SITREP: Sickness to Clear the Mind

Silver Door fine tuning, Magazine project, Approaching The Cup

It’s today

A good sickness really can clear the mind.

I’d been sick for the better part of last week and this past week: nothing crazy just achy, exhausted, snotty, sore-throated, two hour naps in the afternoon for days kind of sick. Until this past Thursday I barely thought about this publication, poetry, theology, technology, or anything really. It was great. A forced return to the body and the simple prayer “Lord help me” on my lips. Also, my wife and I watched a lot of light British murder mystery shows too, which helped.

Anway, in the past few days I’ve had time to reflect on Silver Door which is creeping up on six months of bi-weekly posts as well as 100 subscribers. Overall I’m delighted with how the publication has played out so far and have come in contact with some great readers and writers.

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Moving Forward: short and longterm/form/haul

Leaving aside my own poems, I most enjoy writing the long-form essays. But having a day job and a 1-year-old makes writing more than one quality long-form essay a month difficult. I mean, I can do it but it’s not sustainable and I’m in this for the long haul. You don’t know until you try I suppose.

So, moving forward in the short-term I’m going to publish one long-form essay at the end of every month starting in August.

I’ll still publish bi-weekly. For now that will simply mean shorter posts. I’m slowly putting processes in place that will make Silver Door more dynamic. For instance I’m still determined to make regular interviews and book reviews a part of this publication. For now I’ll just say I’ve recently been in touch with a number of talented, cool people and I’m excited about the future.

If you can forgive yet another long, in the longterm I do plan on eventually offering a paid option for Silver Door. When that happens, the majority of posts will still be available for free, including the monthly long form essay and any and all poetry. I plan on publishing two poems per month from other poets and I will start by paying them $25 per poem.

The money from subscribers will go towards paying the poets so you’d be contributing not only to Silver Door but to first-rate poets. God willing, I’d eventually like to be able to pay poets $100 per poem. It’s very doable and why that’s important I’ll go into another time.

These are just a few broad strokes. Leave a comment if you have any suggestions for artists, poets, thinkers to interview or anything you’d like to see at Silver Door.

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The Symbolic World Magazine is Happening

About a year ago a small team on a secret little Discord server started working on a magazine and just recently we got word from on high that it will in fact be going to print, likely around Christmas.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Jonathan Pageau and The Symbolic World I encourage you to give yourself half an hour and take a peek.

This is just a teaser but at the moment the plan is for a yearly magazine, although there is chatter about bi-annually. I am, inexplicably, the poetry editor.

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Approaching The Cup in your hands?

Approaching The Cup, my first collection of poetry, will be made into a book at some time.

If you’ve been with Silver Door for a while you’ll have noticed that the last few poems released under Approaching The Cup have had audio recordings of the poem read by me but without the guitar backing. That’s because it was only recently I decided to expand ATC and my dear friend Lance Leeson has agreed to work on the incoming poems.

Once all the poems are published on Silver Door, approximately 50, and the recordings are finished I’ll begin the process of making the full audio version of ATC and a physical copy available. We are talking quality over quantity, possibly handmade books depending on the amount of interest.

Thank you.