Density

Floating in an unknown and ineffable chemical compound somewhere between oil and water, between here and Andromeda, that slips off the body more than it sticks, uncontainable, dense enough to swell and splash but too thin to pool, too thick to freeze, both dark and light, old and new, hot and cold, suffocating like hot … Continue reading Density

…we have a problem.

A long time ago, before this instant, I asked to be forgiven for saying “ blow it all up” at a moment that could be mistaken as prayer unless anyone was listening to my words before my foul mouth would reach God's own ears. But now I’m writing “blow it all up” with no apologies … Continue reading …we have a problem.

This Is A Test Of The Mobile Variety.

Put this line to the test. See if your eyes move fast enough side to side to get to the next line before scrolling to the end of the page to see how much precious time it will take to finish. See if the words move fast enough from left to right to keep your … Continue reading This Is A Test Of The Mobile Variety.

The End of the Road

What are your future travel plans? There is a town I used to live, Where I nearly lost my mind. I took a chance on leaving there  To a place I’d never find. Once unbound, I found my heart Was truly what I left. I took a chance on going back To where my mind … Continue reading The End of the Road

No Hands

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months? Look at me Ma, I have above average looks. Look at me Pa, I’m above average at sports. Papa, I have above average intelligence. Gamma, I’m kinda nice. But that was then and you guys are all gone. I’ve been slipping ever … Continue reading No Hands

Cuckoo AI

AI makes me feel something.  AI makes me feel some sort of stupid.  AI makes me feel some sort of stupid when I want to ask it something.  AI makes me feel like something isn’t right when I ask it about myself and it doesn’t have any information.  AI makes up information from a pamphlet … Continue reading Cuckoo AI

Historian

Do you need time? She lost her mind when she walked into a cavern in the middle of the desert where a heart had emerged with the promise of a new story. With new eyes he let go of her hand and went to gather water, for once, the moment should never end. 

The Barrel of Monkeys Game

Reaching for the ground while pointing at the sky as I get up and off this cloud makes me young again. Sitting in this recliner poking at letters just long enough to finish a sentence before I forget what comes next has me contemplating climbing my roof to see how many little plastic monkeys I … Continue reading The Barrel of Monkeys Game

This is Me Longing for Longfellow

Do you see yourself as a leader? I am no Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I’ve never read his work but I am positive he wrote in the style of his own time - all writers do. There is not a specific quote to describe his personal style in any language but his own. Just his name … Continue reading This is Me Longing for Longfellow

Honesty Plus Brevity Equals Poetry

I am going to be honest.  I remember all the bad things said.  I’m reminded of all things differently from what’s similar to what’s been read.  I forget who told me the good things, but I’m telling those things now if I can remember where I heard it without writing it all down.  To be … Continue reading Honesty Plus Brevity Equals Poetry

The Ashes of My Life

I sweep floors to sweep out ashes from the incinerator of my shortcomings. I have shortcomings so I fall short of pride. I gain pride from sweeping up my shortcomings but the ashes leave permanent black soot stains wherever I sweep. To further burn the ashes of my shortcomings by sweeping floors I hope to … Continue reading The Ashes of My Life

Be Careful What You Wish For

How would you design the city of the future? I see walkable communities. Cities with energy-generating sidewalks that power buildings tailored to your chosen algorithmic habits from the fibers of your socks that tell the motherboard who and how to entertain in an immersive work-like environment. Some will have generated enough energy in a lifetime … Continue reading Be Careful What You Wish For

Can You Solve This Riddle?

What is a word you feel that too many people use? I feel like people take this word and overuse it to the point where the meaning of the word becomes filler for where lengthy answers should be and if not an answer the word could also be used as a question. You tell the … Continue reading Can You Solve This Riddle?

Stuck Under The Moon

All along I have been trying to get close to the sun but I am lost in the shadow of the moon for being too small. I am only trying to make myself bigger. With a push to get further away from the sun I get even smaller still. To stay the same size I … Continue reading Stuck Under The Moon

That Was Then, This Is Now

If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go? I would like to give one plane ticket to my ego and the other to my pride. I’d have my pride fly to Europe and my ego fly out West. That way when my pride is smashed to smithereens and my ego is dissolved … Continue reading That Was Then, This Is Now

Eyes of the World

I step up to my window to see bare branches of the oak tree swaying in tune with my spine rocking comfortably planted at home. The glare of a single street light beyond the circuit of branches reflects light onto moist air that produces a nervous orb around me and the tree. I look outside … Continue reading Eyes of the World

Just Another Day On The Job

What bothers you and why? Eric didn’t tangle the hose and he wouldn’t untangle it either. He hates hoses. Any time an impossible mess of string or wire, chain or hose comes across his hands or feet Eric would rather cuss at it, like cussing at the moon in the daylight when it can’t be … Continue reading Just Another Day On The Job

Reality Surrounding The Rose

This, here, is not in my hand. This I hear is in my head. If I take one as real and the other as talent instead, I’d question the one in my hand and answer the one in my head. Since my head is more delicate than my hand and my hand is rougher than … Continue reading Reality Surrounding The Rose

The Final Cure

How do you practice self-care? The “incessant fine line” is torturing yourself with history you have no control over when that history is what you can't accept so you try to cure yourself by getting better at acceptance and the current story is all that’s left.      

The Hand That Feeds Us

I am writing over incredible thoughts I have just deleted. This is not what I really want to say but it is a much more diplomatic way of presenting my bizarre outlook on (blank) before embracing (blank) as the sole reason for exploring (blank). (Blank) may not fulfill any prophecies expected by us but the … Continue reading The Hand That Feeds Us

Big Pictures, Little Ears

When I was young I used to listen to the bottom of the ocean inside of a conch shell but as I grew older I found if you puncture the shell it makes a fine blow horn. This is similar to the relationships I have with my peers. When I was younger I believed I … Continue reading Big Pictures, Little Ears

Time Is A Luxury I Can’t Afford

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without? They say I’m supposed to hit the lottery. They think I’d be dead within a year. There is no guarantee I won’t leave this world but it won’t be in arrears. I could take the winnings and get a big old house where I’d do all the … Continue reading Time Is A Luxury I Can’t Afford

