We follow a painter as she makes the last mark on her canvas. She glances about… draws a line… appraises the results… And the paragraph is pure Woolf: But what really excites me is the movement from observation to action to thought. Woolf captured the scene like she was pushing a movie camera. She let …
Open a book by Hemingway. Pick a paragraph at random. Most of the sentences will have fewer than ten words. Now, look at the words in those sentences. Do any stray over ten characters in length? Not likely. That would go against the Hemingway formula: short words in simple sentences. That’s how wannabes try to …
im tired of fighting vampiresthey put bitemarks on my heartnd i sleep with one eye openbut cant get my dreams to start it sucks staring at shadowswolves lurk nd lunge at metheir fur clogs up the chambersof my lungs like a disease zombies i flinch and flee fromi outpace them they pursueso many goddamn problemsbut …
“While my classmates were reading their textbooks, I drew in the margin.” Rauschenberg took education into his own hands. You should do the same.
The pile goes down;A bristling caterpillar;A hostile cocoon;A wooden wall of bric-a-brac: Fence panels and trees that fellLike bodies — wracked by storms, Cut by teeth, stacked by folk, My band, my people. Touching scars, our gloves became sopsFor sap and the memory of blossom…Swings… cooking apples… birds…Seasons of migration… All fuel for fire. I …
Where do I situate myselfIn this shining tableau of loveThat has Psyche sighting Eros,Her bedfellow?In that hinge of wing, the fleeing alulaFlinching from oil, Scouring specks that leaptFrom a lantern with a yawning well. What more may fall? Who may tell? I wonderIf the other half is yours. The revealing light. The stripping bare. The …
There’ll come a yearwhen I do not seeants up on the mortar,or leaves gracing the trees.Not ripples. Not sprays of water. Goggles get torn off,leaving greasy smearsof folk, suspendedin wheezing chemical baths(my eyes). I’ll sit pool-side. Let old sun bake my back.As bricks give up their heat,I’ll give up mine(and other fine insect pleasures). And …
Books gave van Gogh clarity in the midst of his chaotic life. Now scientists understand why.
What does it take to manage a virtuoso like John Coltrane… or Bill Evans… or Herbie Hancock? Ask Miles Davis. He led them all.
Artists aren’t renowned for their mental wellness. And Philip Guston bore greater traumas than most. But he persevered, eventually accepting himself for who he was.
