27 April 2026 Feeling a little Denis Johnson. Feeling a little Bruce Springsteen. Feeling a little other-wordly in a world between worlds. Poetry about music. Or inspired by. That’s what it feels like to read Devin Kelly’s book of poems called Blood on Blood. To quote Bianca Stone on the back cover, Kelly’s book is … Continue reading A Poet, an Album, and That Highfalutin Word Ekphrasis
20 March 2026 It’s a damn good question. And I remember it stopping me in my tracks. (Curse the internet all you will. Sometimes it gives you moments like this.) The tweet asks me plainly: What river have I crossed most often in my life? It’s a no brainer, Bob: The Shenandoah River. That sly, … Continue reading Small Blog Based on a Tweet by Robert Farley That I Took a Screenshot of Five Years Ago
12 March 2026 Oh, where to start with Mr. Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac—that French-Canadian kid from Lowell? Mr. Sal Paradise, Ray Smith, Ti Jean, Mr. Jack Duluoz of Duluoz legend? Oh, Jack, I once wrote in a song that you were King. I once got stuck on a cliffside in Big Sur trying to sneak … Continue reading For Kerouac, on His Birthday
5 March 2026 Seems to me, the magic of glass blocks is in their blur. In their frosty swirling of the present, they misshape and miscue. In a way, they mislead us. It’s almost sleight-of-hand, the way they make us feel the presence of something almost there — something both ever-present and ever-fleeting. Like certain … Continue reading Through Glass Blocks, Dimly
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
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