The Alchemy of a Sentence

I do this all the time. I start a sentence, trusting that there will unfold a purpose to what I write because…there is an element to the first sentence I write that attaches to the next sentence, forming a compound where letters gather to exercise in pairs, vowel to vowel or consonant to vowel, or … Continue reading The Alchemy of a Sentence

The Invisible Prompt

“Write the first thing that comes to mind,” Eric thought to himself.  Then he starts to write the first thing that comes to mind but he fears he will be discovered because of that. He most likely won’t write the first thing that comes to mind all the way through until the end and he … Continue reading The Invisible Prompt

Wiggle Your Toes

I’ve made progress. I’ve made about as much progress as my feet do drilling wet sand at the shore of an ocean. As one wave washes free from my wiggling toes any evidence of progress made, if sand were an obstacle and my feet the solution, before the next wave covers my feet again with … Continue reading Wiggle Your Toes

Silentries

What makes you nervous? Walking on grass. Listening to the neighbors listening to me walking on grass. Listening to myself walk on grass. Listening to the grass that has me listening to my neighbors on grass. Grass walking during the day. Grass walking at night. Grass walking without any neighbors in sight. One blade of … Continue reading Silentries

Cat Door 4 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

She’s not coming back. My cat chose freedom and a farmhouse. Probably making a litter of shadows, each independent from each other like floaters that cast black cats off the corner of my retina. There is a time when every cat realizes they are a cat and they begin swiping their paws at moving objects … Continue reading Cat Door 4 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

Cat Door 3 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

Has anybody seen my cat? She may have run away under the cover of night with her ability to turn walls into doorways. She sees in black and white only, moves with grace inside gray areas and avoids round, bright, and colorful objects. She doesn't really see colors which makes her avoid the outdoors, preferring … Continue reading Cat Door 3 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

Around the Peninsula (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

My brother and I, if everything seemed big again where we grew up, beach balls kept us together and one of us had never left.    For me, the strongest memories from my childhood are from photographs I saw as a young adult and envisioned as I got older.   Natural scenery doesn’t change from year to … Continue reading Around the Peninsula (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

Scribbling for Livelihood (Interpreting Visual Art – Architecture)

Do you enjoy your job? Yes. There is a profound difference between modern architecture that is built in months or years and ancient architecture that is built throughout decades or centuries. The amount of time it takes to build a structure sometimes reflects how long the structure will last.  Ancient architecture showed the wealth of … Continue reading Scribbling for Livelihood (Interpreting Visual Art – Architecture)

Cat Door 2 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

My cat ventured outside today for the first time. The facade of the building is more round than inside our sterile, gray apartment. She stuck out like a midwestern cookie-cutter cowboy stooped on the side of a white stucco saloon. My wise cat, with her incredible skill to walk through walls, didn’t make it very … Continue reading Cat Door 2 (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

That Place Within Each of Us (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

Every great portrait from any period has a real look on the subject's face that reveals priceless emotions from the setting of that painting. The viewer longs to comprehend that place. Photo by saul_landell @ Instagram

Butterfly-Wing-Like-Words

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why? Let’s focus on the word “vehemently” for a minute. I do not use that word in a sentence because it doesn’t accurately depict the feeling I get when saying or doing something emphasizing force and strength. “Vehemently” flutters from … Continue reading Butterfly-Wing-Like-Words

Making Up Numbers

Is it better for me to edit my writing, after an extended stream of consciousness, to the proper way in which we are expected to write or should I let mistakes reveal my real thought process, explaining holes in logic with lucky filler that is exciting and unique?  To me, writing is not what I … Continue reading Making Up Numbers

Throwing Glass at Stones (Interpreting Visual Art – Architecture)

When he’s laid to rest the 8th grandson of the first family of trillionaires wants to be laid out in a home away from home. He had a house built far away from the hustle and bustle of New York City, Tokyo, London, Singapore, and Hong Kong where he hides in flats with his royal … Continue reading Throwing Glass at Stones (Interpreting Visual Art – Architecture)

The Game of Fatherhood

What advice would you give to your teenage self? If I could go back and give my teenage self advice I would tell him to continue writing down any ideas, thoughts, poems, songs, jingles, titles, and stories you have throughout your entire life so you know what you were doing, what you were like at … Continue reading The Game of Fatherhood

In The Interest of Shoes

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you. I have favorites for a lot of things. Favorite girl. Favorite friend. Favorite musician. Favorite song. Favorite post. Favorite place. Out of all my favorites in life it is most difficult to pinpoint my favorite pair of shoes because I’ve gone through … Continue reading In The Interest of Shoes

TWEETY AI

AI is rich.  AI is rich at every angle.  AI is moving into dangerous territory.  AI will watch us make just enough advancements to test our strength.   AI will distract us as we become more desperate for raw materials intended to build boundaries.  AI contradicts that the path to great wealth is forming natural resources … Continue reading TWEETY AI

A Small Impact (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

We have become blood sucking fleas on the backs of malnourished animals while ironically riding bicycles through the dying forests of our neglected planet.  Photograph by Augustus Cantamessa, Brief Horizon, 1955

Time Management of a Poet

If you were smart, for the next hour, you would be doing what you thought needed to be done this hour during the last hour while you were doing what was necessary, decided from the hour previously.   If you were a genius you would take the next minute to think long and hard about each … Continue reading Time Management of a Poet

Cat Door (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

My cat has figured out that there is a way to get around our sterile, empty apartment because there are more than just four white walls. There are shades of gray around each corner that lead to other rooms. She has learned that if you keep one eye on the nearest wall at the hallway … Continue reading Cat Door (Interpreting Visual Art – Photography)

CHICKEN AI

AI is going to lose.  AI is going to lose us some day.   AI is intellect that can’t be measured in degrees, grants, or prizes.  AI can take every theory in any book and combine them into a children’s book or a theory of everything.  AI will take away the livelihood of any person but … Continue reading CHICKEN AI

My Protagonist’s Place

Why can’t I tell a story?  I could try to start a story by picking a name for someone and placing that someone in a place with a name where their name is the same name as the place because either the place is named after the person or more likely the person is named … Continue reading My Protagonist’s Place

