I've been submitting poems for publication for some time now. Rejection is a thing I've come to expect. Upon receiving my last rejection email, something shifted in my brain. Why am I doing this? I asked myself. Do I want to be published, or do I want to find an audience for my work?

There may have been a day when finding and audience was only possible through publication. And, In the world of written work, publication is still a trophy of sorts. The thing is, I don't care. I don't care about publication any more than I care about putting out my music through a record label.

After this little bit of soul-searching, I did two things. First, I edited a book of poems for self-publication. I formatted it and worked up some art, something that would tie into this year's EPs, making it a sort of companion volume. Second, I began working on a manifesto of sorts, a long form answer to the question in relationship to my work: why, what, and how? I'll put that out when it is complete.

The Making of a Key, a 227 page book of poems, will be available in September. Click here for more details.

I've been spending time with my family, drawing, writing, playing music, hiking with my dog through the ever-mounting snow around my home, making friends with a horse, getting my truck stuck -and unstuck. It's been an eventful December. In fact, it's been an eventful year. I'd like to say I'm not one for convention, but here I am marking time, taking inventory. Am I grateful? For what? What did I accomplish? What do I want to do next year?

I won't bore you with ambitious detail from the 2018 to-do list I made late the other night. But, here are a couple things you'll see if you're looking: First, I'm putting the finishing touches on 10 new recordings. Still working out the release details, but I'll be putting them out and playing the songs in places not my living room. Second, I've been writing poems and stories -even a work of (chills) long fiction. I'm constantly moving through the cycle of writing, editing, and submitting for publication so as to make more of my written works available in print and digital publications throughout 2018.
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If you missed it -and you probably did, three of my poems were published in Ello.co's Not For Print, Issue No. 2 - Resist. 

Read them here.

​Buy a copy here.

​Thanks to everyone who has taught me something, given me a page or a platform, encouraged me to carry on, supported me, loved me. See you all next year.

-D.