*weekly crosspost with my Patreon account. This is the free version. It’s the same as the paid one. May is the birth month of Karl Marx after all, and I’d be a terrible socialist if I did it any other way. Ps. the paid one provides more weed nugs and peanut butter hugs, though***
Fuck. It’s Monday. It’s 7:42pm, and I meant to write this yesterday evening so I’d be ahead of the game, but instead I found a band called The War and Treaty, and I got high and fucked off and listened to music and read til I couldn’t keep my happy eyes open any longer. I regret nothing.
A friend did however slip me some mushrooms, and I may or may not be sitting under a microdosed smile as we speak. Either way, I’m sitting outside under a blissful spring sky and the clouds have rarely been prettier.
Last week I read a lot. Wrote a lot. Slept some. Loved some. Wept some. So, typical week.
One big announcement that I’ve got: I’ve finally gotten around to starting a monthly Zoom reading. I’ve had this Zoom account since Covid, and I need to find uses for it, or let it go. What better use than opening the zoom room up for an open mic event once a month, so that other poets and artists, like me, that are often living in rural areas without much in the way of an art scene can get together.
I think Zoom readings are about 70% as good as an in person one. You miss out on some energy and chit chat and camaraderie, but it’s still got a lot of validation for the sake of community. And poetry and community are two things I love.
So, the first ever “Fuck It Friday Free-For-All” is this coming Friday May 10th at 9pm eastern time. Join us if you’d like. Invite friends.
Current projects on my list (many will be ongoing for months and months)
-shopping for printing paper to make tiny poetry scrolls for my pre rolled poems project
-writing an on the road travelogue of recent poetry tour
-writing a Jeep memoir
-working on video documentary of recent poetry tour
-writing a memoir called “work” about all of the jobs I’ve worked in my life
-assembling my first poetry collection manuscript
-columns, blogs, stories and poems. I never stop writing these, no matter what else I’m doing
-there’s more. But that’s enough to show that I’m never not busy. It might appear that I’m just sitting around getting stoned, and wandering to strange adventures all the time, but rest assured, I’m working overtime every week. It just takes me 40 hours to do 10 hours of work, because I keep losing my phone and worrying myself sick about Palestine.
Can I take a minute to tell you about books I’ve loved the last week?
-and blackberries grew wild by Susan Ward Mickelberry (Roadside Press) good collection of poetry
-poems for alcoholics self published by Nettie Zan. Especially poignant poetry for anyone that’s been in recovery
-American Foursquare a novel by Nettie Zan (Hagstone Books) a beautiful book that uses multiple voices to drive a story about surviving and walking away from childhood trauma (that’s my way of gentle trigger warning)
-Still Life With Woodpecker a novel by Tom Robbins. One of my all time favorite books. Expect some type of blog post about it soon. Expect a tattoo of the cover to appear on my arm when funds are more plentiful. I love this book that much.
-A Bouquet of Nails a poetry collection by David Lerner (Zeitgeist Press) Lerner is my favorite poet probably, and the three best things I can tell you about this book: no one writes better about bipolar anguish than Lerner. No one writes a more wicked metaphor than Lerner. And I love this book so much I’ve bought two copies of it as gifts for friends, because I think everyone should read David Lerner.
-Book of Haikus by Jack Kerouac. I’ve been reading a page or two every morning for a while now. I think it’s some of Kerouac’s best writing.
positive note to leave on: one time a therapist pointed this out to me. When Buddha said to practice compassion and loving kindness to all living things, he meant me, too. And you. Be good to yourselves my friends.
Love,
Dan
Don't forget to get your hard cover copy of The Dead and the Desperate preordered
There's only about 30 copies of Finding Jesus & Prayers To My Saints (Guttersnob Books, 2022) my second book. It's out of print now, and I've got this last box of them left. Read it yet?
if you know any homesteaders or country property owners that live inside this red circle, and might be looking for a writer that lives in a camper to camp on their property and help out some....hey I'm putting it out there in the universe....
I found this old photo of me and Jamie Farr recently. One of us is a Toledo Legend. The other just got voted the best writer in Toledo. This photo was taken on an old flip phone.
Funniest meme I've seen all week? If you ever knock on my camper door unannounced, you get what you get. But this isn't far from the truth, and I laughed and laughed at this and its good to laugh.
I love Kerouac’s haiku, and I agree, some of his best.