While, as the title suggests, in the future these posts will not contain words, an introduction to the series seems fitting.
I have published many photograph and poem pairings online; this series marks a return to posting images on their own.
Besides a title, these images will remain otherwise unaccompanied by words.
I will post an image in this series every waxing quarter moon.
Les Images sans Mots Read More »
I have decided to proceed with blogging on this website before making any other effort to dress it up.
I would like to select fonts, choose header images, set up an email sign up form, choose a newsletter delivery platform, and a dozen other things to make the site more presentable.
And eventually I will do all of these things. But I have realized that in my current workflow, all of these tasks remain out of sight, out of mind, and so they remain undone.
It is interesting to consider that all of these accoutrements are really just that – accoutrements. They do nothing to advance the primary function of the website: a platform for publishing my creative work.
By publishing the blog instead of making the site look nice, the website functions as intended from the publication of the first post.
By cutting to the chase and blogging right away, I am creating meaningful content for the site from the beginning. I also place myself in the context of the website on a regular basis and thus within range of working on it drip by drip. In the meantime, the website functions as intended – a platform for publishing my creative work.
I am not worried about anyone finding the site inhospitable while I focus on function. I am not even planning to publicize the site until I have established a solid track record on the blog. That way, by the time most anyone finds it, it will be filled with substantive content. Doing so also insures I have developed a process that reliably generates new material on the site.
I believe the content is more valuable than the aesthetic appeal of the site anyway, and over time the appearance will also improve.
So, how does one make a website functional? Ultimately that will depend on the intended function of the website. But the principle undergirding my process should apply in all cases: begin by using it for its intended purpose.
Leave secondary purposes in second place among your priorities: first things first, second things second. In my case, email sign up forms, site structure, appearance, etc., all of these can wait until a solid practice of blogging is established.
Secondary purposes are only meaningful in support of primary purposes, so I will focus on primary purposes first.
In the next several posts I will go into detail about my process of creating the blog and how I am bringing to bear certain specific tools and principles along the way. While your process is sure to be different from mine, I am confident these tools and principles are universal in their utility and thus can be adapted to fit any process.
How to Make a Website Functional by Writing a Blog – Part One Read More »
two dimensional people
living in a three dimensional world
no stranger than three dimensional people
living in a four dimensional world…
after all, Euclid no longer
holds a monopoly
on geometry
Interdimensional Living Read More »
the disappearance of these tracks
into a zone of overexposure
evokes a constellation
of associations
Tarkovsky’s Zona
the construct of The Matrix
white light as the sum of all color
the diaphainon, “that which shines through,”
from Gebser’s Ever-Present Origin
the haze of oblivion
how is it that one image
could represent
so many –
and so disparate –
expressions of what is?
and yet, is this so different
from the world itself?
peering in
on a room well kept
for an abandoned power plant
cheerful as a nursery
lacking toys
and a bit of glazing
not entirely well appointed
still, tidy enough
to evoke
the feeling that
someone else belongs here
in a way which
I do not
Just Passing Through Read More »
light and dark frame passage
a portal to a place between worlds
broken glass and spray painted figures…
the real guardians at the gate are not visible
one might well glean that any real access
to the railroad that fades into infinity
requires a certain proof of mettle
though it may be less clear
how that requirement
might be satisfied…
step inside?
a backdrop of branches
made soft by distance
a nest for a seedpod
freshly split open
soon to reveal
fluffy seeds
beckoned
by the wind
and conditions
ripe for traveling
far from this place
while they still can
before they settle in
and put down roots
never to fly again
until the cycle
continues
again
gravity
or wind
or the
pressure
of footfalls
has turned this
plant upside down
suspended
above the bluest
broken glass
that ever
reflected
the sky
Sky Below, Great Wind Read More »
the absence of light
lines drawn in charcoal
on a concrete drawing pad
above a pool of broken glass
a jagged palette of watercolors
this landscape in miniature
is it the troubled dream
of a sleeping artist
or is it a delight
to one fully
awake?
Unbounded in a Nutshell Read More »