Amsterdam
I’m working on a long, wordy post about my first couple of weeks in Amsterdam. There has been so much to take in; so much beauty and kindness, and sadness, too. In the meanwhile, here are some pictures (yes, I finally got the little red camera working!).
Walking with words
This year has, quite frankly, sucked the big one. And the turning of the year is the time when I usually, like most people, sit down and give myself a good talking to about all the failures of the year that has just passed, before coming up with a punitive … Continue reading
Six Kinds of Loneliness
Cool loneliness doesn’t provide any resolution or give us ground under our feet. It challenges us to step into a world of no reference point without polarizing or solidifying. This is called the middle way, or the sacred path of the warrior. When you wake up in the morning and … Continue reading
New boots
In the immortal words of Nancy Sinatra: these boots are made for walking and that’s just what they’ll do …
Roaring his terrible roars
Maurice Sendak has passed away. Let the rumpus start. May he rest not in peace, but in some wild, affectionate place, where the monsters are his friends and he is their king. May he continue to roar his terrible roars and gnash his terrible teeth and roll his terrible eyes … Continue reading
Queensland Literary Awards
As you probably already know, in a recent act of outstanding idiocy, the new Premier of Queensland withdrew funding for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Plenty of people have posted detailed and intelligent responses to this outrage, while I’ve been offline, so I won’t add my indignant restating of their … Continue reading
The bookstore as an old man
George Whitman passed away yesterday, in a room above his bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, on the Rue de Bucherie, Paris.