I don’t often read poetry, but I have had a distant wisp of a poem stuck in my mind all day, and spent an hour or so leafing through books of poetry and some general literature compendia, seeking out something that may not even exist. I have more poetry on my bookshelves than I would have guessed, and more than I have ever read. Part of the reason that I even have any poetry at all is for moments like tonight, so that on terribly rare occasions I can leisurely look through it, wondering if anyth…

A few things lately have led me back to Pearl Jam. I was, of course, a huge fan back in the day. They were probably my favorite band for a while (especially around my sophomore and junior years of high school, 1992-93ish) and they were a big influence on my musical taste and even, to some extent, my political ideas and attitudes. My fanship has never entirely disappeared, but it’s been in steady decline for the past eight to ten years; basically I felt like they peaked with No Code in 1996 and e…