Whenever I examine Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or, really, any stage theory of personality, I am amazed by how neat it all appears. How tidy. How such models, no matter how helpful they are for understanding the overall process of personality development, can also, if we’re not careful, give us the false impression that our [...]
The morning is a handful of birds.
(transformations) i. the morning is flat in my hands in my blood flows naked in the silence of my room somewhere another body another morning opens like a chest full of birds its sound extends to the world ii. divinity of a man armed with wind and water the wind confuses me the morning covers [...]
Red Springs
among red springs i write a poem, a blank poem it hovers and crashes like the wind a gag poem, a burn poem thrashes, bleeds, loves faces extinction i dig in my pockets for the threat of rain the day presses magnanimously against my forehead poem made of dark soil poem torn from soft womb [...]
The Miraculous in Everyday Life
Over the Hills, paper collage, 2020 I dedicated my last post to defining what it means to perceive the world as miraculous. It is a style of experiencing, or way of seeing, that is central to my belief that life is a miracle (as opposed to, say, “life is love,” “the world is dangerous,” or [...]
Life As Miracle
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein The notion that life is a miracle is both an attitude and a style of experiencing. More precisely, it is an attitude that's rooted in a particular [...]
Beyond Suffering
I felt compelled to write this post because of a conversation I had yesterday with fellow blogger, Gabriela. In responding to issues I raised in a recent post on religion and personality, she asked me how I felt about the notion that “life is suffering,” especially as it relates to the central meaning I ascribe [...]
Songs of Pale Harvest
the sea will not fail i tell you, the moon drowns and never changes so let your joy rise up and take you become cavernous become liquid in the sunset sing songs of pale harvest songs of rust and water of a laughter finer than silk live free; stretch yourself long past the dawn says [...]
On Religion and Personality
If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know my self-study in psychology has taken me some very interesting places. Self-actualization. Creativity, perception, mysticism. Various topics in humanistic and existential psychotherapy. Religion, too, has been a part of these discussions; although, I admit, I’ve never been particularly interested in religion as a course of [...]
The Minimalist
what the body is thinking at the cliff, at the forehead of laughter in the flower in the mouth
Your Peace is Tide
Heavenly bodies, paper collage, 2020 your peace is tide spotless like warm rain sends out roots invents prophets invents poets invents a grim, impossible fate like rebirth, this too, is inevitable overhead, a second sun cracks, runs golden unties its strings & waits
