Do you ever feel like an extraterrestrial? It’s more than feeling like you don’t fit in. You feel like you are a completely different species than the other creatures around you. You are motivated and captivated by things completely different than anyone else you know.
Sometimes I feel nostalgia for a time I’ve not yet lived in and I feel homesickness for a place that only exists in my imagination. When I am seized by a wave of these uncanny feelings, I can only find comfort in writing poetry and creating surreal art that reflects the mood pressing down on my soul.
Today’s haiku comics all reflect my continuing obsession with the ocean and the cosmos. These are obsessions that have been with me since I was four years old. This year I will turn 45. I assume I am at, or just past, the midpoint of my Earthly sojourn. I hope that my wonder at these two different realms will remain with me as I continue to explore them (at least in my imagination) for the last half of my life.
What obsessions move you to action? Have you tried to subdue them or do you allow them to carry you away into some metaphysical flow state?
What makes you feel alive? For me, creating art makes me feel alive. My weird poems and pictures remind me that I’m here for more than toil and trouble. I am here to create things for other people.
I hope my creations make your day at least 1% better. I would love to hear about your obsessions and what makes you feel alive in the comments, or just reply to this email.
Be the poetry you want to see in the world,
Jason
(Parts of this post are also posted on the Weirdo Poetry blog.)
Links:
Here are a few things I love enough to share with you (unlike Reese’s peanut butter cups which I will never share with anyone, not even my own wife and children because they are that precious to me).
Comic artist Brian Gordon is the creator of these hilarious comics about a duck family. He nails the joys and travails of fatherhood. Read his weekly comic strips and buy his books. They will remind you that life is brutal and funny, at least in retrospect.
You should follow this Instagram account. There is a massive amount of incredible art in the public domain. Public Domain Review curates the best, most interesting, and weirdest parts and shares them with the world. On their website, they have intriguing essays from scholars and writers like Phillip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials trilogy). Their Instagram always has something interesting to see—or if you’re a public domain collage artist like me—something to steal and use later.