Inconsistent to Good by Choice

I need the twenty mile march

Athletes practice a monk's routine

Instead I 

Rush ahead 

Lag behind

I 

lack confidence

and 

am not prepared 

for trouble

Jonathan Reuel, 2013

Freeing, I think, about a million birds

The great light cage has broken up in the air,

freeing, I think, about a million birds

whose wild ascending shadows will not be back,

and all the wires come falling down.

(From "Rain Towards Morning" by Elizabeth Bishop)

Failure to Thrive or Just Impatient (A Caterpiller)

A caterpillar,

this deep in fall--

still not a butterfly.

(A Caterpillar by Matsuo Basho)

Rain Poems (A Year is a trained beast with no memories)

Rain Poems (by poets)

Afternoon (by me)

The slow plink, splink, poonk
of
Drops
of
Water
Falling
Found
Seeping deep
While I
Slink away to sleep




"The rain doesn't remember the rain of yesteryear.
A year is a trained beast with no memories."

(from "The First Rain" by Yehuda Amichai)

Where we're playing (Some Dreams Tour)

Here's a link to some info about the Some Dreams tour. Headed north before too long. It's going to be a fun ride, some new songs and different versions of old ones. Here's the venue list as it stands currently:

April 2: The Electric Brew.Goshen, IN 7:30pm. Tuesday.
April 3: House Concert. Warsaw, IN. Potluck at 6, show at 7. Wednesday.
April 4: Bluffton University. Bluffton, OH. Chapel, workshop, evening concert. 8:00-9:30pm. Thursday.
April 5: Cafe Amici (Findlay,OH). At open mic. 8-10pm. Friday.
April 6: Elm Street COB, Lima, OH. 7-8:15pm. Saturday
April 7: Jitters, Millersburg, OH. 6pm. (with special guest Annie Yoder). Sunday.
April 8: JK O-Donnel's, Ft. Wayne, IN. Monday.

Hope to see you there.

Some Dreams Tour

I'm gearing up for a week or so tour in Indiana and Ohio. I'll be hitting the road with Nate and Amber Butler (of Shiny Shiny Black) and their daughter Charlie. I'm excited about this mini-tour because:

1. Great musicians to tour with -- can't wait to split shows with Shiny Shiny Black (reminds me of the Radiant Sonchild Tour in some ways).
2. A chance to see old friends and play new venues.
3. We made a recording with 6 songs (three new songs of mine and three tunes by Nate), including (go figure) the song "Some Dreams" which I've wanted to record for some time. I love to write songs, and recordings are a chance to get them out to people. Makes me happy. Hope to see you soon.

Twelve Year Cycles

Twelve years ago I traveled around a fair amount with an organization that did renewal work in Presbyterian circles. It was during this time (and with the help of a friend and mentor who was part of the organization) that I recorded my first CD, Sonchild Responsible.

I spent most of last week leading worship for a conference this same organization was hosting. It was a great chance to reconnect and see a decade's worth of growth and maturation of a vision. It was also encouraging and healing personally.

And I was surprised and encouraged to find that some of the songs from that Responsible recording are still being used in their network, and seemed to have teeth when I dusted them off again.