Writer • Musician
I wrote these poems in the last few pages of a brown, tattered old pocket journal that I kept with me as I started into the Sierra Nevada, heading out of California and toward the east coast; seeing for the first time everything from General Sherman Tree to Yosemite Valley and the Tuolumne Meadows. I wrote …
Lots of people talk about Robert Johnson's guitar playing, but for me the more striking aspect of his songs are the lyrics, which feel every bit as hauntingly close to me as the voice on those old recordings. Along with St. James Infirmary, this song will be with me for a long time. “The blue …
I am in love with this moment I am in love with you and America, I see you So let down you guard America I see you No matter the statues left standing, I see you Or whoever stands for the anthem I see you still How did you ever get boxed into this prism? …
My first order of business was to find the hostel I’d booked the night before. Knowing that maps/GPS wouldn’t work since I didn’t buy a data plan--and I wouldn’t have wi-fi unless I camped out at a cafe for a few minutes--I took a screenshot of the pinned location on the map the night before …
I've been sketching out this song lately, slowly becoming one of my favorites. I was never into cover songs much before, but this one just might have opened a new door. "I'm Your Man" Reflections by Ren Michael And so I’m back home, a week past since Toronto/NYC And I’m thinking of Leonard Cohen I’ve …
LOS ANGELES — I’d go to the cafe and work on lyrics, even try to pen the novel a few times. I never finished it, but I heard the boys—Jude, Cal, Sam and (mostly) Quinby—are making some good headway on it now, that they’re using Jude as the narrator; and that they’re writing the whole thing under …
Dear Cal, Man this jazz kick is great. Some album that I’m listening to with Miles Davis and Coltrane. I know they played together a few times before ol’ John blew up and went out on his own, before A Love Supreme and Blue Train. The French, the Parisians in particular have been known to …
Continue reading "Light in the Dark. Impressions and Illuminations in la Ville Lumière"
I thought I'd grown numb to gun violence, until it finally happened close to me. In my county. Maybe it’s just another indicator of the distance we feel from one another, from east to west. Maybe it’s natural in a land as vast and diverse as our own, an impediment we must continually seek to …
A Letter Written by Sam Lyons to J.L. Quinby, Esq. | Quinby! You sly devil, you… You recently asked me what I thought was the most defining aspect of my philosophy. The cornerstone of my ethos, so to speak. Well, I think I have my answer. One of the strongest components of my own self-awareness, …
Continue reading "Repetition and Awareness. The Universal Dance."
The story begins with a girl. She looks, casts one glance in the mirror and is gone no sooner than she arrives, her voice but a whisper echoing down the street, leaving the hero alone in the cold night wearing an old pair of boots, a Spanish knife in his pocket, a beat-up guitar strapped …
On the Move, and at Peace By Cal Corso | Reading a book on Albert Einstein and I’m thinking about Vienna, listening to Liszt's transcription for the piano of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Right now I’m in the second movement of the symphony. And yea that sounds about right now, don’t it? I am sort of …
Jude Moonlight's Journal | Last night I went out walking and I heard the distant sound of drums playing late in the night. At first I couldn't quite find where they were coming from but I walked farther down the street and deeper into my neighborhood and I heard the sounds grow louder, so I …
Continue reading "I do feel like playing. Last night I went out walking…"
A spark… He wanders in darkness A shadow of himself A stranger he can’t recognize smiling from an old poster sign a tattered flyer tumbling in the city breeze Smiling in dark alleys Looking straight at me! Hell Time to get moving It’s 2017 “you’ve just begun.” But times have changed It don’t belong to …
I never saw the need to call myself a feminist, much less a proud feminist, since the basics of feminism always seemed like common sense. If you exercise common sense, what’s there to be proud of? Nothing. It’s a waste of energy. The crucial detail of common sense is that it’s common. Therefore, just follow …
I first heard the song many years ago and like most people, I most often associated it with the Animals. Then I discovered they weren't the original writers and that Bob Dylan recorded the song before they did. But it wasn't long before I realized Dylan didn't write it either. He only recored it because …
As I make my Noon descent I hear my love's been packed and sent I can't be seen with her, she says I'm a blasphemer Though I try to be a good guy, she says every claim is a dirty lie I'm stone-cold, she says I walk down a dark road Oh Lord... Well grab …
I felt like a thief in the night. Maybe it was guilt, a sense that I was betraying someone, or something. I remember a sign, standing tall on the side of the highway while I was driving through the desert. “Blessed are they,” it said, “Who trust in Him.’ Four years ago, I moved to …
I was standing on a street corner on the outskirts of town Away from some trouble I’d seen come ‘round When I saw an old maiden look my way, and Say “Hey Mr. Moonlight, you're a long way from LA.” Now her hair, it fell funny, and she had teeth of gold She wore on …
Reading John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra makes me wish that over the past few years, I had kept a more comprehensive journal detailing my own travels, along with my many encounters and experiences in Los Angeles; as opposed to what I fear might only amount to scattered, disconnected ramblings and loose sketches based on the things I …
Ren Michael 