This website began in earnest in late 2012, and it took some time to realize that it was just begging to become a podcast. That podcast has finally happened, but I didn’t want to do away with the blog entirely.
Below is an index to all the posts I thought worth saving. I will continue to update the home page and books page on any new books or publications of mine, but the rest will remain a time capsule of what occupied me for a time, and was fruitful in its way.
Thanks to those who followed along as it happened, and to those in the future who stumble upon what I left behind.
- Poetry – posts on my published poetry, with re-posts from the archives still to happen frequently; the best place to find the newest poetry is still the home page; you can also read about my books Bone Antler Stone and To the House of the Sun, and Hymns & Lamentations
- Fiction – posts on my published short stories; you can also read about my collection The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old
- Essays – posts and links to my published essays
- The Great Myths – a 68-part collection of myths from all over the world, in my favorite translations
- Religion/Myth – a few dozen anecdotes from religions and scriptures from all over, including some that never made it into The Great Myths
- The Complete Tao Te Ching – in the translations of Thomas Cleary, Red Pine, and Moss Roberts. Alongside these is a huge selection from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Zen Buddhism, and the Christian Desert Fathers. Before I found a home in Judaism, these four books were my go-to for general wisdom, and I still draw a great deal from them
- William Wordsworth’s 1805 Prelude – excerpts from Wordsworth’s great 13-book poem, in its earliest and most powerful form
- 20th Century Poetry – from Thomas Hardy to Seamus Heaney to Laurie Sheck, some of my favorite poems of the last century
- T. S. Eliot – all the posts about Eliot, or featuring his writing and poetry; including the essay of mine that first got people here, “What Eliot Means to Me,” and Eliot’s essay that inspired it, “What Dante Means to Me“
- Seamus Heaney – all the poetry and prose from Heaney that I’ve posted here over the years
- Franz Kafka – all the posts from Kafka’s fiction and diaries, as well as an interview with the American translator of the standard biography of Kafka
- Writers/Artists – a grab bag of my favorite anecdotes on writing, art and creativity
- Interviews – I had hoped to interview more scholars about their work, but over the past ten years it’s only happened twice
- Week of Van Gogh – slideshows and videos of Van Gogh’s best paintings
- Images – more than two dozen posts on my favorite paintings, with videos, slideshows and some of the stories behind them
- Week of The Bomb – a collection of quotations on the building and use of the bomb, from those who were there; includes podcast reading of the entirety
- History – a dozen or so anecdotes from history, language, creativity, etc.
- Evolution – a handful of excerpts from my favorite books on the origins of language, art, music, and simply walking upright