Airplane Mode
A Poem of Mindfulness and Meditation
Shutting Out the Outside
Much can be said for breaking away from the emails, notifications and other distractions constantly trying to grab our attention. I was in an airport last year and I wondered what it would be like to just hit “Airplane Mode” to cut down the noise in my life. And thus was born my small poem, Airplane Mode, just published in the Slippery Elm Journal.
Meditation may be one of the best acts of positive self-love. I try each day to spend some quality time with myself alone. Thoughts come and go. Breathing in and breathing out. A wordless world I’ve tried to give some words to.
Next Monday, November 4 - Café Muse at the Writer’s Center and Zoom
It will be the night before the most important election in our lifetime, maybe for the republic itself. As I said in my preview of the event, it is nothing short of an honor to read with the incomparable Ethelbert Miller. Click the graphic to register for the event on the Cafe Muse website.
I’ll be reading primarily from my collection Binary Planet. I’ve come to see this collection as the middle work of a trilogy of works exploring the impact of technology on language and culture in the early 21st Century. I’ll have copies of my first collection, American Software which I will give to anyone buying a copy of Binary Planet. The third and final work on the series, Screens, has been selected by Broadstone Books for publication next summer. The poems in these books span a 15 year period during which computer technology ran a course from entrepreneurial optimism to big tech disillusionment.
I hope to see you all Monday. But in any event, make sure to vote your heart out on Tuesday. A win by the forces of darkness would be a disaster for the country and the arts, specifically.
Hiram Larew on British Radio
Last week got a note from Everyday Poet subscriber, Hiram Larew that he had the opportunity to read his poems on the British radio program The Poetry Place. Check out the reading here. It will put a transatlantic smile on your face.
Coming Up:
ELECTION DAY - NOVEMBER 5, 2024
Here’s a thought to take into the voting booth. It’s from founding father Alexander Hamilton writing in Federalist Papers: #1:
…it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of [people] are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.
As always, feel free to email me with questions or comments at henrycrawfordpoetry@gmail.com. Stay creative!
If you’d like me to list an upcoming poetry event in Everyday Poet, please let me know by emailing me at henrycrawfordpoetry@gmail.com. Use the subject: “Coming Up”.