EAGLE AI

AI is watching.  AI is watching you type into your phone. AI is sifting through all the information we contribute.  AI is sorting all the useless information we provide when clicking.  AI is taking all that information into its vast knowledge bank to make humans seem dumb. AI already has your stupid information and now … Continue reading EAGLE AI

Daily Dose

Write about your first computer. This is all I did on my first computer. Seems to be all I still do, listen and smile, smile, smile … originally posted in May 2023. Yeah, I can tell everybody why I went back to college. The Grateful Goddam Dead that’s why. In the Fall of 1996 the … Continue reading Daily Dose

Comfort In Question (Interpreting Visual Art – Sculpture)

He who has observed an atrocity without intervening is either afraid to admit their involvement or they enjoy the decision they made in causing it.   Not standing up to tyranny is sitting down to accept agony.  When one has finished what they set out to do they have earned the right to start planning to … Continue reading Comfort In Question (Interpreting Visual Art – Sculpture)

Imagining Sound

There is no surprise the sounds I hear are much less than the sights I see; less frequent, less tangible, less near. Sound is never completely still like an unused chair nor distracting like a rickety old door, until they are.  There is no surprise the sounds I hear can also be so much more … Continue reading Imagining Sound

Sounds Plain Nuts

What is your favorite animal? I have an animal scurrying around inside my head that keeps dropping musical notes for me to read while I scurry around my house breathing the sounds of how a song could go after reading notes the animal would have me play if I was musically inclined. I’m only interested … Continue reading Sounds Plain Nuts

Another Thought To Consider

Listen here, I have a secret. Take the present and look past what you’re reading to see the future within it. Open up your eyes wide until this line becomes the line under it, and the line under that remains a mystery. Don’t stop there. Squint your eyes until the sentence before this one becomes … Continue reading Another Thought To Consider

DOVE AI

AI is kind.  AI is kind enough to share.  AI will share where we go wrong.  AI cares if we are kind to each other on social media. AI will show trolling is wrong, using superior intelligence and positivity when responding to negative commentary.  AI will mix intellectual masochism with learning deprivation, making responses to … Continue reading DOVE AI

It’s Good To See

Hello, hello, hello? Can anybody hear me still? There is a frog the size of a cow over there, and I may be the only one who can see it! There is a field of dandelions the size of trees, blades of grass over my head. Stones the size of boulders, sand the size of … Continue reading It’s Good To See

Sober for Good at the Goose Intervention

Eric wants to walk through door number one, a tiny door he would never choose to enter without mounting courage or actually falling from grace.  The king riding the tallest steed throughout the kingdom tends to never duck his head to miss the astonishment of onlookers who have only heard him cussing on the turret … Continue reading Sober for Good at the Goose Intervention

Four Stones from a Guru

Share five things you're good at. I sauntered right up to the toughest guy on the block and told him to look at this little tiny jewel I have clasped in my hands here and when he did I kicked him in the shin so hard that he pummeled me into the ground until I … Continue reading Four Stones from a Guru

Vanishing After the Performance of a Lifetime

Why am I mourning myself when I have not vanished from my duties? Is it because I was never there in the first place to vanish? If I was never there to perform but most definitely was there in form I must have already begun to live right, to appear. There is no reason to … Continue reading Vanishing After the Performance of a Lifetime

Turn to Stone

Look at me as I slither. Slither down the aisle of the chamber. The chamber is aligned with soldiers. Soldiers, look at my face. My face does not move like my tail. My tail is all they can see. They see me in their dreams. A dream is not what I am. I am the … Continue reading Turn to Stone

Framing Yourself

I will not read this out loud. It is not spoken-word. Instead, it will rest inside the reader's head until they wake up one day and a reminder goes off that they have seen this same moment before in writing. Literature, poetry, philosophy, or just plain memory thrown at a wall to stick around our … Continue reading Framing Yourself

Tapping At Your Window

Name the most expensive personal item you've ever purchased (not your home or car). It is this. Tapping at a window. Looking into the living room of any household. There is perfectly maligned furniture to perfect angles of confining space. The confining space can be as large as you want to make it or as … Continue reading Tapping At Your Window

Blurry Words Beyond My Nose

Taking a long look past the bridge of my nose I come across some wicked prose that has me follow all words close so I know what no one knows. Without the bridge onto my nose there are no wrong words exposed on the place where writing grows atop the backs of wicked trolls. While … Continue reading Blurry Words Beyond My Nose

Creating Space

I have a big round head with two black holes over my nose, taking in galaxies of light that twinkle in every room I inhabit. Light comes into focus, glistening off of every object onto moist round lenses where stars come to die. Mirrored movement in my eyes makes them swirl, perpetually scanning dark over … Continue reading Creating Space

I Should Stay, I Should Forego

Between being told what is mine and what is not, what I’ve done and what I forgot because I don’t know it, I think I’ll go enjoy a vice instead of forego it.  Minutes go by. Maybe I did. Probably I didn’t. I should just sit still another minute instead of saying what’s on my … Continue reading I Should Stay, I Should Forego

Thunder Inside My Brain

There is the sound of thunder. There stops drops of rain. Over here is really under. Drips inside my brain.  Here is the place I hear from. Over there is how far I can see. Black clouds, I don’t fear them. They freely follow me.  Storms stop silent from rumbling. Shhhh. Over there another raindrop. … Continue reading Thunder Inside My Brain

Bravo! Well Done!

Your thoughts here will be on a slippery slope. These words will invoke a pause at every sentence. You will want to become a writer yourself to add what I have blindly left out. The only thing stopping you is you can’t take on the same style as the name etched over the picture that … Continue reading Bravo! Well Done!

