As I prepare to write a new essay on creative impulses, I revisited this old essay I wrote on craft for Dustin Brookshire’s blog I WAS BORN DOING REFERENCE WORK IN SIN.
“Why I Write”
I write because of the farm, where my grandfather planted sweet corn and cut his hair based on the moon phases. Where Skunk Tail hurdled a double-wire electric fence and stomped a dog to death for being too close to her calf. The farm was abundant living and
Check out the poster for the reading I’m hosting later this month.
My byline-busy August 2019 wrapped up with three more poems debuting.
“Doubt” and “Spell for Which I Had No Use” appeared over at Pidgeonholes.
“Vascularity” appeared in the latest issue of Impossible Archetype.
Three very different poems, from three different projects.
Chelsea Station, a digital “magazine devoted to gay literature,” published a short poem of mine this month. “Visiting from Ohio” was inspired by the ease with which men in New York look at you on the street compared to other parts of the country and what that look might actually mean in the long run of your romantic life.
Two prose poems debut over at Homology Lit today, kicking off a busy August! Missing Things and Be a Good Boy started as hillbilly magic poems, but eventually metamorphosed into other, more splendid creatures.
Many thanks to Homology for giving these kids a home!
The first of several new poems debuting over the next few months arrives today over at 8 POEMS JOURNAL.
“Big Bang” looks at the origins and formations of identity against the backdrop of a universe by familial and galactic. Taken from my still-unpublished chapbook Sagittarius A*, the poem takes something as simple as a name and flings it through the stars and back into the solitude of night.
A nearly-forgotten anniversary took me by surprise yesterday: 5 years since the debut of my first full-length book of poetry, Going Fast in Loose Directions.
A fun, mostly-naughty romp of dirty gay sex poems (as requested by the publisher,) Going Fast in Loose Directions was the manifestation of 3 years of writing and workshopping (in public view) sex positive queer poetry on my former Tumblr, Original Content Required. OCR, as my friends and I called it, focused on queer male sexuality in the 2010s: dating and sex in the digital age, the impact of social media, what was lust beyond physical space, and featured poetry and fiction, visual poems, collaborations, response work (numerous pieces that “collaborated” with the art of John MacConnell, with whom I later did formally organized original creations.) OCR was a blast. Time consuming, but great fun. I caused me to become passionate about writing again, introduced me to a lot of interesting artists, photographers and writers, reminded me of how to be disciplined with creative work. Continue reading “A Hard Wood Anniversary”
