20 February 2026 Ever the creature of habit, ever the rabbit of routine, ever the tried, tested, and true Virgo… I love a good tradition. I love a cycle. I love a returning-to. Or, to use a word my new vocabulary app taught me the other day, I love the retrocedence of my life. Simply … Continue reading As Far as Traditions Go
13 February 2026 First, I have to ask myself: Is there actually anything poetic about that poem-like poem there? Or is it just my ego telling me, hey, you can still write a poem with a beer in hand, like it’s 2010 again? Look, it’s art. There, you did it. Congrats, kid. You made a … Continue reading Overanalyzing a Poem I Wrote in 2023
6 February 2026 “Is Gardiner, Montana… still the same?” That's the question Dave Dondero presents in a little waltzy number from back in 2010. The album: Number Zero with a Bullet. The song: “It’s Peaceful Here.” The scene: A panorama sprawling, falling, and crawling. From downtown Laramie, where Wyatt Earp sells him a beer, to … Continue reading It’s Peaceful Here, Most of the Year
29 January 2026 "I open a book I read in college" —Rick Barot, Moving the Bones There it is. That’s the line. Thirty seconds later, I’m digging through my bookshelf, pulling up the past. Scanning books I read in college for little left-behind scribbles. Stars in the margins. Sentences underlined and highlighted. Words that once-upon-a-time … Continue reading A Simple Rick Barot Line Prompts Me to Dig Into the Past
20 January 2026 On a personal level, I’m calling 2026 the Year of the Lavender. It’s a whimsical moniker—based solely on the color of my new notebook and the book of Mikko Harvey poems I bought to start the year. Each morning, I write a page, and I read Harvey’s poems, pairing my coffee with … Continue reading The Year of the Lavender
13 January 2026 Call me a sucker, but I bought (and am enjoying) John Darnielle’s book of lyrics he published recently called This Year. The central figure, the constant, the songwriter, John is the brains behind a little band called The Mountain Goats—a man and a band who’ve been with me since college. It all … Continue reading John Darnielle (Not Bob Dylan) and His Big Book of Annotated Lyrics
5 January 2025 Let’s try this again. Let's at least kick the can again, and see where it lands. This old blog—Writing from Here, I've always called it—is still alive and well, waiting on my big return. It's been five years since my last post. A period of time I won't try to sum up here, … Continue reading The Big Return
18 November 2020 Maybe "haunts" is too strong of a word. Lingers. Let's say Field of Dreams lingers on for me in some far-back, far-away kind of ever-present sense. Here's why: What Ray does is all perceived as some kind of crazy dream. But it isn’t that crazy at all to build something a stranger … Continue reading Yes, the Movie Field of Dreams Still Haunts Me
8 April 2020 The night I find out John Prine has died, I’m three cocktails deep in my apartment in Montana as some April super-moon picks the perfect night to show. I read it. Text it to friends. Then, as with any loss, I can't believe it. There’s no bother trying to collect the colors … Continue reading The Night John Prine Died
24 March 2020 I just read where it’s gonna take four months to get back to normal. Then it will be time for school to start again. Been cloudy and dreary for several days—spots of rain and cool. I won’t see you again till Christmas.
Writing from Here 