Here's a few new poems up at Melancholia's Tremulous Dreadlocks. No, they're not love poems.

There's a scene in 8 1/2 (that's La Dolce Vita) in which Marcello Mastroianni's character, Guido, listens to a critic's analysis and then he ends up throwing the results on the ground. When he scrambles over to pick it up after a second thought we are shown the visual representation of how most minds function. Going back and forth from feelings of independence to feelings of insecurity, ebb and flow, is a fact of life. Facing the mirror is no easy feat however. But being completely honest with oneself is the only path to freedom from our preconceptions.


Guido is a salad of confusion. He's torn between what he used to be and what he might become, and on all sides advice is offered from those who think they know what's best for him. Philosophical advice comes from critics, advice comes from his wife, advice comes from friends, advice comes from everyone with an opinion, but at the end of the day he forces his own subjectivity outward in an artistic gesture that seems futile. But in this act of creating he ultimately triumphs over futility and makes a lasting statement that outlives impermanance.