half a mug
of cold chai —
all that’s left
/ / /
19 February 2024
Charlottesville VA
Jason Crane Posts
Humans have come up with many ways to make beautiful sounds over the past several thousand years, but we’ve never outdone the first one: the voice. Tonight, at the Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville, three sisters showed once again how the power of the human voice is enough to strip away your preconceptions and build a beautiful alternate world in their place. Joseph traded leads throughout the show and harmonized in that way that only family can. Accompanied by just a guitar and a digital bass drum, the trio surveyed their entire musical output and treated us all to what at times felt more like a secular revival meeting than a concert. Joseph is unafraid to celebrate, to mourn, to indict, to examine, to uplift. They are transcendent and we were all lucky to be there. We can’t know where humanity will end up, but if it’s somewhere bright, voices like this will be there.
Leave a Comment
I worked as a reporter and editor and broadcaster for NPR and Bloomberg and Nikkei and Kyodo News World Service and a number of other outlets in both the US and Japan. I loved that work because it felt important. Even sacred. I know there are tons of problems with the way news is owned and reported, but back then I knew less about that, and in any case from the inside it felt different.
Nothing I was ever involved with can compare in any way with what we see journalists going through on the ground in Gaza. Elsewhere, too, of course, but my attention is focused on Gaza right now. I think about how much I felt connected to the mission of reporting, and I imagine how much more connected they must feel to be reporting about the attempted destruction of their own land and people.
I listen to Al Jazeera every day. Part of many of their broadcasts involves their journalists reporting on the deaths of their colleagues and their colleagues’ families, and even on the deaths of their own families. It’s more than anyone should have to endure. The fact that they keep doing it speaks to a strength I can barely comprehend.
after the rain:
fat sparrow spies
worms under a Kia
/ / /
7 January 2024
Charlottesville VA
in a haiku it is
generally best to do
whatever the fuck you want
/ / /
6 January 2024
Charlottesville VA
The Ocean
We’re both listening to
Richard Hawley.
Not together, but
together anyway.
When “The Ocean”
comes on I imagine…
it doesn’t matter.
But I’m certainly
picturing it as the violins
dance in the background.
There’s no key
for this painting.
We just have to guess
at the colors,
try to keep them from
spilling off the canvas.
“You’ll lead me down
to the ocean.”
Guitar solo.
Here comes a wave.
/ / /
5 January 2024
Charlottesville VA
The Many Worlds Hypothesis & Song To A Seagull
Joni Mitchell sang into
an open piano
when she recorded
her first album
because David Crosby
thought it would
enhance her voice —
and it did,
but it also magnified
the other sounds in the room
so they were forced to
strip away the high frequencies,
leaving a flatter beauty,
and this is why
I am careful when I
look at you
because the universe
has limits.
/ / /
3 January 2024
Charlottesville VA
Completeness
squirrel on the lawn
crow on the wire
(there’s a little piece
of my soul in you)
crow on the wire
squirrel on the lawn
(and a piece
of yours in me)
/ / /
31 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
I Wrote This For You
I wrote this for you
on the back of a napkin
passed over the bar
with a glass of soda.
I wrote this for you
on an app on my phone,
lying on the couch
during a long lunch break.
I wrote this for you but
it doesn’t matter because
you’ll never know you’re
the “you” in question.
I wrote this for you
to send it to the universe;
like background radiation
for a world in need of love.
/ / /
26 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
they leave us
nothing but our bones
stamped into the mud
/ / /
25 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
WINTER SOLSTICE TAROT READING
1. Embrace your Shadow: What aspect of yourself needs acknowledgement and acceptance during this winter solstice? The terms “rebirth” and “inner calling” are associated with this card. I feel both so strongly right now. I am returning to myself and also figuring out the next iteration of myself. With a lot of help from my friends, both old and new.
2. Cultivate Resilience: What obstacle are you being called to face with grace and courage? This card is associated with regret, which has been a major descriptor (self-imposed) of my life since at least the end of 2020 and probably earlier. I am slowly finding ways to move past it.
3. Nurture your Inner Light: What practice or action can you engage in to nourish your inner light and ignite a sense of purpose and inspiration as you move towards Imbolc? One of the ideas of this card is integration. I’m working on bringing together the various parts of me: poet, organizer, musician, broadcaster, friend, lover, and so on. I’m (re)learning how to be my total self. That means writing more, organizing more, playing more, feeling more.
4. Navigate Transformation: What old pattern, belief, or identity are you being called to shed to facilitate your inner rebirth? This is a card about rootedness. I’ve been struggling with the ideas of place and staying. In the past couple months, I have started to think differently about the place where I am right now, and about staying here and trying to build something.
5. Tap into Feminine Energy: How can you nurture and reconnect with your psyche (intuition, emotions and feminine wisdom) during this winter solstice? One idea that springs from this card is to focus on balanced relationships — ones where both people are giving and receiving. This doesn’t mean not being a support for those in need, but it does mean being aware of both my emotional resources and the emotional impacts of those relationships.
6. Presence: Which area of my life do I need to be more fully present in? Oliver Pickle writes that this card wants you to open yourself up to possibility in a spirit of joy. I have a friend who suggested that for months before I allowed circumstances to prove her right.
her back hurts
from lying on the ground
shred of clothing on the breeze
/ / /
21 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
For Bisan
Leave a Commentreporter / rocket / running
/ / /
20 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
even if you squeeze
your eyes shut:
cries from the rubble
/ / /
19 December 2023
Charlottesville VA
in Khan Younis a boy
holds an empty soup pot
no more haiku
/ / /
18 December 2023
Charlottesville VA