Dreamed I had lost the ability to write. Met a girl, we hit it off, she had to leave town, so I wanted to give her my number and email address. Tried to write it all down. My letterforms came out garbled, incomplete, illegible. Like I had a stroke or something. It was kinda traumatic. …
Author Archives: Shawn
Leveling
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe In my third semester of Deutsch, I understand that the difficulty of learning a language increases logarithmically. It’s like the skill leveling in a MUD of old. 1x to level up once. 1,000,000,000x to level up ten times. I …
Idyll
I came from poverty. So in this day and age — even after personally making the grade — I can’t fathom, can’t understand how so many people can sit in their car and idle their engine for so long, as if gasoline costs nothing, as if noise wasn’t a societal issue, as if exhaust wasn’t …
Analyria
It’s funny to me, in my advanced age, how I would write so much poetry in my younger days, yet I never actually read any poetry. I still find myself unwilling and – if we’re being gracious – functionally unable to read poetry. It’s physically uncomfortable. Once I see verse on the page, my mind …
Donnertraüme
Flashing between regret and resolve regarding taking German III. This is the kind of semester where the kid gloves come off. The class is mostly auf Deutsch, and coming into that 3 hours a week over crappy Zoom audio is a struggle. I have to think on my feet and just get into the dance. …