Monday
Jul122010

Extemporaneous Song for My Hound Dog

As we prepare to go out on our thrice-weekly cross-country expedition ...

Holes in my socks
Head full of rocks
Live in a box
With a dog who talks ...

Monday
Jul122010

Thirsty and Dreaming

I woke up thirsty and dreaming. The multiple dimensions I’d been visiting appeared to me as a set of interlocking mirrors of different sizes, and they were just about to collapse and shatter. I was a perverted guy who lived on the ground floor of an apartment building in a Latin American city, I was the woman who lived above him, and I was the journalist interviewing them both and moving back and forth. I carried a pillow with me from the attic storeroom of the place to the balcony and I did this several times, always encountering my boss and wondering vaguely, without concern, whether he would think I was doing this for the purpose of napping, when I wasn’t. The mirrors reminded me that I’d been and done so much more than I could ever remember. They slanted in toward each other to form the narrow alley where I walked; their texture turned pebble-grained though still clear, then they began melting like mercury. By now I was almost asleep again and realized I would remain thirsty. I would sleep on thirst because it gave me something to go on.

Sunday
Jul112010

Sunset, Sunday, 11 July 2010

William Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

One of the things I look for in the sunset is a way to represent the underlying energy, the angelic or divine presence, the larger reality that we might not literally see with our eyes but that may account for the depth of our experience when we look at the sky.

Saturday
Jul102010

Sunset, Saturday, 10 July 2010

William Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Saturday
Jul102010

On Ghostwriting

People always seemed to assume the main difficulty in working as a ghostwriter would be the lack of visibility. But the problem with being a ghost wasn’t so much the invisible part, it was the dead part.

Friday
Jul092010

Sunset, Friday, 9 July 2010

William Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

All the sound and motion of a storm without much of the rainfall. Walking up the dirt road and looking for the sunset I was almost able to walk between the drops.