The Suburban Abyss

17/01/2025

A big-hearted thanks to everyone who has read, shared and commented on poem 002. The act of writing often occurs in a void, figuratively and literally, and the same often goes for sharing it. Nothing is written with a pat on the back in mind — it’s written because I’m here living a life, wondering how and why I got here and what to make of it, and writing is a release valve from it all. I’m not certain of much, but I’m certain I’ll write until I’m dead.

I’m publishing these poems without contextual intros, because I want them to be experienced free of any bias I might place on them by explaining them first. You can find some of that here should you choose to seek it out. And I always enjoy discussing writing, mine or others, so reach out should the fancy ever strike.

That said, as a footnote on poem 002, listen to the Father John Misty song “Bored in the USA” linked below. Late in the song, he delivers a series of lines followed by samples of the classic TV sitcom laugh track familiar to anyone who has watched television since the 1970s. I could go off on the singular genius of the whole Father John Misty thing but I’d just be repeating what so many others have written and said, and the point here is, as far as songwriting goes, on the good-great-godhead spectrum, the use of the laugh track launches the song into godhead territory.

All of which is to say, when you get to the parenthetical lols in poem 002, as you read each of them in your head, hit the button for the laugh track. And then when you’re done, maybe hit it one more time for yourself.

Save us White Jesus.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JODshFyKHuA

Also here’s the direct link to poem 002 if you missed it:

https://open.substack.com/pub/thevelveteenraccoon/p/poem-002

i am a fraud a sycophant a lovesick thirsty elephant a discount wannabe L.

16/01/2025

poem 002 is up on The Velveteen Raccoon Substack. Direct link below. If you haven’t yet, and you’re so inclined, you can subscribe there as well.

This one started in a note something like two or three phones ago. I fussed about for the past few weeks with word choices, ditched three stubborn verses and here we are. More self-flagellation, and the unworthy feeling of having the love of someone whose soul shines much brighter than yours.

https://thevelveteenraccoon.substack.com/p/poem-002

09/01/2025

The Velveteen Raccoon poem 001 is now available on my Substack.

Sort of an intro/opener to the project, a taut three lines about death and rebirth with a fragment borrowed from "Sisters of Mercy," perhaps my favorite Leonard Cohen song.

Read and subscribe for free (or otherwise) here:

https://thevelveteenraccoon.substack.com/p/poem-001-leonard-cohen-afterworld

08/01/2025

Thanks to everyone for supporting The Velveteen Raccoon as I roll this out here at the dawn of the new year.

Today, for my inaugural post, I share something like a manifesto for the Substack. On Thursday, I'll share poem 001.

Read and subscribe for free (or otherwise):

https://thevelveteenraccoon.substack.com/p/something-like-another-manifesto

02/01/2025

New year, new writing project: I started a Substack, and it’s called The Velveteen Raccoon. Link to it and subscribe here: https://thevelveteenraccoon.substack.com/about.

Initially, my focus is poetry, an old nemesis that is easily the most challenging literary form for me as a writer, which may or may not be part of the attraction. In any case, I have all kinds of scraps of it – fragments, finished poems and abandoned efforts alike – most of which I jotted down over the past few years, though some of what I’m revisiting and refreshing is decades old. My aim in 2025 is to post a finished poem once a week, and maybe some other nonfiction as well.

I’m brand new to the platform and was inspired by my good friend Erin Ryan – hands down the best writer I know personally – to start a Substack after she had shared links to pieces from several writers she follows. I then engaged my resident graphic artist Erica Sparlin Dryden, who is having a renaissance at the moment with her painting and experiments with AI-assisted art. The graphics for The Velveteen Raccoon were created by Erica through the latter, and were inspired by the original William Nicholson “Velveteen Rabbit” illustrations.

The Velveteen Raccoon runs parallel to The Suburban Abyss, the on-hiatus blog and podcast I started in 2021 that I may or may not dust off in the future, but I think I’m done podcasting because, well, I kind of hate it. But I love writing, and The Velveteen Raccoon will be my primary vehicle for sharing it with the world at large in 2025.

It’s free to subscribe, and you can have content delivered straight to your inbox should you crave that level of intimacy. Look for my intro post and first poem next week, and if you’re on Substack, too, hit me up and I’ll subscribe to you. 🦝

26/06/2024

Episode 40 of The Suburban Abyss is live!

This marks the last episode (at least for a while), as I’m taking an extended break – not from writing but at least from podcasting. It’s been more than six months since I published Episode 39, which speaks to my bandwidth of late, and the time felt right. Also, with the past few episodes, I felt like I was writing toward some sort of conclusion, or at least the closing of a chapter, so here we are.

Huge thank you to my supporters — financial, cosmic and otherwise — for your kudos and encouragement over the past few years, especially to my vocal talent/proofreaders Erica and Magnolia. I love you both so much. It’s still weird we’re here.

If this is your first time entering The Suburban Abyss, welcome to the end! The water is fine, and the sewer down the street sometimes smells funny.

Read/listen at thesuburbanabyss.com (direct link below), or find the podcast on your platform of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean, etc).

Synopsis:

We've come to the final(?) episode of The Suburban Abyss, a tying up of loose ends of sorts, featuring a long walk through the Streetsboro Flea Market, a short walk through our neighborhood in the leafy green nowhere and one big question I had not considered since moving back to Ohio nearly four years ago.

https://thesuburbanabyss.com/2024/06/episode-40-epilogue-goodbye-dirt-mall/

Tip jar:

https://thesuburbanabyss.com/tipjar/

Editor’s note: The accompanying photo is social commentary, provided for context and dark humor, and should not be misinterpreted as a political endorsement.

14/12/2023

Episode 39 of The Suburban Abyss is live!

It truly has felt like an abyss this year – at least in the writing sense – as this is the first new episode in seven months and only the third of 2023. It’s also the second to last episode of The Suburban Abyss – at least in this iteration – and it features a lengthy piece of writing I’ve been nibbling at since the spring, covering middle age, mortality, self-identity and the Cuyahoga Falls High School Class of ’96 micro-reunion that spurred it all. Cue “Glory Days” and pull up a barstool.

Read/listen at thesuburbanabyss.com (direct link below), or find the podcast on your platform of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Podbean, etc).

Synopsis:

Are you the same person you used to be?

The question was posed in the October 2022 New Yorker article “Becoming You,” and it’s an easy one, perhaps an inevitable one, for a middle-aged person to ask while staring into the real or proverbial mirror. Especially after moving back to your place of birth after two decades away.

https://thesuburbanabyss.com/2023/12/episode-39-across-the-great-divides-b-w-glory-days/

Tip jar:

https://thesuburbanabyss.com/tipjar/