Almost Composed

Meditation and curiosity

The importance of stories

January 27, 2015

“The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” — Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, quoted by Kevin Crossley-Holland in Urthona.

categories: essays, reflections

Do Nothing Beach

January 20, 2015

How hard it is to do nothing. Before you know what you’re about, you’ve laid down some jazzy chords and improvised a blues riff over the top. So here’s another track intended for People Are Guitars. I was aiming for something like the smooth, bassy tones of Kenny Burrell with a chiming top end. I wanted it to feel […]

categories: music

Ishmael’s Leg

January 3, 2015

I’ve just finished typesetting the first draft of The Tide Clock and Other Poems. This will be a shared pamphlet featuring poetry by Joe Franklin, Hugh Greasley and myself. It’s not unlike the split 7″ singles bands used to put out to share production costs and pool their fanbases. You might remember a similar collection we produced in 2013, The Inner […]

categories: poems

The importance of being bored… and eating frogs

January 1, 2015

Hunter-gatherers couldn’t have had much to do once the sun had gone down and the storytelling was over. I’m sure we can all think of a few things but, aside from the obvious, our ancestors would have little to occupy themselves with but watching the night and watching their own minds watching the night. We, on the […]

categories: essays, reflections

Anon – the greatest poet?

December 31, 2014

No doubt this January 1st we’ll all spring out of bed refreshed and ready to seize the promise of a pristine new year. As our clear, crisp minds embark on new creative pursuits, here’s a question to help understand what kind of projects we’re working on and who they’re really for. Would I be willing to do […]

categories: reflections