I have no idea what I'm going to write here. Some of it will probably have to do with Coyote, beyond that you'll just have to wait and see.

22 Haikus

I've been posting these Haikus and Senryus on Twitter for a while. It's fun to whip off a little poem that fits in a single tweet. Rather than inundate everyone with one-post-per-poem, I've separated them out by category into General, BDSM and Obscure.


Coyote howling
Waiting to hear an answer
Loneliness to end.

Windshield wipers slap
Car wheels stream with steady hiss
Warm fire awaits me.

Rain on the skylight
brings dreams of home and childhood
Good night and sleep well.

Reality's guilt
Surfaces in my dreaming
A dolphin of angst 

Fall's contest begins
with trees reaching for glory
then baring their souls.

Fall touches my skin,
chill despite the noon day sun,
as you touched my heart.

When the evening falls
And I return from conquests
Will you still be there?

Drawing Happiness from Within

Like much in Charles de Lint's books, this describes a way to look things which has made me much more comfortable with myself and the world around me.

“I don't envy the music others hear anymore; I'm too filled with my own now, the strains that connect me to [the] people I love in my life. I'm not saying my world's suddenly become perfect. I've still got my ups and downs.…But whenever things get bad, all I do is slow down. I stop and listen to the music and then I can't help but appreciate what I do have.

It's funny what a difference a positive attitude can have. When you go out of your way to be nice to people, or do something positive for those who can't always help themselves…it comes back to you. I don't mean you gain something personally. It's just that the world becomes a little bit of a better place, the music becomes a little more upbeat, and how can you not gain something from that?

See, when you get down to the basics of it, everything's just molecules vibrating. Which is what music is, what sound is—vibrations in the air. So we're all part of that music and the worthier it is, the more voices we can add to it, the better off we all are.

Sure beats the silence that's threatening to swallow us otherwise.”

From "Saskia" in Moonlight & Vines by Charles de Lint.

Artist Thought for the Day—Vision and Beauty

“Having a vision [cultural perspective] is a powereful thing.  Creating art is imitating the gods. In that respect, everything you do has to be done in great reverence. You don’t do it casually. It’s not to be flagrantly marketed. I sometimes have a ceremony to acknowledge that vision. It’s like having your resume checked by the gods.

"For me, beauty is anything that stirs the soul, the emotion, whether it be grief, anger, joy, or melancholia.  In Navajo, we say iina’ya’ hool zhho’. It means ‘an easing of the vision.’  Anything you see, your eyes ease into that, and your mind arranges it. We say nizhonigoo bil iina, the beauty that you live with, the beauty that you live by, the beauty upon which you base your life.

Shonto Begay (Navajo)

Modern Coyote

When we think of myths, we tend to think of things that are old (or primitive). But we still carry myths with us, and we create new ones all the time. We tell each other "urban myths", we pass on stories that we think have moral value, or that we just think are humorous. Some become part of our cultural lexicon, others disappear. Sometimes we think they are true, sometimes we think they are not, but often it doesn't matter. It's the story that matters, and the emotions that it engenders.

There's a tendency to think that this ability to identify our stories as "fact" or "fiction" is an attribute of modern culture; something that sets us apart from our superstitious ancestors. They didn't realize that these were "just" stories. But the fact is, they were just as aware of it as we are. Myths arise as readily from sudden inspiration as they do from the primordial ooze of creation. We have always known this.