Three hundred pounds of geodes, Brought back from wilderness, Each with its own secret, Some savory, some sweet, Some blatant, some discrete. Cut them open, one by one, Spill Earth’s contents, cut and run, Build a map of what you found, Out there, Give nature’s mystery a new home, Shut away, Hidden from everyone but […]
Anyone who turns their attention to the world of modern psychotherapy will quickly start finding references to Gabor Maté all over the place. He has made a special contribution to how mental health professionals approach trauma, addiction, and––as his book Scattered Minds demonstrates––attention deficit disorder (ADD). Like many others before me, I was excited to explore Maté’s […]
Safety scissors, paper scraps, Fleeting faces, torn up maps, If you cut me out of this, I’ll be friendly, you won’t miss. Stuffed up kitties, paper skin, All these faces look like kin, If you say what you would like, Loneliness will never strike. Sunlit shadows, end of day, Caught you thinking, go away, If […]
Lots of writers use science fiction as an imaginary playground for suggesting ways that artificial intelligence might reshape human experience and civilization. Few, however, are ambitious enough to devote an entire novel to exploring the internal, conscious perspective of an AI living in a human-dominated world. For this alone, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun deserves our […]
Language is a brushing broom, Sweeps intent and dusts desire, When it first reaches us, so far away, Yet within, the only force we know, Rushing forth from cradle’s cover. Language is a learning lamp, Gathers fuel and sets ablaze, Dark discoveries of limit and loss, Every chance of loyalty and love, Empty echoes on […]
When I was a boy, my heart broke double, Splintered edges and rough tools, The smell of home made strange, The sound of love distorted, Underwater, Drowned. When I was a boy, that same sound saved me, Caught me in calm moments, Made me whole again, fleetingly, As I waited to be dragged, Underwater, Drowned. […]
When you go, get gone with grace, Meeting wind, earth, cool and calm, Be light, like you showed me, Cast your crooked smile and disappear. When you go, fill up that space, Churning memory, identity, bits and bobs, Be you, like you showed me, Your ever and only one last time. When you go, take […]
I belong to the tiny fraction of science fiction enthusiasts who didn’t read Andy Weir’s phenomenally-successful breakout novel, The Martian. For whatever reason, it just didn’t appeal to me, although I enjoyed the film adaptation. But when my wife, friends, and favorite podcasters started gushing about Project Hail Mary, I decided it was time to send myself rocketing into Weir’s geeky […]
While exploring my new career goal of entering the mental health profession, I recently met a LCSW in my community who offers neurofeedback as a supplement to other therapeutic services. Eager to share her enthusiasm for this technique, she generously gifted me a copy of Jim Robbins’s A Symphony in the Brain. My honest first impression was […]
Consolations are words, strung together utterances, that explore experience but allow the essential mystery of existence to remain hidden. They come to us, through air, through ink, offering an embrace just comforting enough to help us bear the painful and frightful realization that we are alone, so starkly alone, that the words dancing through our […]