As we sit here in the present, either in our own homes or rented apartments, among relatives and roommates, with cars and SUVs, or at least a few cigarettes to smoke, it is sometimes a unique difficulty when we find nothing to be grateful for in this life.  It seems that in the high schools and in the colleges, while some of us turn to academics for enlightenment or the fall sport of football for the physical shape of our bodies, we are...

I remember when I had once exchanged email addresses with a woman I knew, and she immediately said that I was "ancient," because I still use Hotmail as my email provider.

...I just had to tell him that I am a writer and that I am trying to do well in this profession, even though I know that writing will never pay the bills.

Harvey gets drunk on Albany's famed Lark Street.

There was a feeling in the air when it happened.  I sensed that everything was going downhill, as many items in my humble apartment here in Albany were either falling apart or broken.  For the last few days I had worn a pair of swim trunks and a tee-shirt for clothing.  It wasn’t until my third consecutive day of wearing this clothing that I knew something had to change.  Yes, my clothes had to change.  I needed a make-over.  I...

We all fall sick from time to time, and without a doubt there is a certain troubling but soothing spirituality about falling sick – both physically and mentally.  The hope for the one who is sick is to leave sickness behind for once, however, there can be little or no question that sickness is within us only to strike again when we are at our weakest.  Despite all of our attempts to prepare ourselves for the day when sickness will...

Gore Vidal has expired, and so we are left with his great works, most of which I haven’t read, but I intend to read them at some point.  Right now, the dominating force in all coumminication for me is the visual image, which, I suppose, factors into the equation for those well-enough to constantly watch things – the observation of people walking down their own avenues of despair and redemption, the irresponsible advertising...

Rick Moody, when he read his short piece about the Irish rock band, the Pogues, the other night at a public reading at the Writers Institute up in Saratoga, came to the conclusion that an artist’s work doesn’t necessarily benefit when that artist relies upon drugs and alcohol in his writerly life to create more interesting and more important fiction.  I would have to agree with Rick Moody, although several old time writers,...

What may be the best remedy for those poets and writers who are struggling to get published or want to make a little bit of money by selling their own work is to find a good community of poets and writers instead of shooting for the moon and trying to woo publishers by sending them query letters, book proposals, and sample chapters.  Why do I think this?  I think it’s because a community of writers can at least support each member...

I can claim no expertise in my realtionships with women, but what I can say is that courting a woman is much like a game of sorts.  We at least try to see who needs the other more, and while this is a very immature game to say the least, such gaming is usually commonplace amongst new couples everywhere – unless some of the men involved in a relationship have straight-talking women who hate playing games with their mates, simply...