Barefoot running

Part of what I do is run barefoot. Why? Because it feels great! Feel free to visit my other blog, John's Barefoot Running Blog and check out my race reports, and longer explanations on the why.

This is me during the last Hood 2 Coast race here in Portland, where we had an all barefoot team!

Quiet by Susan Cain

I'm re-reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I bought it in hardcover when it first came out, and that says a lot, because I never buy hardcover. But, this book is about me. And I'm re-reading it! And enjoying it again!

If I were still teaching, I'd lobby to make this book a must-read for faculty and administration, as a way to understand fellow faculty, and students, and how education (higher, and K-12) basically ignores introverts.

It's now out in paperback. A good readable read, and you'll understand yourself, and/or others around you, better.

Mountain poem for a woman

A poem that appeared in the print journal Bellowing Ark, which is no longer with us:

Mountain poem for a woman

who died climbing

Thundercells and lightning all around the valley

playing my guitar out on the grass

swatting mosquitoes and singing sad songs

looking in at the people in other trailers

drinking and watching tv

cool wind and an open patch of stars

I didn’t know you

our helicopter flew your body back down

you weighed nothing

and we flew you out in a bag

attached to a cable and hook

you fell two hundred feet

maybe more

your partner had her phone

though it was too late even then

even before the rangers could get there

your friends seemed like good people

they cried not because they didn’t understand

but because they did

that you were doing something you felt passionate about

and why should someone die doing that?

and yet what other way would there be to go?

standard procedure is to land the body away

from the helispot

where the coroner can pick it up discreetly

but they walked over to look at you

to open the bag and see you one last time

I couldn’t

I would have liked you

I have always liked the idea of women like you

physical and strong and independent

I stayed where I was

it was sunny there

and wrens kept circling around us

picking up small pieces of grass and dirt

Wild by Cheryl Stayed

This book lives up to the hype. It's great.

Adios, Hemingway

Just finished Adios, Hemingway, by Leonardo Padura Fuentes. It's fiction, and classified as a 'mystery', but it's more like a meditation on Hemingway in Cuba, or, about the relationship a Cuban man (and ex-cop, and aspiring writer) has with one of his literary heroes.

Resistance To Ecocide: A Review

New review of Stephanie McMillan's Resistance To Ecocide up at Comics Bulletin. Click on the pic:

Bunnista

I'm working on a review of Stephanie McMillan's graphic novel Resistance To Ecocide and just can't resist sharing a pic of her character Bunnista.

Hemingway

Here's a poem that originally appeared a few years ago in Bellowing Ark, a print journal that went out of business. Hope you enjoy.

Hemingway

I know it’s not popular

or even politically correct

to (still) like him

but  when my father’s great ambitions

were to have enough time on saturdays

to mow the lawn

and watch college football

Hemingway gave me men

who left conservative America

for adventure

because of course it couldn’t be found there

and causes they actually believed in

fighting the ultimate father figures

trying to protect countries and people

they went alone

were comfortable with that

didn’t talk a lot

though spoke fluent italian spanish and french

and always met beautiful interesting women

trying to do what was right

even if it was also for themselves

but that was possible

and if they came back wounded

disillusioned

or not at all

that seemed to be a given

even to them

and things were things

a big fish was a big fish

Kilimanjaro was Kilimanjaro

the hills in Spain were not like white elephants

what was important

was what was felt under the surface

and unlike my father

he trusted me

to be intelligent enough

to figure that out myself

and if ultimately it wasn’t all real

(and I didn’t care for the great white hunter phase)

enough of it was

and if Hemingway had his weaknesses

and if maybe he gave up without a fight

(though if you knew your mind was going

what would you do?)

he had a good run

and was maybe no more worse

and much more interesting

www.johnyohe.com

Click the photo to visit my website, where you can find lists of, and links to, my writing. Plus more photos and stuff. [photo by Catherine M.]

Linework NW 2014

Attended this festival yesterday, Saturday, here in Portland. Lots of interesting work, though the venue was small, and crowded, and the panels were held in the noisy lounge bar. I didn't expect so many people with such a nice day to be outside, which was good for the festival, but I, and others, felt a little overwhelmed by the crowds. Still, shows how strong the art community is here in PDX.

Lorrie Moore at Powell's

I saw Lorrie Moore read at Powell's on Friday night. Good crowd. Good reading. Looking forward to reading the book!

Two Poems at Hobo Camp Review