k. alexis long

Last night, we watched the Bruce Springsteen documentary on the making of the album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Fan or not, I suggest watching this film.

Springsteen speaks to the creative process and the struggle to be both an adult and his own person. During the writing and recording of this album, he was focused on answering important questions that seemed to be all around him. Including, “How do we honor our parents, the people we are connected to, and the place we came from?”

Suddenly I have great respect for Springsteen as an artist—he’s no longer just a musician that got big on Born to Run a decade before I was born. His process is relentless, and his purpose is more important than fame. 

Here’s to The Boss.

For my birthday, my dad gave me a piece of advice. He said, “Take more pictures. I really wish we’d taken more pictures.” When I mentioned not wanting to be in front of a camera, he said, “Take pictures without people in them. Just take more pictures.”

antique chairs

as if we had antique bones
these vintage arm chairs
remind our twenty-two-
year-old bodies that
they harbor ancient souls—

we find peace in this place 
where pale skin
and neutral tones
add layers to a collage
of cushions and suitcases—
in sepia we live like them.

we find courage
in the very last moments
of an indian summer—
a promise that
change sparks
unhindered possibilities
in the leaves
echoes through our bones
and we fumble
to stretch longer
the 4 o’clock sun
the way we did
when we first met

but the bricks and lights
are different here
and our days
do not end with the sun

I go by a field where once
I cultivated a few poor crops.
It is now covered with young trees,
for the forest that belongs here
has come back and reclaimed its own. 
And I think of all the effort
I have wasted and all the time,
and of how much joy I took
in that failed work and how much
it taught me. For in so failing
I learned something of my place,
something of myself, and now
I welcome back the trees. 

From today’s Writer’s Almanac: “IX.” by Wendell Berry from Leavings. © Counterpoint Press, 2010.