A Passage From New Mexico

December 19, 2020 marshalljameskavanaughnature, poetry, spilled ink, travel fiction, writing2 Comments

Even from this winter cave, I feel the language of wilderness sweet upon the tongue. Chewing in my sleep. Belly rumbling amidst hibernation.

Visions are ripe with memories of late summer and early fall. But really, it’s these mountains that give beck and call. I can see their effect in every typewritten syllable.

Poems about love. Poems about work. Poems about longing for the familiar. Somehow in every turn of phrase, nature enters.

I’ve been beginning to dream again. With winter, comes a deeper sleep. But this year feels kind of different. With hope on the horizon, the mind is given space to drift and wander. Manic creations come to me in the middle eve and as I tap the keys the typewriter becomes a total dream machine full of wonder.

Ode to the psychic blues of mid-morning. Hail the passing clouds of mid-winter. Oh, how the warmth of the eternal fire spits and sputters life to find new immediate comic relief from the perpetual clutter.

It’s a long golden road to write a poem. For the last few weeks, I’ve forged each poem by the warmth of the fire. Locked away in my creative cabin south of town, the words spill outwards. I am warmed by them and so are you. To connect through this verse is to create the day anew.

Vote for Bernie; Tomorrow, June 7th

June 6, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughget out the vote, new mexico for bernie sanders, poetry, politics, revolution, spilled ink, travel fictionLeave a comment

Get out and vote!
Tomorrow, June 7 is an extremely important day for our country and for the world around us. California, New Jersey, and New Mexico all have their primaries (as well SD, ND, and MT). Voters have a chance to change the course of our country’s history.

Please friends, go out and vote! Even if you’re like me and have a complete distrust of our “democracy”, this is about the best chance we got to save the world, beyond getting in the streets and protesting every single damn tragedy our capitalist regime has created in it’s 200+ years on this planet.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate set to hold the crooks on Wall Street accountable. He’s the only one talking to the leaders of our continent’s native nations. He’s the only one who cares about black lives and has demonstrated this by actually getting in the streets and getting arrested for protesting for civil rights, not to mention hiring BLM activists to work to expand the message of his campaign. He’s the only candidate who marched with MLK, or marched at all, ever, on that note. He’s the only candidate who is anti-fracking and will fight for our environment. He’s the only one standing up for immigrants and refugees from foreign, war-torn countries. He’ll fight for women’s lives. He’ll fight for trans lives. I believe unless he’s completely brain-tapped on his first day in office, he’ll fight for activists, since he is one.

On every level the man has been on the right side of history and demonstrated integrity in staying true to his core values. To my friends, he is the better candidate and I believe we can all agree that the world will be a better place with him as president. To my parents and fellow members of an older generation, who have already been let down before by party politics, don’t vote for yourselves…..vote for the next generation and their future. This is the world we have inherited. Let’s work together to make it a better one.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate carrying a message of Love so strong and connecting so many diverse folks together that it will trump Hate. The polls show this. The rallies show this. His message shows this.

We all need this to happen. I don’t believe the political revolution ends with Bernie Sanders. I believe it starts with us.

Dream Poet For Hire

May 31, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughhaiku, mail art, poet for hire, postcard poetry, spilled ink, travel writer, typewriterLeave a comment

Dream Poet For Hire services are open with a new season of abundance… I’ve been on the road for the last 2 months, heading from Philadelphia down to New Orleans and now out to New Mexico. I collected a lot of postcards and wrote a ton of haikus along the way. I’m stoked to share them with you.

Send an email to dreampoetforhire@gmail.com with your mailing address if you would like a personalized haiku sent to your mail box!

The Lessons of the Crow

April 22, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughdreams, earth day, ecoactivist, nature, poetry, spilled ink, the crow, travel, writerLeave a comment

For the last year, The Crow has been telling me our planet is into its last stage of suffering. It’s only a moment before we pass the point of no return and the whole thing tosses us off of it. In many ways we’re already there.

I’ve seen it across the country in the form of waste. From landfill along the highways to deforestation and strip mining in our national parks. In East Texas, they hand you an over-cooked hamburger in a styrofoam container 5 times a normal size, with a plastic bag and a handful of bleached white napkins. On the Oregon and Californian coastlines there are the dead bodies of seals and sea birds decaying slowly, their guts full of plastics and no one notices. Back home in Philly, I’ve watched folks unload an entire car trunk’s worth of garbage bags in the abandoned lots of East Kensington only to have them open up days later scattering tons of plastic and paper product into the wind and across the sidewalks into the local ecosystem.

I’ve seen it everywhere and I’m no saint. I propel my poetry tours upon the ignited fumes of a fossil record that reaches back eons. And I, a storyteller, know nothing of its history. I, like everyone, have been taught to fill the tank without asking questions about where the fuel comes from. Right now each gallon comes cheap and I know it’s at the expense of some sacred waterway in North Dakota or a child’s life in the Middle East.

Yet, I keep going. We all keep contributing. This endless cycle has no end in sight.

That’s the reality.

The Fool in me sees the other side to this blunt truth. He sees that dreams can be manifested. He believes in The Artist and The Poet, and their abilities to create new realities. He sees The Crow, and says, “Well, there must be some reason The Crow is talking to me specifically, and not only that…He’s talking to other folks in my tribe as well. There must be some reason all of us in particular are even noticing.”

And then it clicks, and it’s pretty simple. It’s that we are the solutions that we seek, and all of this can be remedied if people like us continue to wake up to it.

I’m all about social activism. But the Earth is my number one bae. She doesn’t get enough attention in this current hierarchy of things that need to be fixed. I wish that were differrent. The warning signs are all there and it’s up to us whether or not to use them to empower ourselves and our home planet into a brighter future.

The industrial revolution is over, it’s time for a rêvolution of heart.

Anyway, Happy Earth Day, friends!

Excerpt from Travel By Haiku

April 12, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughbook binding, daily haiku, haiku poetry, Marshall Deerfield, meditation, nature poem, self discovery, small publisher, spilled ink, travel1 Comment

“Moon light, moon vision
water is all around us
tidal waves within.“

_____
Daily Haiku by Marshall Deerfield

Buy the new book, Travel By Haiku available from Amazon. Travel By Haiku is a collection of haiku poetry written while traveling across the United States in 2014-2015. Each haiku is a meditation on the divine beauty found in the natural world and a boost to get the reader there.

(source: marshalldeerfield.tumblr.com)

Excerpt from Travel By Haiku

April 7, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughancient wisdom, california, daily haiku, haiku poetry, nature poem, redwood forest, spilled ink, travel, writerLeave a comment

“Height awakens peace of
mind, of spirit. Look up! See? An
ancient remedy“

_____
Daily Haiku by Marshall Deerfield

(source: marshalldeerfield.tumblr.com)

Book Release Party

April 1, 2016 marshalljameskavanaughbook release, daily haiku, emerging writer, Marshall James Kavanaugh, philadelphia art, poetry, small publishing press, spilled ink, spoken word, travel by haikuLeave a comment

On Wednesday, April 13th, The Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop in Philly will be hosting me for the release of my new book, Travel By Haiku. Don’t miss it! There’s going to be all types performance and circus-like festivity. It’s going to be a real wonderful happening.

You can read more about Travel By Haiku on my website.

[RSVP to the event on Facebook]