12/23/21 It has been four days of sitting in foreign houses, looking out the window of my phone screen in awkward conversation. Alcohol has been fairly constant, nicotine from vape sticks, the occasional bit of weed from my father and my brother’s partner. My work phone has gone off daily, Continue Reading
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I Sold My Soul To Santa
December 25, 1995 St. Louis Airport, afternoon, stuck since 7 AM in a snowstorm. Christmas is the most difficult day of the year. For me it is, other than my birthday. I’m sure it is for many other people too. From what you see everywhere, people are rushing around to Continue Reading
EZRA JENNINGS and SHERLOCK HOLMES: Drugs, Detection, Intuition, and the Unconscious
Using the characters of Ezra Jennings, from The Moonstone, and Sherlock Holmes as my focus, I would like to explore three related themes in this essay. First of all, I’ll discuss Drugs and Drug-Users in 19th century literature. As we all know, of course, Ezra Jennings is a notable opium Continue Reading
PYRE OF MYSELF
Pyre of Myself Gently stack the corded wood together on the hilltop It has dried all Summer long Fit it cunningly like a dry-stone wall The wind must whoosh through it When the flames take Prepare yourself Pray and fast Keep vigil all the night Bathe in the dew Before Continue Reading
MAKING IT HOME (parts 1-5)
MAKING IT HOME – 1 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL The airport shuttle arrived at the bottom of my driveway at half past five in the morning. I managed to bundle my bags into the back, and then fell into a seat behind the driver. There were a couple of other travellers Continue Reading
THE ORB OF FORGETTING CHAPTER VII. DOCTOR ISTORIUS OF NEGALIA
“THERE is the sign,” indicated Taril, raising a hand at the hanging wooden board with the skull, candle, and pestle-and-mortar painted on it. “This is the house of Doctor Istorius. Follow me.” He walked up to the closed door in the shuttered house, and rapped loudly with his staff. Some Continue Reading
Carrying the Torch
It is worth remembering though that that there WAS no “Celtic Pantheon”, and no Pan-Celtic gods. There are certain ones that seem to crop up across the different cultures and across time (the Cailleach in the Goidelic cultures of Scotland and Ireland, for example, or the Lúgh/Lugos reflexes, or Bríghid/Brigantia Continue Reading
CAILLEACH BHÉARA – WISE WOMAN
The Cailleach is an Ancient Chthonic Power. She was here, long before the Folk, long before the People, long before the Strangers landed on our shores. How do we say her name? “QUILL-OCH” (-och like the Scottish “Loch”) It is fitting, is it not? They often say her name means Continue Reading
Where go the boats?
“WHERE GO THE BOATS?” NOSTALGIA AND ADVENTURE IN THE WORK OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON – MARK DEVLIN, UNIVERSITE DE PARIS – NOUVELLE ATHENES INTRODUCTION: Robert Louis Stevenson is perhaps still best known as the author of several timeless classics of children’s literature, among which we could name Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Continue Reading
A LEAF FROM THE LEABHAR DRAÍOCHT – JOURNEY TO LÍOS LÍR
25 of August 2012 The Summer seemed to wane and falter in Ireland, lush land of mists, of sun through showers, luxuriante, foisonnante vegetation. Soft rain and gentle light. Listening to sea-chanties on the radio as the Tall Ships came in, we arrived, by Glenbeigh and Kells, and Little Continue Reading