Those of you who know me from way back know I am a big fan of wolves, and of preserving them and increasing their numbers in the wild. I learned to love them when we raised them in the back yard. I would never do that now; I believe it to be ecologically and morally a very very bad idea, but I’m glad I got to experience these amazing creatures so intimately growing up as a child and teen.

This video — probably the most impactful nature video I have EVER seen, in only 4 1/2 minutes, shows reasons you should care about wolf populations that I never even knew existed: far beyond simply controlling deer populations. I was utterly astounded by this piece.

I LOVE KELLY BARNHILL

“Seriously, how can you stand it?” – a meditation on my beloved Minnesota.

Watch this; you’re welcome.

Writing and Reading While Black. Lessons learned..

ANOTHER essay about writing (this one by Shannon Barber) that was incredibly interesting. Please read this. REALLY good.

I sometimes find writers talking about writing a little dull. This essay is very different, and I highly recommend it. (I also highly recommend “Bear in Contradicting Landscape” in The Book of Apex, Vol. 4.

Some of my favorite bits:

I wrote “Bear” when I was living in Chicago, making frequent trips along the Blue Line to various temp jobs. I was also in a state of creative ferment like nothing I’ve experienced since. During that time I wrote dozens of short stories, sometimes finishing one in two days, scribbling down sentences wherever I happened to be. Some of those stories were published. Some of them seem slight to me now, like listening to someone else’s vaguely interesting dream. Others, like “The Water-Poet and the Four Seasons,” still work, but almost seem like someone else wrote them.

“Bear” is different. “Bear” feels like the nightmares I had when I was young that still make my blood pressure spike when I think about them now. And just like everything else right now, the reasons why this is so are hazy to me.

It’s short but has a lot to say. Read the whole thing here!

Yes. This is extremely correct. Hats off to you, good sir!

I just waited at the bus stop and then sat on the bus with a 94-year-old man who marched in Alabama with his daughters during the Civil Rights movement. He believes in experiential education. His daughter was just quoted in the New York Times as an expert on skyscrapers and he’s very proud. He’s a retired physician who was on his way to Maria’s to meet a friend who founded the Native American Community Clinic on Franklin because she felt Native folks were being terribly underserved. He thinks fracking on reservations over the wishes of the folks who live there is institutionalized racism. He thinks there is a lot of bad in the world but that children everywhere are so beautiful and intelligent.

Hello, folks! I am now an internationally-published poet. Yep!

I tried my hand at poetry comics and now I’m part of an all-poetry comics issue of Snakeskin Magazine. Check it! You can read just my poetry comic by clicking on the image here, but I’d recommend checking out the whole issue (linked above) to get an idea of what poetry comics are. Also, the others are AMAZING.