Poem published: Water~Stone Review v.27

My poem titled "Caravan of Wounds" has found a lovely home. Also, a tiny "AI" rant, for your reading pleasure.

I’m entirely thrilled that my poem “Caravan of Wounds” has found an oasis in the pages of Water~Stone Review, Volume 27 (2024-2025). You can see details of what’s in this issue at Water~Stone Review - Current Issue, where you can also order your own copy. For this weekend only (October 19-20), there’s a $5 “Twin Cities Book Festival” discount.

Water~Stone Review, Volume 27 (2024-2025). This Issue: Love by Abandonment

In other news…nope. Got nothing. I’m actually about to go into hibernation until, oh, about the end of the year (IYKYK 🥰). There will be some new and exciting developments in January, though, oh, yes, just you wait and see.

In the meantime, if you haven’t seen it, you may want to check out Nina Schuyler’s Stunning Sentences — a wondrous laboratory for deconstructing and learning how to make your own elaborate and fantastical contraptions built with words.

Here’s a picture of something cool:

Daiitoku Myoo, or the Wisdom King of Awe-Inspiring Power, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

It’s not generated by so-called AI; I have played with those tools, and they bore me. Useful for some few things, but none of those are creative. They’re mostly a not-so-secret attempt at Uber-fication of creativity, funded at savage losses by venture capitalists in hopes that if they do it long enough, people will quit trying to create stuff on their own, and then the tech companies can drop quality, crank up prices, and enjoy (or “enjoy”) the fruits of (actually other people’s) labor.

I’d rather draw a bad picture myself, thanks. Or take a bad picture. Or take a pretty good picture, actually, because I’m a decent photographer with a good eye for composition, and I’m getting better because I’m practicing. Putting in the work. Hint: If you’re not being challenged by something, you’re probably not learning. And if the thing you’re learning is how to prompt an AI, I bet you’ve got a lot of creativity and smarts you could be directing toward amazing creations of your own. Become the Wisdom King of Awe-Inspiring Power you wish to see in the world! (The sword, trident, and noose? Those are for the venture capitalists.)