Author Archives: Jeff

Ars Poetica

Sunday, a week ago, I’d never heard of Ars Poetica. On Monday I wrote a poem arguing against Dunya Mikhail’s statement, “poetry is not medicine—it’s an X-ray.” It explained why I wrote and read poetry, sometimes as medicine, sometimes as … Continue reading

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Midnight Special

Midnight Special is a folk blues written from the standpoint of someone in prison. There are many versions. My favorite is Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version (on YouTube, search for “Midnight Special CCR” if the link doesn’t work). As far as … Continue reading

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“Do You Love Me

… now that I can dance.” There is some incredible creativity going on in the world. Boston Dynamics, a robot maker, posted a video of its robots dancing to “Do You Love Me”, a song from my youth at the … Continue reading

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Espresso Romano Riposato

Italian for rested Rome style espresso. Espresso in Italian means pressed as in coffee pressed into the porta-filter, extracted by pressure, and express, i.e. quickly. We been experimenting with espresso romano, espresso with lemon peel and optionally sugar. We’ve found … Continue reading

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Jazz Writing

The Art of Jazz: Learning to Co-Write with a Partner arrived in my e-mail box just after someone else’s draft in a writing group we share struck me as having a lot of potential to go in several ways. Rather … Continue reading

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What Takes To Do a TEDx Talk

The editors of Loud Coffee Press entered the competition to do a Western New England University TEDx Talk. In a recent post they shared the process of moving from idea to “show time”. It is a process the TEDx Talk … Continue reading

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Reimagining democracy as a work of love

I’ve tried in poems, prose, essays, and action to articulate a way of moving beyond the over-partisanized politics in Texas and the United States (see my Social Justice category). Reimagining democracy as a work of love by Luke Roberts does … Continue reading

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Learning to Pray – Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is one of my favorite writers on the creative process. I’ve bought several of his books and read his blog.He shares bits of his work and parts of his process. Learning to Pray hit me from out of … Continue reading

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Tale of Two Cities

Laurence Musgrove’s newest project is Texas Poetry Assignments. He previously published my poem, The Work of Inauguration. Today he published Tale of Two Cities on the Capitol Riots of January 6, 2020. Reading it in light of subsequent news (stolen … Continue reading

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Mindfully Leaving

When I lived as a kid in Larkspur, California, it was a middle class town in an upper class county (2nd or 3rd highest per capita income in the US). I’ve visited several times in the decades since and watched … Continue reading

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