General
So I write books about fish and papers about the Bible and columns about the Mavericks. To me, this represents a perfect circle, but that probably bears explaining. There’s nothing unnatural about doing the things you like doing. You can’t be unnatural to yourself. Your interests are related because you’re interested in all of them, [...]
Merlin Rogers is a man keenly, painfully, awake to the reality of horrible decisions. That’s something a lot of people don’t understand. The girl you shouldn’t have married, but she had something you hadn’t seen before and lacking an objective way to determine effective love, you figured you had it about right. The career path [...]
Fintan had been born in what was then Canaan and raised by humans, because in those days he was a human, although he still liked swimming. He and his future wife had bonded over a shared hatred of the god Ba’al. “You hate Ba’al?” He’d said. “Me, too!”. Good enough. Then the flood happened. Fintan [...]
Diomedes
Diomedes could not die and he didn’t, though our feathers graze his dreams Our cry wild and indistinct From deep-voiced Argos we came, wooden strong — We left Argos with our youths in hand Like trinkets for foreign embassy. The unbordered ones, coming to conquer nothing and —- We came to an end. — We [...]
Mid-November
What do we want to be? It’s a phrase that’s hard to write because it seems pretty used up, and can’t have an answer like “doctor”, “scientist” or ” astronaut” any more. We, in our mid to late twenties have made decisions causing a narrowing of our world. Yes, you can always be anything, or [...]
Fintan 2
The whole human story is comprehensible only through what is currently known, because of its cumulative nature. Angus McGillicudy is unaware that he is a descendant of Eoghan MacMurrough, the fifth century Irish king about whom William Butler Yeats once wrote, a few days before his own death “There in the tomb, drops the faint [...]
Fintan 1
Part one: Allegro It was by a series of miracles, not altogether kind, that the fish, Fintan, arrived at the Boston aquarium. As aquariums are, some would say, the perfect place for captive fish, it would not seem to have required miracles, adjectival or not to get him there, but the fact remained that it [...]
The swirl of a thin flounced skirt in motion like the Earth. The delicate line of the trapezius, rolling like a cord (a masculine note in a most feminine body) from the thrown back head, to the ample, muscular bottom, an equator of humming energy. Who knows what a painter’s eyes see? Degas sits in [...]
Oak prows dividing moss-water. The stars above, newly-made. The longboats on their night-time career, thin knives, cutting the darkened waves. This is the Cyclades, long ago. One of the great mysteries of the world. Long before Britain ruled the sea, long even before the Phoenicians, the people of the Cyclades plowed the deeps. They had [...]
Imagine a man. He wears an overcoat and a scarf, and he carries a briefcase. What does he want? He is a Russian spy, and he wants Pentagon secrets. He is an insurance salesman looking a little better so you know he doesn’t sell insurance to the riff-raff. This guy actually provides a valuable service. [...]
Do beards matter?
I grew a beard for three weeks and then shaved it off. No one but Robyn commented on its existence or lack of existence, when that latter time had come. There had been beard, where previously there was not, and one day there was not where there had been. The whole experience left me only [...]
The hours blossom into pearls of bizzarity. Look, I spend a lot of time alone. I do, I spend a lot of time sitting, and I’m reading books and looking at dictionaries . When that happens, social interactions are particularly intense. Especially for someone as weird as I am, I gotta, you know, I gotta [...]
You know, all apartments have noises. My own is notable for a certain gurgling that makes it sound like the sink’s about to hurl and an interesting basketball sound coming from the heater. Robyn, on the other hand, lives on the only street in Providence which anyone takes to go anywhere, which often leads to [...]
Ways in which I have recently been cruel
1) Being the person to point out, to the one person at the party(?) who didn’t know anyone else, and who was no doubt nervous, that the “strange-tasting” beer he was drinking was, in fact, a club soda. He saw the Canada thing and figured, Molson’s. 2) Breaking Mario’s heart. My Halloween costume–The kid from [...]
New York
This weekend I headed down south to the land of the pines, but I got a little bit lost and ended up in New York instead. Decided to make the most of it. Got the chance to see Leighton perform “Ruby Sunrise”, in which she was just superlative (can I use that without a noun? [...]
Am I Busy
A great deal of my time these days is spent meditating on the question “Am I Busy”? That, of course, might be why the answer is probably yes, since I could be spending that time working but that’s just how meta I am. (Meta, by the way, like goth or emo kid should be an [...]
What’s remarkable about most of my graduate school work is, I suppose, that it’s all thinking work. That is, I never have an assignment or a project I can do while watching TV, having a conversation, juggling three chainsaws. This is alternately a source of happiness (I HATE busy work) and concern–In terms of working [...]
For 50 miles on the interstate, a blue Toyota keeps me company Then—with a shift of speed so small to note In a general pattern too large to know Which end is up It’s gone
It has been an interesting time, blogosphere. The best thing about grad school? Being surrounded by talented, interesting, and passionate people. There’s no real worst thing. There’s lots of work, but A) it is work for which I get paid, and get health care, B) it is work, the dimensions of which I have personally [...]
I feel, in general, older and dumber–but I’m meeting new people who seem, altogether, great. There’s an extreme sense of comfort that comes with knowing that, for once, I get to stay in the same place for a little while. There is No Rush. Last night was waterfire, when I and some folks who have [...]
I’m off to Providence, tomorrow. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. I doubt you know what that means. If you do, tell me. You ever sit there and really think about the divide between you doing things and being things? I ain’t no different, I’m in a different place, doing a different thing. Let’s grow. Whatever. [...]
I’m going through some personal stuff in my life. It won’t appear here much, because I don’t want it to, but if anyone’s coming her wondering if it’s all quiet here–the answer is, no, it is not, but we’re trying. There are certain moments in your life, I think, that remind you the universe is [...]
So we’re Dallas residents for another week, and we are laying low. Recently, I drove across the country with Mark, also known as “The Human Compost Heap” for his value as a human being. The stops were as follows: 1) Memphis, where we got drunk on Beale Street and listened to loud music. 2) Nashville, [...]
My parents got a GPS for their car, the other day, and I’ve been using it some. It’s a really handy little thing–I had to drive to Fort Worth the other day and nothing bad happened, which was (and is) shocking. But I hate it as a person. Here’s why: You turn on the car, [...]