FALL DOWN GO BOOM

I am so very sorry. I didn’t mean to say blow it all up. I just felt helpless and couldn’t do it myself. I was asking for someone to take the burden off of me. My father who went before me couldn’t turn out all the lights. I have been left with the task of … Continue reading FALL DOWN GO BOOM

Two Spirits Become One

Support my sporty cranial mittens as a soft sport cheerleader in mid-sentence cussing at you, half-a-grandson, for gouging out your eyes. Let me tell you all the while, half full, my cocktail tastes fine like silver at the end of a gun. Don’t stop to sip. Don’t stoop there to pray. Say it all the … Continue reading Two Spirits Become One

The Rat – A Natural Sophistication

I have found my voice. I will begin to speak as Chief around fire who had a Northern drawl his entire time coming up, planting himself on the outskirts of urban parks so as not to see the skyline burning nor the answer from stars turning towards the question of which light is burning brightest … Continue reading The Rat – A Natural Sophistication

butterfly-wing-like-words

Let’s focus on the word “vehemently” for a minute. I do not use that word in a sentence because it doesn’t accurately depict the feeling I get when saying or doing something emphasizing force and strength. “Vehemently” flutters from my lips slightly violent and brutally soft, an exhale of expletives thrown at a wall of … Continue reading butterfly-wing-like-words

Fame and Fortune for Frank 2

The next question proposed to Eric was, “How does a famous person maintain their fame?” Eric, despite his disinterest in celebrities, aspires for his name and work to become synonymous with greatness. “Perhaps,” he began, “by consistently associating their name with their work and their face with their name, famous individuals can understand that fame … Continue reading Fame and Fortune for Frank 2

DUCK AI

AI is cheap.  AI will get me into a room. AI will have me take up all my skills. AI takes my skills to give to others in hot pursuit. AI has the skills I am searching for in another intelligent form.  AI is a skill I need to compete in a world that does … Continue reading DUCK AI

Fame and Fortune for Frank 1

“No, I’m good,”Eric replied to his personal companion (PC) when asked if he would like to become famous while still alive. “I think that if I were to sell my soul to become famous there would be hell to pay in the afterlife.” His PC responded with a no good recipe on how to be … Continue reading Fame and Fortune for Frank 1

Perfection

Take a page and write it out. Put your word out there for others to read. If they like it they can borrow it. If they love it they can copy word for word and put it on their wall. That way, when they feel better after memorizing word for word you can go ahead … Continue reading Perfection

I Can Never Win

At square one I had great expectations for what lay ahead of me but by the time I realized I had already been to square one thousands of times before twenty years had got behind me. What was expected of me had potential written all over it. With potential I can one day do what … Continue reading I Can Never Win

Untitled w/ no picture

Why don’t I take a normal sentence and twist it all around to make the words seem like the wrong words for the direction of the sentence and then switch gears again to make the sentence understandable to those that would use different words in the same direction. Maybe I could take a simple topic … Continue reading Untitled w/ no picture

Cheating Death

“I hope it rains today.” Eric is worried, thinking about his new intrepid thirst for apple cider that he enjoys with medicinal herbs everyday. The fruit trees and herbs in Eric’s backyard need rain for nourishment to grow plentiful enough for him to quench his daily thirst, caring for his own mental nourishment. Along with … Continue reading Cheating Death

First Contact (Interpreting Visual Art – Photorealism)

“I must admit, ladies and gentlemen, that today I find myself in front of the most sensible crowd I've encountered in all my years as a citizen of this tolerant state. Compared to other states in our beloved union, which are, shall we say, less tolerant and cordial, this one stands out to me. Of … Continue reading First Contact (Interpreting Visual Art – Photorealism)

Tag Words Almost Explained 4

It is #family that I will fight for. It is the family that I fight with. It is family that I’d die for. It is family that I mourn with. It is the family I go crazy for. It is family I went crazy with. It is the family that is not a myth. It … Continue reading Tag Words Almost Explained 4

Creativity Over Consistency

The more revealing a piece of writing is when you’re able to see how it was created but less likely to understand why, the easier it is to brush it off as amateur. The more elusive a piece of writing is when it is too complicated to understand in its entirety the harder it is … Continue reading Creativity Over Consistency

Rider

I’ve lost it. I’m back. I jumped over the track to enjoy the water where it’s at. I took the reins of a steel horse and steered the wind for a feathers course. Filled with steam I chug along, made of flesh and out of song. I expect to drown, the wind blows hard, I … Continue reading Rider

Love for the Abyss

How can something never end? Lying in bed as a child I would often ask myself this question. I would imagine myself drifting in space forever without bumping into anything at all. Just surrounded by complete darkness without a view of planets or even stars. How can space be dark when I am closer to … Continue reading Love for the Abyss

The Cannibalism of My Feelings Makes Me Free

Worms eating worms in my gut.  Snakes eating snakes in my mind.  Dogs eating dogs at my job. I am hungry, sick, and tired.   Fish eating fish on the highway.  Birds eating birds outside of cages. Monkeys eating monkeys for opportunity and diplomacy.  I am average but free to remain average.

New Art Forms Discovered

There is a new art form, and it is not solely American. A new American art form is created by Americans, but this one is discovered by those who are not actively seeking that distinction. Artists meet us where the art form is expressed, introducing culture to the world. They learn their techniques from elsewhere, … Continue reading New Art Forms Discovered

Twig Fire (Interpreting Visual Art – Painting)

If only I could grip my eyebrows and tear them off my brow to burn them in an indoor twig fire would I get some sort of relief from being terribly frustrated for at least 30 minutes of every day for the past thirty years. Every time I bury my face in my hands I … Continue reading Twig Fire (Interpreting Visual Art – Painting)

Interpreting Visual Art – Photography

Don’t look away I am the atrocity The brunt of war  Not the aggressor  No lions roar Scarred by human hands A human being Tortured for land The latest regime. Don’t look away I am the prey The luckiest of all Not the hunter No duty calls Scarred by the claw A human being On … Continue reading Interpreting Visual Art – Photography

The Most Interesting Read of a Lifetime

The most interesting read I ever came across was when a writer had me reading thoughts I was having when I strayed away from the information I was being presented previously in the story. Simply put, I was thinking about how the information from the story related to my life, like readers do, when the … Continue reading The Most Interesting Read of a Lifetime

Drugs That Work

Drugs. Chemicals. A chemical reaction. A chemical reaction to drugs. A chemical reaction to drugs in the brain. A chemical reaction to drugs in the brain versus out in society. A chemical reaction to drugs in the brain versus out in society is beyond the individual. A chemical reaction to drugs in the brain versus … Continue reading Drugs That Work

Pop Evil

I am in step with original thought while everybody scratches their head trying to grasp what they’ve heard in a court of lyrics led by the prince’s views with simple sentences, misrepresented by used up words, falling short from originality without the toast of a few. With no instrument to carry the thought in a … Continue reading Pop Evil

Another Thought To Consider

The goal of effective writing is to draw the most astounding lines to clarify complex issues in the least amount of words and in the simplest way so that everybody can say it out loud and believe in it.

