life
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Your One Life
You have established your one life;have you secured itor skewered it? This midwinter warmup,this promising breeze(a premature escapee of spring)urges:"Cut loose!Cut yourself loose!" Whose voice is this, really?If the voice of God, hoist anchor.If your soul, pull up the stakes.If… Continue reading
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Slovenly Abandon
We are all artists.When you create,do so with slovenly abandon.If it's real, authentic,people will listen;they will believe you.Write, sing, dance, act, draw, paint, photograph, sculpt….Do it, damn it!Yes,you! Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. … Continue reading
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Job-Loss, Death, Etc.
From time to timethe vehicle of your life–the one you're driving even as you read this–disappears from the busy streets you navigate dailyand reappears on some empty, unknown, rural road. What landscape is this?Signs point to places you do not… Continue reading
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Shedding Unnecessaries
Why am I trying to live someone else's life?"Has anyone seen Dirk?"I'm exhausted.All this energy poured into peripherals. My life's work is meant to bemaking this one, single, unique lifeentirely my own. How to shed the unnecessary? Text and image… Continue reading
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An Unfinished Life
"Each of us leaves an unfinished life," says poet Mary Oliver. It is possible not to? Is it possible to live so fully, so richly, so completely that you exit exhaling, "That's it, then, once this mug goes back in… Continue reading
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Halloween: Embracing Mortality
It's autumn. The earth turns away from the sun, and the days shorten. Winter lurks, shivering and lonely, just around the corner. Trees abandon their leaves, turning inward, bracing themselves. The plants we so carefully cultivated throughout the summer… Continue reading
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For My Books
The spine of the book must be brokento be open to be usefulto be full. Preserved, pristine,shelved, admired,untouched, unsoiled,this is embarrassement.These are the volumes pointless and sad. Bent edges, torn pages, brown stains, stuck leaves–all this is yes.I've done something,… Continue reading
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He Reads Poetry
He reads poetry. Reading poetry is, for him, not unlike getting a long drink of cold water after running several miles on a hot, dusty summer day. His whole body craves it, needs it, not only good on the lips,… Continue reading