Collaborating with the Muses to inspire, create, and illuminate
By Kevin Belmonte I well remember what it was like to listen to the "Songs from Albion" disc the first time when it was released in 1992. I'd read volume one of The Paradise War, by Stephen Lawhead, and this new album from Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning offered a cycle of songs that was as fully …
Continue reading "An Inspired Partnership: The Artistry of Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning"
I recently started working on a book of my thoughts on the writing process and living a writing life, from my perspective as a "part-time poet" who happens to write a lot of different kinds of things on a near-daily basis. The excerpt below is from a chapter on writing to be read, and it …
LATCHKEY KIDS It was years before I realized they meant us. We were pre-teens with keys, unlocking doors, preparing supper, riding bicycles without helmets – without a thought for safety. We roughed our way across the creek, through the woods, never worried about tics. We climbed to the top of the old oak and ripped …
A couple years ago, I shared some images and poems on this site from a collaboration with photographer Tom Darin Liskey. Finally, after all that time and a good amount of back and forth, Amazon delivered this solid hold-in-my-hands print copy of our for-real book: It's here, it's here, it's finally here! By way of …
Are not all poems found poems? Are not all poets failed poets failing in a form fated to fail? Poetry is not truth, but the last gasp of revelation after hearing the truest word. The poet speaks in tongues to a world that cannot bear truth, whose words are woodpeckers at the rotting beam, wind …
I did this new thing recently. They call it erasure poetry. I call it a back door into writing. Either way, I was inspired to give it a go because I was listening to this podcast in which Jeff Goins riffs on mix tapes, creation v. curation, etc. It got me thinking about how it's …
Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you. Dr. Peter Venkman: What? Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams. Dr. Peter Venkman: Why? Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad. Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"? Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine …
The featured image and the following poem are part of a larger collection (titled "Transit") which was the result of a collaboration with photographer Tom Darin Liskey in the spring of 2020. It was an honor to work with Tom, whose photography I have admired for many years. We are currently preparing this collection for …
A review by Kevin Belmonte Ravenna - the latest collaboration between Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy - is an album that bestows the finest of gifts: a rare and kindred artistry. Visually and sonically, the album is a fully-realized vision and song-cycle. And it begins with the album’s packaging: a stunning presentation of painted images that …
Sitting on the back porch of 2020, watching for the sun to rise on the next year, I am grateful for our common task that binds us - this essential work of loving in the time we have to love. Let's get busy with that, shall we? And in the meantime, I share some excerpts …
All Nine 