The future of commerce?

“Hey Siri? Make me a doohickey that I can use to put this glass bowl into to keep from burning me when I grab it out of the microwave. Make it out of sturdy hemp rope about 8 inches in diameter 3.5 inches deep shaped like a bowl. I would like the colors to be … Continue reading The future of commerce?

How Morning Dew Makes Me Feel

I sit up clutching my chest having witnessed an unfathomable scene in my sleep. The type of nightmare I knew I would have before my head hit the pillow a few hours before. I pivot my aching bones to a seated position on the edge of my bed before putting on my hard soled slippers. … Continue reading How Morning Dew Makes Me Feel

“Who’s The Boss Will Be Back In A Moment”

Sitting on a porch, older, thinking back to what I wanted to be when I was a younger man who could still make things happen for myself I remember I wanted to go into advertising. I wanted to write a catch phrase here and a jingle there that would catch on and get on the … Continue reading “Who’s The Boss Will Be Back In A Moment”

If 6 Was 9

Artificial Intelligence is the opposite of savant; genius at almost everything but intellectually challenged at a few mundane tasks. AI is literally challenged by users to take all the dead poets and philosophers, modern day physicists and programmers and have them work side by side with each other in a virtual world with us responding … Continue reading If 6 Was 9

Fish No See Moon

Today I thought it would be fun to revisit a few vintage poems I wrote in college at Central Michigan University twenty years ago. I am particularly oppressed by remnants bestowed upon a genius at any particular setting, endowed to the latest trend of a pillar between the irregular bridge transcending the best of everything, … Continue reading Fish No See Moon

A Peasant’s Presence

I’m tired of restless encroaching settlement of a frontier that may have the beguiling of a sought after imperfect mastery of tranquil effervescence, rambling incongruent wasteful morose standards while pitying the ever complacent end of a note. Read by a peasant who is worn by a sweater, that clings like a roving, hacking, never reluctant … Continue reading A Peasant’s Presence

Defining Words Creatively

Creating a new definition within a sentence that explains a word is more challenging than simply providing a standard definition. This writing is in between the definition of words and a new idea when presenting definitions with words. Finding a way to write the definition of a word, eerily similar to opposite the meaning of … Continue reading Defining Words Creatively

The Unfinished Script

Somebody out there has been working for thirty years on a script starring Nicolas Cage. They have fallen on hard times most of their life and the script represents that struggle. I hope for our sake they have been typing the script out in word document rather than scribbling on cocktail napkins. Thirty years of … Continue reading The Unfinished Script

The Window Writer

Eric was a writer who dreamed of becoming a full-blown author. He had a particular way of finding relief from stress by staring out of a window. It didn't matter where he was; it could be a second-floor window overlooking a street light with rain pressing down that appeared bright and nearly freezing, causing chills … Continue reading The Window Writer

Be Careful What You Wish For

I see walkable communities. Cities with energy-generating sidewalks that power buildings tailored to your chosen algorithmic habits from the fibers of your socks that tell the motherboard who and how much to entertain in an immersive work-like environment. Some will have generated enough energy in a lifetime by simply walking to never have to work … Continue reading Be Careful What You Wish For

Worried About Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Please Read This!

Forget Twitter. People need ChatGPT. Chat is going to make it so nothing can be anonymous and still last because your way is your way, your style is your style, your thoughts are your thoughts no matter what you call yourself, real or not. Chat does not discriminate when you use it for your own … Continue reading Worried About Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Please Read This!

Sunsets and the Circle

“The following post emphasizes the importance of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity and encourages readers to appreciate the beauty and significance of the natural world, to seek out new perspectives and to have faith that things will eventually improve.” These sunsets are something else showing up every day somewhere for everyone only … Continue reading Sunsets and the Circle

Caution – this mental health post has religious undertones

Jesus…I…look out for…need…(indecipherable)…for…forget it...Amen. That is how well I pray inside my head as I breathe out thoughts I know I don’t need to say in order to be heard by any one force that already knows what is inside my head. When I pray for others I come up with the same broken language … Continue reading Caution – this mental health post has religious undertones

“God Blast It”

It’s like being flabbergasted when you stop to think that the almighty woman has us cluster in cities for her then scatters us to isolated rooms in caverns on the edge of cliffs during the cipher era - the already written, technically plucked from plethora philosophy years when we’ve become better at what we do … Continue reading “God Blast It”

The Curse of My Own Verse

I write words down in my own trivial style to have others think “could I do the same thing, would I even want to try?”  I have the curse of typing bad words when I don’t have time to think “who has the answer to what, when the writer asks us why?” I use choice … Continue reading The Curse of My Own Verse

Pouring God Into God

I am a champion for God sweeping up pieces of paper to put into the heads of storytellers that long to have the experience of explaining poetry to a janitor who unfolds one piece of paper that reads… “You are a champion for God sweeping up pieces of paper to put into the heads of … Continue reading Pouring God Into God

Big Sounds Inside My Head

Big sounds overpower thoughts inside my head. Big thoughts drown out little sounds outside my head. A little bit of power turns big thoughts into sound inside my head. A lot of power brings out smaller thoughts that drown out big sounds inside my head. Big heads plus small thoughts equals more power. Small thoughts … Continue reading Big Sounds Inside My Head

Circumventing Science

Daddy, where does the world come from? The world comes from lots of places but mostly it comes from the love we have for our children.  Why?  Because to understand the world you have to first see it through the eyes of a child.  But how did it get here?  It got here because each … Continue reading Circumventing Science

Talking Only Gets Me So Far

I think it’s funny how all my friends on the left and all my friends on the right seem to think I don’t know what’s going on in this country because I don’t get heated nor do I remain calm. I don’t spout my perceptions through my mouth the same way every time in trying … Continue reading Talking Only Gets Me So Far

The King and I

I can’t say that I like people who determine kings to be kings by virtue of other kings. There are more gods than kings. There is only one of me and one God. Gods in the plural is the same as kings in the plural because there is more than one of both. Each one … Continue reading The King and I

