Michael Valliant
@mvalliant306.bsky.social
Writer; father; Episcopal Priest; soul adventurer; creative nonfiction; storytelling; mysticism; comics; poetry; skateboarding; trail running; fountain pens, notebooks, life
Scenes from a snowy afternoon bring to mind a favorite Jim Harrison quote:
“I'm hoping to be astonished tomorrow
by I don’t know what.”
“I'm hoping to be astonished tomorrow
by I don’t know what.”
December 15, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Scenes from a snowy afternoon bring to mind a favorite Jim Harrison quote:
“I'm hoping to be astonished tomorrow
by I don’t know what.”
“I'm hoping to be astonished tomorrow
by I don’t know what.”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
"Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
November 15, 2025 at 3:31 AM
"Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Reposted by Michael Valliant
So much of rewriting is waking up your verbs, my God.
December 13, 2025 at 11:46 AM
So much of rewriting is waking up your verbs, my God.
Reposted by Michael Valliant
My December #CraftArticle is all about reflections, looking back at the end of a year or at the end of a long project and contemplating the achievement in that. What did we write? What did we learn? What did we gain? What did we overcome?
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/turning-ar...
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/turning-ar...
Turning Around to Admire the View
Sitting down to write this article, I find myself not only at the end of a year but also at the end of a long project (or at least, at the end of a first draft).
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:20 AM
My December #CraftArticle is all about reflections, looking back at the end of a year or at the end of a long project and contemplating the achievement in that. What did we write? What did we learn? What did we gain? What did we overcome?
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/turning-ar...
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/turning-ar...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Liminality
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.
William Blake
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.
William Blake
December 15, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Liminality
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.
William Blake
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.
William Blake
“It is not our job to remain whole.
We came to lose our leaves
Like the trees, and be born again,
Drawing up from the great roots.”
—Robert Bly
We came to lose our leaves
Like the trees, and be born again,
Drawing up from the great roots.”
—Robert Bly
November 25, 2025 at 11:35 AM
“It is not our job to remain whole.
We came to lose our leaves
Like the trees, and be born again,
Drawing up from the great roots.”
—Robert Bly
We came to lose our leaves
Like the trees, and be born again,
Drawing up from the great roots.”
—Robert Bly
Reposted by Michael Valliant
today is my birthday, and I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate than having a new poem out in Burial Magazine! infinite gratitude to Z. H. Gill for giving this one a beautiful home :) 🙏
November 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
today is my birthday, and I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate than having a new poem out in Burial Magazine! infinite gratitude to Z. H. Gill for giving this one a beautiful home :) 🙏
Reposted by Michael Valliant
one hand opens in grief
the other in gratitude
pressing them together to pray
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “One on Thanksgiving”
the other in gratitude
pressing them together to pray
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “One on Thanksgiving”
November 25, 2025 at 1:23 AM
one hand opens in grief
the other in gratitude
pressing them together to pray
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “One on Thanksgiving”
the other in gratitude
pressing them together to pray
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “One on Thanksgiving”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
egret extravaganza
November 15, 2025 at 1:59 PM
egret extravaganza
“Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity?”
“I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.”
“I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.”
November 24, 2025 at 11:03 AM
“Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity?”
“I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.”
“I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is a perfect novella biblioklept.org/2025/11/23/d...
Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams is a perfect novella
With blunt grace, Denis Johnson navigates the line between realism and the American frontier myth in his perfect novella Train Dreams. In a slim 116 pages, Johnson communicates one man’s life…
biblioklept.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is a perfect novella biblioklept.org/2025/11/23/d...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
At the link, this week's oasis of small sanities in one place – how to love the world more, what it's like to meet an orca, how not to be a victim of success: mailchi.mp/themarginali...
November 23, 2025 at 10:16 PM
At the link, this week's oasis of small sanities in one place – how to love the world more, what it's like to meet an orca, how not to be a victim of success: mailchi.mp/themarginali...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
the measurable distance
between poems
one maple leaf falls
then another
one Canada goose calls
then another
one snowflake drifts
then another
one memory arrives
then another
one lifetime
then another
and another
#vss365 #measurable
between poems
one maple leaf falls
then another
one Canada goose calls
then another
one snowflake drifts
then another
one memory arrives
then another
one lifetime
then another
and another
#vss365 #measurable
November 22, 2025 at 11:12 AM
the measurable distance
between poems
one maple leaf falls
then another
one Canada goose calls
then another
one snowflake drifts
then another
one memory arrives
then another
one lifetime
then another
and another
#vss365 #measurable
between poems
one maple leaf falls
then another
one Canada goose calls
then another
one snowflake drifts
then another
one memory arrives
then another
one lifetime
then another
and another
#vss365 #measurable
Reposted by Michael Valliant
“Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of the soul’s passage through the valley of this life, its adventure in time, in history.”
—Stanley Kunitz in conversation with Bill Moyers
—Stanley Kunitz in conversation with Bill Moyers
November 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
“Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of the soul’s passage through the valley of this life, its adventure in time, in history.”
—Stanley Kunitz in conversation with Bill Moyers
—Stanley Kunitz in conversation with Bill Moyers
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Excited to have a flash in the beautiful latest issue of The Maine Review.♥️
www.mainereview.com/the-wing/
www.mainereview.com/the-wing/
The Wing - The Maine Review
The morning Nadine’s feathers sprouted, a light snow fell. She was standing outside, watching Meg board the school bus, noticing how the little girl’s hair, frizzy like her own, glistened with snow, m...
www.mainereview.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Excited to have a flash in the beautiful latest issue of The Maine Review.♥️
www.mainereview.com/the-wing/
www.mainereview.com/the-wing/
Reposted by Michael Valliant
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
November 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Keats, born 230 years ago today, on the measure of compassion www.themarginalian.org/2019/07/02/k...
Keats on the Measure of Compassion
“The best of Men have… a kind of spiritual yeast in their frames which creates the ferment of existence — by which a Man is propell’d to act and strive and buffet with Circumstance.R…
www.themarginalian.org
November 1, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Keats, born 230 years ago today, on the measure of compassion www.themarginalian.org/2019/07/02/k...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
the hallowed seam
October 31, 2025 at 11:49 AM
the hallowed seam