by Brian Volck | Aug 13, 2024 | Over the Rhine, poetry, words
Jill and I are looking forward to some overdue travel, starting with the Nowhere Else Festival this Labor Day weekend. Thanks to Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine—the husband-and-wife indie-folk duo on whose farm the festival blossoms—the music,...
by Brian Volck | Jul 18, 2024 | words
In unveiling my updated website, I can’t help but notice what’s concealed in attempting to reveal. My new headshots, taken last fall by the amazing Michael Wilson (click his name on my links page to see his website), show me cleanshaven with a full head of dark hair....
by Brian Volck | Jan 7, 2021 | Violence, words
Much has already been written or said about yesterday’s violent assault on the US Capitol building. Some have noted the date, January 6, celebrated by Catholics, Orthodox, and several Protestant traditions as the Feast of the Epiphany. The word, “epiphany,” comes from...
by Brian Volck | Jan 6, 2018 | words
Epiphany, Theophany, Three Kings Day. Gifts, carried by the wise, in oddly-fashioned coffers. After twelve days spent pondering the health of words in a sickened language, we end where we began: marveling at the power and fragility of these vessels of meaning. I hope...
by Brian Volck | Jan 5, 2018 | words
Write and read with your whole heart. Embrace mystery. Shun mystification, which is to mystery what sentimentality is to honest feeling. Treasure words that prove difficult to pin down but impossible to live without. Go out on limbs. Be willing to fall. Get up again....
by Brian Volck | Jan 4, 2018 | words
Abstraction and imprecision are enemies of good writing. Not at all coincidentally, they are among the preferred weapons of politicians, hucksters, and other con artists. The concrete, specific, and particular prove harder to come by, but almost always repay the...
