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  • mostly nonsense i

    31May26 | 21.03 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260531.2103
    some days raven
    some days stone
    find sinew, slip
    blade bone between
    and divisions
    fall apart, only
    standing watch
    over water

    tagged:

    betwixt and between, poetry, rewilding

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • garbage zen

    31May26 | 08.06 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260531.0806

    Perhaps Zen is when you realize that all words are superfluous and find yourself listening to jays cussing at crows, watching cats watch chipmunks, feeling the unseasonable cool air chill bare calves as it drifts through from patio door to window, the taste of coffee on your tongue, that chipmunk chirping back at the cats.

    It is that moment that something clicks and you realize this is just it.


    Get up, eat breakfast. Tomorrow we will add work to the mixture. Chop wood, carry water — as the old wisdom goes.

    Today there is no writing that is wanting to be written for poetry, nor the tale I am telling mostly to myself. There is no music to be chased. Text one daughter or her twin, ask if the parent doing her sleepover at a friend’s house would mind terribly if I showed up closer to 11 instead of 10.30 because my last daughter will want a ride to job she hates and refuses to replace so she only has to pay for Uber one way. I’m still trying to figure out how her transportation woes are my own.

    Still… Chop wood, carry water. Just doing. because doing is all that we can know. We pretend we know what has happened and what will come, but we know neither very well. When you really examine it, now is all we know and it is gone before we can even ponder it.

    What do you know?

    tagged:

    sunday, unknowing, words not words, zen, zen not zen

    filed under:

    thinking
    7 comments on garbage zen

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  • Confessions of a feline addict

    30May26 | 17.56 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260530.1756

    I love my cats, even when they drive me bonkers. That, for the record, is 99% of the time.

    As I noted just over a week ago, we lost one of our Maine Coons prematurely. She was only seven years old, diagnosed with kidney concerns about a year ago, but nothing more than “warning signs”. About two months or so ago, she went in for her routine bloodwork and had screaming high numbers. We jumped on it right away, fed her an appropriate diet heavy in wet food and low in phosphorous, with extra binder power added on top of it to pull any additional phosphorous out. We, unfortunately, were too late to save her and had to euthanize her last weekend to ease her suffering (she had gone toxic because of stones blocking her from being able to eliminate due to her kidney disease).

    I was just looking at cats. earlier in the week. “Just looking”.

    (more…)

    tagged:


    filed under:

    writing
    34 comments on Confessions of a feline addict

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    Confessions of a feline addict

  • Tuning out

    30May26 | 16.37 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260530.1637

    I miss those days before 24/7 television. I think that’s when I actually still liked some of what was out there. There was no need for “reality television” that is anything but reality. Life was reality enough and we still fully embraced the escapism of turning on the television. If you needed more reality, you could grab it between five and six-thirty most evenings. And, again, for a half-hour at ten (here in the Upper Midwest anyway).

    The afternoon circus talk shows aside, it was all escapism. And that was fine.

    Twenty-six weeks starting in the autumn. Repeats the next half year where we could relive our escapism. And you had to wait each week for your show to come around again. Binge-watching was unheard of.

    My daughters sometimes make me watch shows, promising me that I’ll really like this one or that one. And sometimes they are okay recommendations. Good even.

    But then comes the inevitable binge watching requirement. All three pull that one on me: “Dad, let’s watch television for three hours each night for the following four days!” And then, the groaning about how they’ll have to wait a whole year for the next eight episodes of varying length will be available while I pray they forget to include me because I am utterly burned out on the storyline that has a weak premise to it anyway and is generally anything but escapism.

    But the part I miss most is the late-night station sign off. That crappy quality video of the American flag flapping in the perfect breeze to the Star Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful at midnight or one a.m. It could mesmerize when you were over-caffeinated, over-sugared and generally not intending to wake up until after ten in the morning. I would watch the perfect flag perfectly flapping in the perfect breeze between the wear artifacts in the magnetic video tape.

    And then… Suddenly… White noise visually and sonically. Big Bang residue, they said at least at one time, although who knows if that is really the case.

    It said nothing. It said everything.

