—HOW COULD I POSSIBLY KNOW, WHEN I WAS ONLY TWENTY-ONE?

 

 

…In a way, everything is ironic, if you think about it enough.

 

…Hot mess? Not hot, but a mess, yes.

 

…Buckle up, Sparky, this is the last ride.

 

…Sometimes just getting eggs into my mouth is a feat.

 

…Sometimes I get a little tired of being a white person. And male. And straight. And Christian.

 

…Shaving this morning was shaky. It felt like I got into a catfight, and that the cat, or cats, most definitely won. Just take a gander at my face.

 

…You may have forgotten to attach a file.

 

…Whatever POV you take, I’ll always try to see it your way.

 

…It’s no one’s fault. It’s just the way things work.

 

…Writers are a strange, needy group, but I love them all nonetheless.

 

…Gotta keep an eye on those corners. They’re such sly MFs.

 

…Introverted much? Every day, it gets harder not to be shyer.

 

...Kerfuffle—now there’s a word.

 

…There’s that, that thing you can grab and claim, and there’s all you can’t.

 

…I don’t think I need another reminder that I’m dying.

 

…The danger in reading the news is that all they print is the current precarious situations we’re in, like everywhere around the world. Is there really no joy anywhere worth reading, or hearing about? Like, really?

 

…I could be so many places, yet I’m here again, staring.

 

…You’ve got to let love rule.

 

…Here’s a serious question: Do you think I’m too damaged?

 

…Last night I woke up with someone squeezing my hand, only to discover it was my other hand.

 

…Listening to Queen B’s new song, it seems like she’s playing to the T folk, and I’m not too keen on it.

 

…Whenever someone asks, “What happened?” I just shrug and give them your number.

 

…There was something amiss in your apology.

 

…Is “train wreck” one or two words?

 

…How about “badass?”

 

…It’s hard to dodge the sun and bitch about it when that’s all you’ve ever wanted.

 

…“And when nobody wakes you up in the morning, and nobody waits for you at night, and when you can do whatever you want. What do you call it, freedom or loneliness?” Charles Bukowski

 

…This luck’s gonna run out eventually. I hope I’m fully prepared for that day.

 

…I really don’t think my phone could be anymore fucking obnoxious. Now it wants me install all kinds of things, and, “No,” I don’t know every last password I’ve ever had.

 

…If I blinked, would it all disappear? Probably not. Probably just me.

 

…“It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve.” Georgia O’Keefe 

 

…It’s sad to say this, and I know it sounds crass as Hell, but we live in a country with very stupid people. Open up your fucking eyes, and ears. I mean, God Lord, come on.

 

…I know, you never intended to be in this world.

But you’re in it all the same.

So why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.

There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.

Bless the eyes and the listening ears.

Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.

Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.

Or not.

I am speaking from the fortunate platform

of many years,

none of which, I think, I ever wasted.

Do you need a prod?

Do you need a little darkness to get you going?

Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,

and remind you of Keats,

so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,

he had a lifetime. 

~Mary Oliver

 

…“Check your rings”  = ’s  “Get off your flat ass.”

 

…Somedays you just feel like dying, even though you know you don’t really mean it.

 

…I got asked to blurb a book yesterday, which felt really good. It’s been a while.

 

...A neighbor in Virginia once told me that if I was any more mellow, I’d be dead. I guess I let him see that side of me. And this was when I ran a store with 600 employees. When what poured out of me was energy and charm. Yet there I was on the stoop that day, staring into the sun.

 

…I don’t expect anyone to have what we have. How would that even be possible?

 

…"I always entertain the notion that I'm wrong, or that I'll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing." Anthony Bourdain

 

…I’m too tired to count sheep anymore. They just keep floating around in oblong circles, floating away forever and ever, searching for somewhere else to land.

 

…I’ve actually never seen a real grenade, but it very much feels as if I’ve heard one.

 

…I don’t believe Miranda July or Eileen Miles are ever going to blurb a book of mine, and I think I’m okay with that.

 

…We all have a different script. Sometimes just reading it is hard enough, but you push through, if you can.

 

…I’m not going to get it back, but then, maybe I never needed it in the first place.

 

...Young boy, young boy… Why are you still that young boy, after all this time?

 

…“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde

 

…I think I might need a French Exit, or else I might need to get as good at it as my best friend is. 

 

…My stomach sure has a lot to say these days. It talks to me more than anyone I know.

 

…“It may have been in pieces, but I gave you the best of me.” Jim Morrison

 

…I’m sorry to say this, but sometimes it all looks ugly from here.

 

…Sometimes you just need a better reason.

 

…These seconds, they fly by like bird-shot, like pepper. Poof!

 

…You could be losing a lot of things without even knowing it.

 

…I’ve lost plenty. But really, who hasn’t?

 

…“Laying” or “lying” has to be the biggest conundrum ever.

 

…Yesterday the walls didn’t even want to talk to me.

 

…Paula just wanders aimlessly, from yard to yard, and she doesn’t even realize what a wonder she is.

 

…I hope this is true, because then it takes a weight off—“The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity.” A. Edward Newton 

 

…I forget more than I remember anymore. But what I remember is pretty worthwhile. 

 

…A lot of the time, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I keep doing it anyway.

 

…That didn’t last long. Too bad, Chad.

 

…I was never a huge Soundgarden fan, but being a depressive myself, and knowing all Chris went through, this struck me as exceptionally powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuUDRU9-HRk

 

…A little bit of pain goes a long way in the scheme of things.

 

…Co-worker: “Why do you call everyone, ‘Fucker’?

Me: “It’s gender neutral.”

 

…“We are so lightly here. It is in love that we are made. In love we disappear.” Leonard Cohen

 

…“But luxury has never appealed to me. I like simple things—books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.” Daphne du Maurier

 

…Ginger…