Alchemists Clubhouse

Join me on Substack

The art of transformation

A free newsletter of poetry and artwork sent every other week. For paid subscribers, tiny transformative assignments sent on opposite weeks and an archive of art journal classes on video, plus a new class offered live every quarter. A private virtual community to keep you going.

I hope you’ll join me at the Alchemists Clubhouse on Substack.

The Alchemists Clubhouse

  • Original poetry & art every other week
  • Tiny assignments on opposite weeks
  • Video archive of art journal classes
  • A new class every quarter

How to Start Over

One. Let go of all the ropes and ribbons and tiny knots of yarn wrapped around your heart. If you look closely, you’ll find a hidden spot where your fist is clutching tight to the ball of frayed ends, sweaty and stained red with dye from the prayer cord you picked up at a tourist shop in Kerala, or in a thrift store in Flagstaff. You can’t remember now, and it doesn’t matter. Unpeel your fingers one by one, and feel the strands begin to slip. It might even hurt a little, your joints tight from gripping, the thread-pressed grooves in your skin like trenches where some tiny battle line was drawn.

Two. Look up. There may be a crow or a seagull there, or a hawk riding the thermals upward.

Three. Exhale and touch the dirt you’re standing on, or as close as you can come through the urban layers of concrete and steel and wood. Lay down on some pine needles if you can get to a forest. Sink your mind deep. Be like stone, impervious to cold and weather and time.

– – –

Intrigued? Read all ten sections on Substack!