
Pencil/paper
5″ x 7.5”
1998
My sleeping lover
doesn’t see my coffee spilled
across our table
The first 30 or so drawings in this section are the fruit of a collaboration with my friend Douglas Newton. He is a poet and fiction writer with a keen eye for the beauty of the intersection of nature and everyday life. Throughout the 90’s he would sit in my studio and write poems and short stories. Often we would simply work on our own independent projects.
Almost every visit, though, we would take a few moments to work together. He would read a haiku or short poem and I would draw whatever popped into my head. Doug enjoyed having someone to really listen to his newest works and I suppose to see what I would come up with in response. I enjoyed his company as well as his constant creativity and his fresh and insightful way of seeing the world.
Many of my drawings were duds. But some are real gems that add depth and humor to the poems. I selected a bunch that I thought did just that as well as stand up on their own as drawings. Someday, perhaps they might make a nice coffee table book. Meanwhile, they represent a cross section of the different ways I was making images at that time. You can see everything from the little cartoon figure style I developed to the almost zen like symbols and Paul Klee like surreal intuitive conglomerations. Like so much other stuff I have looked back on to create this website I find myself wishing I had done more. It seems like we just scratched the surface of what is possible with this kind of insight and this kind of collaboration.
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Light through clouds against mountains
shifts through blues and yellows and greys


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
My blue shadow slopes across the face of the earth
From a distant land of laughter
I climb a ladder of iron and bone
To sit with you at the golden edge of curving days
When the stars fall like snowflakes from the diamond Sky
I will return to my place of darkness to sleep the breathless night alone,
to dream of you
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Please take a number
The grim reaper is busy
Preparing your bed


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Lately falling dust
Blanket of the days light
Moments fresh as leaves
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Conversation builds
In all corners of the room
Mind guards its silence


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
How much of the sun
Holds fast in the coloring
of wilting flowers?
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Insipid music
Breaks through my concentration
Invisible trash


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Letter from my dad
Words to keep me walking down
The path I must take
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Poet is dead stiff
But the poems continue
Nothing in their way


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
A man is living
Shadowed by the patient ghost
Of his own fine death
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Clocks everywhere
Flowers, bodies, waterfalls
Round & round & round


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Two days of stubble
Face made rough and unseemly
Feels just right that way
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Power lines cut through
The sky making rectangles
Pinched at the edges


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
If blood makes it through
Heart and being of a young man
Lust lives there also
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
I am nowhere lost
Neither searching for a place
Mind is of itself


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
End of day dust light
Softens corners of buildings
Time egg shell fragile
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Face of a woman
Stays in the mind long after
She has left the room


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Tired of myself
For no clear reason but then
Awakened by words
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Ran into a friend
Who still puffs two packs a day
How long will he live?


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Easy to read news
And miss reports from your own
Lately breaking mind
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Tax breaks for the ones
Who stop to wonder how to
Spend the extra cash


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Rachel still in bed
Mind anticipating new work
Blood becoming ink
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Look across a room
Proud of looking and of eyes
Trance of emptiness


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Arctic blue whale pods
Swim and sing across miles
Man sings in bathroom
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Yesterday in town
Kids were marching on Parade
Today it’s tv


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
During business hours
This door to remain open
Locking with a snap
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Old woman lives here
Where nothing ever happens
Daughter city killed
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
A dog walks a man
obediently around
Shitting in the park


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Early blossoms fall
Heavy with kisses of rain
No eyes to watch them
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Two young men in hats
Sit and look at a woman
Hoping for the best


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Another day gone
Walking under a blind sun
Drums and wishes burn
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Underneath the car
The jack keeps gravity from
Crushing my body

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Sunlight across grass
Is in the morning soft answer
To the broth of tears


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Woman walks softly
Arms crossed
Pupils large and lostThoughts of her house cat
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Sojourner on Mars
Moving slowly through a place
Where nothings happens


Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Kayak on a lake
My friend leaves, quiet and sore
Where is he going?
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1998
Morning clouds growing
Old as sunlight washes down
a man’s pace quickens


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998


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8.5″ x 11”
1998
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8.5″ x 11”
1998



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1998







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8.5″ x 11”
1998



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8.5″ x 11”
1998

