I'm Back! And I'm Superbad! Watch Me!

Hello, old lover, old fried. I've neglected you, my lovely little journal, a place I feel more comfortable writing words. So? What have I been up to lately? Lots. But let me share with you all about the writing front. I've been having a lot of fun with my two Tumblr sites: Fuck Yeah Mary Oliver, a site dedicated to one of my favorite poets; and my own eponymous collection of images and some words and music called We Shall Not Cease from Exploration. I've also been documenting my desires on Pinterest, which is really fun. Let me know if you'd like an invite! This is the best place to look when you want to buy me a gift. To wit:

I wrote a piece called Speak, Memory that I'm pretty proud of for the wonderful Art of Living Guide: A Practical Guide to Being Alive. I am excited to be periodically providing work to the wonderful people who run it.

And my favorite pieces from the Synconation music site I'm proud to be a part of include a retrospective of women in music in 2010, titled The Ladies Who Ruled the Tower of Song in 2010 (Part One and Part Two and Part Three and Part 4!), record reviews of the latest works from Belle & Sebastian, R.E.M. and Lucinda Williams as well as some fun Top 5 missives, including ones about the eighties and poetry and protest. I've rested up on this amazing site for awhile, but be sure to check it out and read all the well-written, insightful work on Synconation. Because it shall be big. And you can say you knew it when.

In celebration of our reunion, I just want to share one of my favorite sentiments, courtesy of Walt Whitman. Let us all follow this cry for arms, for self, for soul, for an authentic life:

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and the crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants...have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with the powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."


xoxo Ama