Silva rerum and All I Got Was This Lousy Goldfinch

My new Substack for May 6, 2026:

• -Silva rerum?

• -Could the Miyawaki Method translate to a literary method?

• -My out-of-place garden (pics)

• -Homemade dog food and its 19-year-old consumer (pic)

• -Me & Dusty (pic)

• -Complaint poem about birds

Speaking of Substack. I should, and will, challenge myself to record more outdoor readings. The ones I’ve done (9 so far) aren’t associated with anything whatsoever. Aren’t promoting a book or affiliated with a reading series. They’re a personal challenge I suppose. An anxiety thing, a growth thing, a persona/performance. I have never given a live poetry reading otherwise, and I talk about that in preface to my list of videos.

Here are some more “nevers” (from my list of Nevers. from my someday-forthcoming essay collection The Book of Nevers. if I say it it will be so.):

• Besides my phone, I have never used or held a microphone.

• I have never given a speech at a wedding or spoken at a conference.

• I have never sung karaoke.

• I have never played on a sports team or joined a club.

The essay collection, if it ever comes to fruition, would not be a self-indulgence of lack and pity. I want to write reflections on our “expectation” culture; on pressure and pop culture; on refusal and living outside of popular or dominant cultures; the queering of culture; the empowerment of personal narrative and identity. On losers, misfits, outcasts, the broke and broken, the other and othering.

🖤