David Bowie: The Man Who Owned the World (Five Years Later)
Sean MurphyONLY THE BEATLES. That’s the sole comparison that comes to mind when compelled to name a musical act with similar impact and importance. The Beatles, as we all know, changed…
Original Poem: Sonny Rollins’s Bridge
Gratitude to the wonderful Burningword Literary Journal for publishing this poem. (And thanks again to them for publishing my poem "Charlie Mingus's Miracle, and nominating it for a Pushcart Prize.)…
New World Man: An Appreciation of Neil Peart (One Year Later)
He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is. Taken from Rush’s most famous song, “Tom Sawyer,” this line might best illuminate the “elemental empathy” that came to define Neil Peart,…
A Farewell to the King: Neil Peart (One Year Later)
Like, I know, many (many, many) others, it’ll be impossible to succinctly or adequately convey my admiration for Neil Peart. (Full and semi-embarrassing disclosure: I wrote my graduate school thesis…
Original Poem: Himmler’s First Blasphemy
While I could probably get away with claiming this poem was written in recent weeks, it was actually completed before the 2016 election. It was inspired by a book reading…
2020: A Creative Recap
What's left to be said about 2020 that has not already been articulated? DespiteI managed to write 33 new poems (and have 12 published or accepted for future publication; including…
Beethoven at 250
Beethoven at 250. Aside from the two other points in the eternal triangle, Bach and Mozart, has any artist contained such multitudes, expressed so much in ways that are ceaselessly…
King Crimson’s ‘Lizard’ at 50
Considering that the only constant during the early years (and later, for that matter) of King Crimson was change, the quality and variety of their third and fourth albums are…
Original Poem: We Were Too Young to be That Old
The author as a young idiot I'm grateful to Nine Cloud Journal for publishing my work (you can read it by purchasing the issue at Amazon -- a great way…
The Day the Music Died, Redux: John Lennon, Dec 8, 1980
It was forty years ago today… Where were you? I was in my mother’s bedroom, kissing her goodbye before I caught the school bus, and I heard the horrible news on…