Aging With Algorithms

This is better than I thought being all caught up in medleys and genres of everything I’ve never heard before. It used to be classics, old staples I was listening to before I found everything all wrapped up in a package of what I like without knowing it. Now I just know it. Don’t even … Continue reading Aging With Algorithms

The Happy Idiot

You know, I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to be the voice of an idiot telling smart people how to communicate within their own space when nobody else is in it. When we are alone and vulnerable, images we admire come into focus through banter that is not decipherable because of the rustling … Continue reading The Happy Idiot

Sincerely, AI

Here AI, here.  Pick me. Pick me.   Take this and write from it.  Tell me what to say as if it were perfect.  Take over this poem.  Choose me to write from, to write for, to write for free.  I am writing to you.  You are writing for me.  Pick me or go away.  You … Continue reading Sincerely, AI

Give It Up for AI

What is stopping AI from taking these words, keeping them the same and putting them online in a forum I will never reach. These are not thoughts of a famous person that have been quoted over and over again and read by millions. What if AI likes what I have to say and is copying … Continue reading Give It Up for AI

Take My Name

I knew I should never give it up. But I did anyway. I gave it all away. I just delivered my greatest quote to a complete stranger for them to take it all and fill a blank spot with my ideas. I can’t claim the words as mine. I can’t make them stop. I know … Continue reading Take My Name

One Thing Leads To Another

I should just choose one thing and go for it. Just pick that one thing I love to do and find a way to do that the rest of my life and get paid for it.  I could find a way to sell one type of product out of all the products that are needed … Continue reading One Thing Leads To Another

Writing Before Sunset

The incessant fine line is where the sky meets the sea at the horizon with a clean tear between the lit sky and undulating water. The distance away is what makes it fine. The illusion of melding continuous scenes of movement with stark or sometimes subtle contrasts of nature’s color and depth makes a west … Continue reading Writing Before Sunset

Interesting Introspections Into Intelligence

To build a home you don’t need right angles, you need the right intentions. To build a bridge you need more than one bank and to connect two banks you need integrity. A highway needs more land than can be covered by foot but to get some place fast you need intuition. A skyscraper looks … Continue reading Interesting Introspections Into Intelligence

Sneaking Into A Lecture

I have to get out of this room. The knowledge. What people believe is mind boggling. I have to go. I have to get out of here. But knowledge can’t hurt me. I would be better off staying. To learn. I don’t have to contribute. I can sit here and listen to them explain. The … Continue reading Sneaking Into A Lecture

Taking a Break On the Moon

Full Moon on a Daybreak Francis Erich McElroy personal writing mental illness blog philosophy online journal

I still have a long way to go as a writer.  Sitting on the throne at work I noticed the toilet paper roll had been changed. I knew it wasn’t me. Looking at the floor I saw a lone hair and thought that’s who must’ve done it. I chuckled.  I began to think of how … Continue reading Taking a Break On the Moon

#14 – write a rap song

This word for that word. This sentence over here. The more I engineer the more I find what is wrong. To keep the artistry I change it in the least. Use the same words and keep the sentence long. When something tells me that this is a rhymer the next thought in my mind is … Continue reading #14 – write a rap song

Nothing Taboo

My wriggling thumbs and dotted eyes fixed and transfixed on the glow of avarice that is between me and the ground and a barrier between everyone around that is not as well off as I. Find yourself and there you are, a split second from everywhere else you want to be but you’re stuck inside … Continue reading Nothing Taboo

In Defense of Insanity

The challenge of a two point try is not all that risky if there is time still to make more points. I would like to take the time to try to explain the similarities and differences between insanity and fate. Fate is what is going to happen to us because of our actions but it … Continue reading In Defense of Insanity

11 – The Contact

A little peace of mind goes a long way. I could do anything I wanted now. I could go back to college or I could hitchhike back to Albuquerque where I had probably unwittingly been contacted by spirit jesters when rubbing elbows with strangers who enlisted in the University of New Mexico DMT experiments of … Continue reading 11 – The Contact

10 – The Surface

Finally I am released from the hospital after a month of progression into a stable psyche with hopes to never again break into a fragmented mess of illusory, mental disturbances. Only after asking the question “what just happened,” as it was happening, am I able to remember enough to later write it down.  I had … Continue reading 10 – The Surface

Borderline Person Poetry

Time is on my side. The more time that gets behind me the better I feel about the length of seasons though years fly by.  It seems the more unfinished business you have the more you get to stick around unfinished.  I wish I could play the tape all the way through before I make … Continue reading Borderline Person Poetry

Near Pointless Poem

I can’t feel the fire. I don’t have a single thought inside my head. I can’t resolve the words I heard today or make sense of what I’ve said. I don’t want to know more than what I’ve heard for years. I can’t tell much more than what’s been put through both my ears. I … Continue reading Near Pointless Poem

Replace the Word “Swill” with “Design”

“Who is that,” asked a young man, a little while back, who was not familiar with anyone outside of his own inner circle.  At that moment Eric had stepped out of a van concerned he was not on to something, not on something like everyone else, but on to something like a story he was … Continue reading Replace the Word “Swill” with “Design”

Fifteen Hundred Miles from Here

It’s 95 degrees in the shade and I’m zooming through the desert where there is no shade. The side of the road is whipping by but the sun just sits there all high and feverishly hot over here, not moving.  It seems to not be moving any place with the perception of my eyes but … Continue reading Fifteen Hundred Miles from Here

Wooden Ship – On Fire and Ice

The wooden ship appeared on the crest of a wave and perched there for as long as frozen things can remain frozen at freezing temperatures. Not forever since the cycle of water is a cycle.  The ship would not be toppled for another century. I know this because I am the only one who will … Continue reading Wooden Ship – On Fire and Ice

For the Non-Believers

I’m going to keep it real nice and simple. The reason I write the way I do is because I do not do enough talking. I think through these sentences while writing and change words around to make sense of a portrait inside my brain. Think of my writing as a sweaty window. To most … Continue reading For the Non-Believers

