Had a fairly interesting life, did some stuff, went some cool places, made some things, and now I'm old. Funny how that works...
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About Me ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	There are bios of me scattered around among my various sites so I'm not going to recap here. I've been to college but I flew the coop without a degree. Nonetheless, I have a broad range of education, experience, and interests. Troubleshooting and unraveling complex problems come naturally to me, skills I've applied in areas from computers to political analysis. I designed and built my first computer from scratch, have written enough code - in a wide variety of languages, including a couple I created - to stretch from here to the Moon probably, and put together more websites, including interactive ones, than I can remember. Writing computer code that works is a whole lot like writing poetry that works; form, structure and word choice are critical to both. Both can superficially look functional while actually being nonsense.
	I was born with ADD and a touch of Asperger's, then seasoned with the PTSD I was given by my pedophile maternal grandfather. Long story short, I've always had an unconventional and off-center response to life and social norms - and I don't have a problem with that. Poetry and creativity don't sprout much from the mundane and "normal", so if being seen as a unique and eccentric human being is the price of that, I'll pay, and gladly.
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	I began writing poetry in high school and had one or two published in a national anthology of high school student poetry. Also wrote a couple of pathetic teen-angst songs that are well-forgotten. I let creative writing lapse for about twenty years, then started scribbling poems on cocktail napkins at a piano bar, and writing some worthwhile songs. That lasted four or five years, then lapsed again for another twenty years, when I self-published my first book of short poems. This time my focus went more to music, with poems becoming lyrics instead. During this period I wrote a number of songs and recorded a few, including songs and a storyline for a still-unfinished operetta based around the Wakulla Volcano. At this point (April 2024) I have two self-published books of poetry, a website with my musical efforts, some pomes featured on this website, adjunct to it a big bunch of extemporaneous poems across a wide range of forms and content under the rubric "Poems Without a Name", and this mess of random ramblings called a website.
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	I've traveled extensively in Mexico and the American West. Hiked thousands of miles - mountain, flatland, and on sidewalks around town. I love birds, bodies of water, and Nature in general. I have enough curiosity for a dozen cats and expect to be investigating and exploring new things until I just can't any more. There aren't a lot of places I fear to tread, physically or intellectually.
	One of the highlights of visiting Mexico was eating psychedelic mushrooms on a mountaintop in Oaxaca. Sadly, despite the setting, the experience was inferior to the many others I've had eating the local cowpie variety. Fortunately psychedelics are finally gaining acceptance as valuable therapy tools. The ones I ate taught me a lot about both the exterior and interior worlds that I could never have learned otherwise.
	Speaking of mushrooms, let's go on a psychedelic mushroom hunt! (read more...)
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	One day not too long after my mother's death, my father drove down from Alabama for a visit. While he was here he blew my mind by revealing that he not only knew how to dowse, he had used it in his work as an outside plant engineer for Southern Bell. When drawing up plans for new poles and such, or changes to existing ones, it's vital to know what else may by in the same area, and he'd found that records of that were notoriously unreliable. It's kind of embarrassing when the work crew shows up and drills right into water main or buried electrical cable because your drawing has it in the wrong spot. So what does dowsing have to do with this problem? (read more...)
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	After my second divorce in 2009, I decided it would be best for me and for womankind if I hung up my spurs in that area. Since then I've lived alone, nor have I dated. As I'm retired and on Social Security, I have a reliable income and no boss, so I'm free to live my life without concern for how it might impact a partner or employer. Given that I'm incorrigibly unconventional, I've had space to explore just how that works out. (read more...)
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	Shifting gears (so to speak), it's been almost six years since I owned a car. Getting around on foot, borrowed rides, and the bus has given me a very different perspective on how the automobile has skewed our priorities and ravaged our cities. The paved-over land is full of roaring, speeding, fumes-spraying beasts, and anyone who dares to venture there places life and limb in jeopardy. You'll find no better metaphor for our estrangement from the natural world than the drivers zooming by, alone in their steel coffins, with one hand on the steering wheel and one on their smartphone.
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	© Michael Lowe Wright - original images & writings various dates, website 2022-2024