Systems of Light
by Kevin Carrel Footer 8 November 2015 Ruidoso, NM – Like planetary systems we float through the universe. Pre-Galilean, there is a dull planet and a plethora of shimmering stars. The stars are ours, if we choose them. Or we can be the dull inert thing that wobbles...
The Quiet Rage of Rivers
by Kevin Carrel Footer (Austin TX - 1 November 2015) ... When you hit the Texas border, you come plumb up against the myth. Everything in Texas is big. The state is big. The trucks are big. The cowboy hats and flags are big. The attitude is bigger still. At first it...
We Need Some New Heroes
by Kevin Carrel Footer 13 October 2015 I have been driving across the US for several months on tour with my band. One thing that bothers me is that everywhere I go I see highways dedicated to veterans, to fallen police officers, to those who died violent deaths....
I Chase the Wisdom of Day and Night
The wisdom of the night is sensuous and dark and ecstatic. It is the wisdom of the joyous gulp, the stolen kiss, the whispered truth. It is the wisdom of moments whose happening becomes instantly eternal and timeless. It is the bursting open of the soul. The wisdom of...
Carlitos Steps Out
Carlitos was back and his friends were coming up to him to say hello. His guardian angel, the woman of the flowing silver mane, had brought him to the milonga at the Confiteria Ideal where he had been a regular until his illness. He had been...
Waters That Quench
I made an offering recently in the sand. I sat and watched as the waters of the Atlantic reclaimed it, advancing at first like a tentative squirrel inching toward a proffered nut; then like a voracious beast that relentlessly devours...
Big Banal Lake
By Kevin Carrel Footer The enormous lake, all 616 square kilometres of it, was, I declared, banal. How, I was asked, could a lake be “banal”? Wasn’t I mistaken, wouldn’t another word be better? But I stuck by my description because,...
The Finding Place
Painting by Estela Currao - www.estelacurrao.net I write to you now in the guise of the wanderer, having been so many places. In 1986, I took refuge in the monastery at the top of the mountain where the monks wore golden robes and goats...
Hiding and Seeking
By Kevin Carrel Footer His first night there, he slept on a cot as they all did. They camped in the unfurnished rooms like soldiers on campaign – or vagabonds seeking refuge from the elements. That first night the furniture had not yet arrived but an aunt took them to...
Manifesto in Progress
I choose the path of the artist. I choose the path that wends its way through doubt and disorientation, endlessly searching. The path is the destination. Art is my spiritual practice. When you see me creating, I am praying. And when I pray, I am celebrating creation....