    It was all very Zen, if you think about it.

    And I miss it.

    tagged:

    back in the day, zen, zen not zen

    filed under:

    thinking
    7 comments on Tuning out

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    Tuning out

  • VMH: Ep 7.3 “Named True” is live

    29May26 | 12.01 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260529.1201
    start readingVengeance, My Heart

    The Argument:
    Hospitality. Unproven.
    Some palavering.
    An expected ward.


    Episode 7.3: Named True from Vengeance, My Heart (episode link), my serialized Sepulchral-Gothic Western novel, is now live at ravensweald.art.

    Subscribe to the serial via email

    ❧

    (more…)

    tagged:

    ash & thorn, crossroads, episodic fiction, gothic western, ravensweald.art, sepulchral western, serialized fiction, vengeance my heart, web novel, weird west

    filed under:

    Ash & Thorn — Vengeance, My Heart
    No comments on VMH: Ep 7.3 “Named True” is live

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  • what needs

    28May26 | 12.30 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260528.1230
    what needs a name
    needs a name
    in the hand on the ear
    and that lipbrushed fur
    venus kissed, do tell
    what needs a name
    needs a name
    in the hand on the ear

    tagged:

    poetry

    filed under:

    poetry
    2 comments on what needs

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  • casting runes — 28may26

    28May26 | 11.14 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260528.1114
    jera
    a cylinder in turning
    filling the empty nights
    with harvest hours small
    the spirits lean all shadow
    before reaping the dawn

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is jera. Jera is translated as “year”, and has also been translated as “harvest”. This rune is representative of cycles, the “wheel of the year”, the union of opposites (implied by the summer half of the year ending, winter half of the year beginning), balance, as well as cause/effect relationships.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

    tagged:

    jera, poetry, rewilding, rune

    filed under:

    poetry
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  • VMH: Ep 7.2 “Named True” is live

    27May26 | 12.17 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260527.1217
    start readingVengeance, My Heart

    The Argument:
    Death comes to visit.
    Missing cloves.
    Arguments and recriminations.


    Episode 7.2: Named True from Vengeance, My Heart (episode link), my serialized Sepulchral-Gothic Western novel, is now live at ravensweald.art.

    Subscribe to the serial via email

    ❧

    (more…)

    tagged:

    ash & thorn, crossroads, episodic fiction, gothic western, ravensweald.art, sepulchral western, serialized fiction, vengeance my heart, web novel, weird west

    filed under:

    Ash & Thorn — Vengeance, My Heart
    No comments on VMH: Ep 7.2 “Named True” is live

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    VMH: Ep 7.2 “Named True” is live

  • casting runes — 26may26

    26May26 | 12.33 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260526.1233
    eihwaz
    this mortal coil
    slipped between mists
    we will meet again
    within the otherside
    this knot lingers still

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is eihwaz, it’s name meaning “yew”, is a rune of change and transformation. It represents the cycle of life/death/rebirth and is symbolic of the axis mundi (the world tree). The yew is envisioned as a path towards both the underworld and the heavenly realms. Eihwaz is frequently associated both with poison and protection as part of its perceived dual nature.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

    tagged:

    eihwaz, poetry, rewilding, rune

    filed under:

    poetry
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    casting runes — 26may26

  • VMH: Ep 7.1 “Named True” is live

    25May26 | 12.01 CDT
    © 2026

    michael raven

    c: 260525.1201
    start readingVengeance, My Heart

    The Argument:
    Mirrors, mirror.
    Of Lilys and remains.
    A close call.


    Episode 7.1: Named True from Vengeance, My Heart (episode link), my serialized Sepulchral-Gothic Western novel, is now live at ravensweald.art.

    Subscribe to the serial via email

    ❧

    (more…)

    tagged:

    ash & thorn, crossroads, episodic fiction, gothic western, ravensweald.art, sepulchral western, serialized fiction, vengeance my heart, web novel, weird west

    filed under:

    Ash & Thorn — Vengeance, My Heart
    No comments on VMH: Ep 7.1 “Named True” is live

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    VMH: Ep 7.1 “Named True” is live

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