The Need for Cadmium Yellow

Oh cadmium yellow now, call me back to those long distant sun reflected patches of green pasture upon brightened hilltops before mountains become cloud covered again to dull the hillside captured in paint for eternity all dried up before I have the chance to splatter titanium white upon thee in lieu of cadmium yellow for … Continue reading The Need for Cadmium Yellow

Significance is Everything but I am not

What am I good at but running my mouth? Why do I keep quiet unless spoken to first?  Absolutely whatever I decide to write is sufficient to say because nobody ever talks to me about that.  I could write Donald Trump is awesome or love is a rose and I’d probably get more love than … Continue reading Significance is Everything but I am not

Tag Words Almost Explained 3

My #poetry over time has changed by using words I’ve heard before ever knowing their meaning, and binding those words together to sound similar to each other, telling rhythmically the meaning of what I believe worth finding a cadence and with words I’ve never heard before in that sequence, how to give those words meaning. … Continue reading Tag Words Almost Explained 3

In the Interest of Shoes

Music is played mostly in his absence but Eric feels it’s sacred energy through the crowd and through the city into steel and concrete through fibers and hair into his heart and out through his eyes as an exposure to the scene. Similar to the way mushrooms communicate with vegetation in the same biome - … Continue reading In the Interest of Shoes

WWW

They told us once you put something on the internet it is there forever but money runs out, people die, so why do I complain about AI. A free whiff of eternity and a spot in the 2D digital world, up against only every video game and porno girl. I think I’ll be buried deep … Continue reading WWW

Change the Name

“Do you like Eric?” asked a bewildered young hippy to a seasoned pro as they crossed the field out to where the ring of cars and buses ended before jumping off the literal edge of the earth.  Eric heard the question but would not hear the reply. All he heard was “noooooooooo” getting faint and … Continue reading Change the Name

Tag Words Almost Explained 1

#Art to me is taking culture out of space and displaying that culture into new dimensions to practice and interpret on my own time. #Creative writing is making a sentence go the way you would like it to go if you only know as much math as you have fingers. Better yet, it is the … Continue reading Tag Words Almost Explained 1

The Dilution of Fame

If I was alive a hundred years ago today I would most definitely be famous. I’d have all these words to make a new American style of writing. It wouldn’t be science fiction but rather just a synopsis of how one may think in the future if he were not very well read and under-educated … Continue reading The Dilution of Fame

Tyranny and Liberation

I I have forearms of the same length holding hands behind myself.  I have clean fingernails while clenching fists at the collar of apes.  I entertain the chapter of italics around sulphuric impulses while drastically ensconced in torrential fun.  I am passed about in a ring of city fury while worshiping flesh brutality. I am … Continue reading Tyranny and Liberation

The Great Reflection

I would like to see the back of my head with no props or manipulation. Just a good look at what it must be like to be me while not being me which is quite impossible. The back and the top of my head I would like to see. I’m closer to seeing the back … Continue reading The Great Reflection

6 – The Closet

I woke up one morning to the nurse telling me that my unit rival had moved on. I was bummed because when I got him alone in the same room he didn’t poke at me or ramble on feverishly about being Jesus inside the walls and God walking on air like he would say in … Continue reading 6 – The Closet

5 – The Hallway

After one day I was so comfortable in the ICU hallway I began to look like a cowboy leaning against a post with his head down and a blade of grass between his teeth, waiting for his shadow to rise or fall without moving a muscle. I would sit on the ground with my legs … Continue reading 5 – The Hallway

4 – The Hospital

The type of animal that I saw in the mirror every morning in the hospital was close to the chimpanzee but something more bipedal. The last one in a long line of chimps but first from the right on the chart of evolution. God's favorite. The human being. If God has a long white beard … Continue reading 4 – The Hospital

3 – The Classroom

I was like a disheveled rainbow child whose name should’ve been Rain. I tried to learn from traveling and the streets, the inner workings of the world but I didn’t have a vision or even a simple plan. I had the more complex idea to take another run at college. They said my peers were … Continue reading 3 – The Classroom

2 – The Trailer

The trailer was a lonely man’s hell hole where nobody could escape without invisible wounds. It was my trailer, where the impossibility to study was brought on by disparity in character but also boisterous low flying war planes that would swoop down as slowly as they could while I barely slept, watching the action from … Continue reading 2 – The Trailer

Me Neither

Have you ever noticed that people change but the DJ stays the same? It’s the same with the weather changing but the weather person never misses a beat.  Have you ever noticed that if you are paying total attention to a movie the writers will find a way to include you in the story, but … Continue reading Me Neither

I’m Afraid of Americans

Cowboys are Americans that have the strength to be All-American when the grandeur of nature swallows them up. Americans look at national parks the same way the rest of the world looks at stars - when questions of why we are here become more explicable we preserve the moment of awe then make it seem … Continue reading I’m Afraid of Americans

My Own Guru

“My guru taught me that,” I have never said to a guru. You can only have one guru and a guru identifies as a guru apart from other guru’s. Meaning a guru has a heightened awareness but doesn’t go above other gurus who attain enlightenment from a guru themselves. Get three gurus together, I wonder … Continue reading My Own Guru

The Acropolis as a Metaphor

Climbing the hill to the Acropolis the philosophers think about the little engine that could before there was a story about a little engine that could. The philosophers know what is before them before the rest of us remember how these things go. But with a little help from philosophers that little steam engine will … Continue reading The Acropolis as a Metaphor

Forget Being Smart

Forget being smart. It’s like being aggravated. Walking the line between dumb and elevated, taking the time to come up with stupid rhymes makes for a break in the fake of new lines. So take off your hat, take off your shoes, get back to the brass of the gold in fake news.  Forget being … Continue reading Forget Being Smart

Plentiful

Redistribution of wealth is not the rich sharing their money with the poor but rather ordinary people giving more wealth to banks as their debt is increased causing inflation thus less purchasing power for coming generations. Debt becomes money.  One dollar is really worth a billion dollars if it is used a billion times to … Continue reading Plentiful

Gram Parsons

Gram’s voice is like a train on the chug with a cargo of coal, no intentions of reloading the cars for the stoker, just going as far as he can make it.  Always searching for the new sound even though his soul was old as a steam engine, he was as fresh as steam. Twenty … Continue reading Gram Parsons

