning my village to the ground. Grief, you backpack full of rocks, You unrelenting burden I bear Just when I…

Putting Marginalia to Use

for Danielle Mackey Eduardo Galeano, The Book of Embraces 31 Saturday October 2009 I reread this book for one reason:  To see if it could help me generate some ideas as to form and content…

“Action Needed, Goethean Action”

Allen Ginsberg, Journals: Mid-Fifties 1954-1958, edited by Gordon Ball During winter and spring of 1996 I went on a binge of poet Allen Ginsberg’s books: poems, letters, photos, journals (I was taking a break from…