WORDS SAVES LIVES • SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 • WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY This book of poetry is dedicated to Thomas Disch, Jim Maclean, Leelah Alcorn, Dave Schulthise, and everyone who lost the fight against depression, isolation, and anxiety. Unfortunately there are very few ways to let someone who is suffering from mental illness know that … Continue reading Roses For Posies
Hardcore punk rock was challenging itself to find heavier paths when Sleep’s Volume One was released in 1991. The lightly distorted guitars and heavily didactic vocals, were making way for more poetic, feelings-driven messaging. There was a stress hangover from the heady, violence-fueled days of the early punk era, and the music reflects that claustrophobic … Continue reading The Heaviest Albums I’ve Heard
A quick study of who they were: Joan Vollmer Adams-Burroughs was born near Albany, New York on February 4, 1924. A student at Barnard College in Manhattan, New York, she was shared an apartment with Edie Parker. Their apartment was a place for beat poets to gather during their formative days in the nineteen forties. … Continue reading The Man Who Was A Bomb
I'll never tie it all together. I'll never put the pieces back. Simply stalling, stuttering, stopping dead in my tracks. The tracks by the power station. Giant boxes filled with instant death. One hand holds onto the source of amplified sound, the pulse that pushes the wind to crest and spill over the fans and … Continue reading I Am A Transformer
This story originally appeared on The Mental Illness Happy Hour Podcast blog on March 25, 2018. It was uncomfortably titled "The First Time I Dressed Up As A Transwoman." I'd be remiss to mention the demeaning grammar of the word "transwoman," which I did, immediately. It was not changed, clearly, so I've changed the title … Continue reading The Nights You Crash
I'm not entirely sure what makes an album "pivotal" to one's life. Good music should leave an impression. Maybe a song changed the way you pictured yourself or your view of future's dreams. Listening to full albums often takes you down alleyways you don't expect, or sometimes want, to go. So you're listening to an … Continue reading 12 Personally Pivotal Albums
A very young, self-described male-to-female transgender woman was tortured and murdered miles away from me this week. I live in Kansas, but only four hours away in a small Missouri town, a young girl was subjected to hell. It scares me, not for my own well-being, because I live in the shadow of a liberal … Continue reading Notes From A Red State
Stuck Inside Your Big Old Brain (Buzzing Like A Lazy Bumblebee) This is the story of how I got here. My only goal was to fill the world with carefully crafted phrases, words to invoke benevolent-sometimes sad-spirits within, words-loosely-connected-by-imaginary-thread, a wish to unlock from their cages in my mind to be teased apart by you … Continue reading National Poetry Month 04/2020
Love is a gift for others. Give it away. Keep giving away your love. Empty yourself. Give until it hurts. Give everything you have and hope against hope it's returned. There are no guarantees in this world. It's dog eat dog. Midwestern politeness missiles drop on the unloved. Give up, give in, give, give, give … Continue reading Love Is All You’ve Lost
Is this the fiscally conservative leadership we wanted? Is the dissolution of "big government" satisfying? I don't believe in villains. I believe in bad actors. I accept people can be desperate, under-educated, and poorly-wired. I believe that people can lack empathy, and many even have a nearly narcissistic drive to manipulate and dominate, a maladjusted … Continue reading Generation Hex
Mystery Doll 