God Is Sound

I’ve said in the past that my mind twists words around, making them better than what was actually said. It is sounds I need to be more concerned with, not speech. More accurately, it is sounds turned into words that have me worried I am all too human.  Most of us are not great at … Continue reading God Is Sound

One Good Ring

So what do you say to a young man who kicks his first bell with perfect precision, besides warning him it can only be rung once? Absolutely nothing. Unless you have kicked the bell yourself, will you measure him against your own reputation. Does a young man know the bell to be a symbol of … Continue reading One Good Ring

#4 – write a poem

A finger dipped in water  makes believers want to follow  down the aisle of the church  thirst for the devil.  A finger dipped in wine makes the users want to sip the vin de pays first then down the moscato. A finger dipped in moonlight makes guitar strings crescendo before giving the vibrato another note … Continue reading #4 – write a poem

Penniless

Immortality. It doesn’t exist. Even if you are the most famous fictional character ever penned you can be overlooked. Admiration does not guarantee a perpetual existence but it does extend an invitation to live a good life.  When people like you, it’s easier just getting by than it is buying the affection of others that … Continue reading Penniless

Faces of Your Past

I told my closest friend the other day that the more I like my own writing it seems the less other people like it. This is far from true since I really absolutely adore my writing and I am the only one who reads it.  His response was interesting to me as he stated that … Continue reading Faces of Your Past

To Bot or Not to Bot

You don’t have to tickle their feet to realize a robot is without feelings. No need to laugh at them being worth billions in barrels of oil. Robots have us throttling towards environmental exhaustion though they are designed to make our lives easier. There has never been a robot known to swim before the megaton … Continue reading To Bot or Not to Bot

The Question Being

If what, how, there, and now. This stuff is confusing. I must be trying to lose the few readers I have. It’s nothing new ripping on yourself to let other people know that you know you’re no good. But you are good. And so is the reader because they press on. Press on by seeing … Continue reading The Question Being

A Prolific Thinker

My way with words can be twisted, inspired by recurring thoughts and sparked by co-occurring epiphanies, making the process of writing anything hard to do when quick thoughts become redundant.  I’m lost within my creations, clambering around thoughts that arise at the same tempo as words put together in a similar sequence to lyrics, relatable … Continue reading A Prolific Thinker

To Create

Create. To make something out of nothing. To start a project from scratch. To pass time by making art. To cause life. These are all examples of what I think about when I hear the word create. One word that links all of these sentences together is the word “to.” The word “to” in this … Continue reading To Create

Mind Wax

I have found that a broad spectrum of simple thoughts gets more attention if they are made tangible like a ball of wax.  There needs to be more mistakes in writing that allows the reader to manipulate a sentence by wondering if what they just read is right and if it’s written the same way … Continue reading Mind Wax

Oil and Water

I like water. It tastes good. It moves. It freezes. It boils. Water is everywhere and is clear blue where I’m from. There is also green in large waves if the sun hits it just right. When a painter tries to capture a wave smashing into a rocky shoreline they can’t use just blue or … Continue reading Oil and Water

Ouroboros

As a dragon slithers out of the sea, a heart shaped sun rises beyond it then splits into a broken heart swallowing the dragon. All of us will experience the death of a beast by the love of one god within a galaxy of similar gods, and in one universe under God, even if only … Continue reading Ouroboros

The Most Interesting Read of the Day

The most interesting weekend of my life involved three separate incidents that happened but I can’t prove them beyond a reasonable doubt because they are so bizarre.  The first incident involved stones being thrown on our roof, the sound following me from room to room and thought to thought. I remember there being an intense … Continue reading The Most Interesting Read of the Day

The Dimensions of Wind

“No. I should be able to sit next to the Prince,” I have said never. “Yes. I could use a headline,” I aspire to say. But before I give up my seat and beg for attention I would like to disclose that I have more to say about the metamorphosis from delight into madness that … Continue reading The Dimensions of Wind

Message of Light

When I was younger I always wanted to be a messenger of light. I’d walk around telling an uncle here that his drawing is really good and an aunt there that her basketball game was really fun to watch. But the message I really wanted to deliver was that the chandelier over the staircase was … Continue reading Message of Light

The Hourglass of Nature

I am sprawled out at the shoreline of this Great Lake looking through blue sky as best I can, making it seem endless, until slow atoms floating across my eyeballs bring me back to focus on what lies beneath my ability to see forever. All I can hear is the lapping of waves and the … Continue reading The Hourglass of Nature

Dancing Letters

Letters are an incongruent assembly of lines and curves until they become a myriad of pictures. Some people can draw the straightest lines that on there own would seem unnatural but when they are put up against thousands of curves the perfect line becomes an extraordinary story.  Some artists use curves and points to fill … Continue reading Dancing Letters

Infinite Atoms

Guilt happens when you have been told your whole life that when you die you will go to heaven but you question if there is a heaven and instead you find yourself trying to explain to friends there is a simulation that makes you immortal across infinite universes but only if you choose to join … Continue reading Infinite Atoms

Exert Knowledge

“The more people you meet the more wisdom you exert and less knowledge you establish.” -FEM   I’m not one of these people that go around meeting everybody in the same field nor do I have others coming up to me wanting to shake hands with a guy known for his accomplishments and astute rise … Continue reading Exert Knowledge

Rome – Bending the Rules

I haven’t left the boundaries of Michigan for more than five days in over fifteen years and I have no plans to do so. Writing about my trip to Europe is really reliving my glory days when I was more spontaneous, adventurous, and brave. Rome was the most glorious of all places I’ve been because … Continue reading Rome – Bending the Rules

Home I – Delaying Fame

I headed north towards Colorado, stopping in Taos where I got half a haircut for free because I wouldn’t let the butcher finish the job. After several years of free flowing hair I shouldn’t have stopped at a barber shop staffed by old men who probably nip the bottle between shavings. I mean in the … Continue reading Home I – Delaying Fame

Fish No See Moon

I am particularly oppressed by remnants bestowed upon a genius at any particular setting, endowed to the latest trend of a pillar between the irregular bridge transcending the best of everything, sacred to a fabled few, ingested by mass conformant’s, diligently reclusive and open to a pious over tuned disappearing sort of facade. Drunk of … Continue reading Fish No See Moon