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John Paul Davis

@johnpauldavis.org

290 followers 280 following 870 posts

Poet, musician, web developer. Author of Climbing A Burning Rope, Pitt Poetry, 2024 & Crown Prince Of Rabbits, Great Weather for Media, 2017 | husband of @mahirakakkar.bsky.social http://www.johnpauldavis.org/links

www.johnpauldavis.org

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John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 20h

Up To Their Usual Tricks https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/up-to-their-usual-tricks/# photography

Sunrise behind the treeline & cirrocumulus clouds in the sky on the Cross Country trail in Van Cortlandt Park

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 20h

... and Bruce Springsteen, Kendrick Lamar, Kerry Livgren, Solange Knowles, Isaac Brock, Anna Tivel, St. Vincent, Peter Mulvey, Ani Difranco, Mistki, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Tracy Chapman, Common, Anais Mitchell, Thom Yorke, Roland Orzabal, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle...

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 20h

I guess that person does not know she is alive at the same time as Bob Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, Sting, Bono, Joni Mitchell, Amy Ray, Emily Sailers, Jay-Z, Guy Garvey, Vance Gilbert, Nick Cave, Earl Sweatshirt, PJ Harvey, Sam Phillips, Daavid Byrne, Tom Waits, & this list is just off the top of my head

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 1d

#morningcoffeelisten Vince Staples's 2017 album Big Fish Theory. Set against a shifting sonic landscape of stuttering beats, spiky bass & pulsing snyths, Staples examines the contradictions of rapid fame & the cost of transcending one's origins. Listen: johnpauldavis.org/url/listen115 #nowplaying

Album cover art for Vince Staples's Big Fish Theory

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 1d

It Was A Stubbornness https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/it-was-a-stubbornness/# photography

A small plant gorwing the space left by a missing stone in a wall in Fort Tryon Park

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 1d

New episode of my podcast# theuncomputable : Toasts To David Byrne https://johnpauldavis.org/podcast/toasts-to-david-byrne/# podcast# poetry

The Uncomputable: Poems by John Paul Davis

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 2d

#morningcoffeelisten Christopher Tignor’s 2016 album Along A Vanishing Plane. Recorded alone live with no overdubs, the meditative songs combine Tignor's intimate, haunting violin with percussion & electronics in a cinematic whole. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen114# nowplaying

Album cover art for Christopher Tignor's Along A Vanishing Plane

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 2d

A Trail To Lead You Home https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/a-trail-to-lead-you-home/# photography

Red fallen beech leaves in a rain puddle on the Pelham Greenway in Van Cortlandt Park

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 3d

#morningcoffeelisten Snarky Puppy’s 2022 album Empire Central. The 20-piece band captures a live set of new material that highlights their groove-based, funky & explortatory improvisations, delightful interplay & top-notch musicianship. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen113# nowplaying

Album cover art for Snarky Puppy's Empire Central

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 3d

The Collapsing Empire https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/the-collapsing-empire/# photography

A decaying iron bar on the pier by Tubby Hook in Inwood, New York

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

Or: like how I know may way around my own home in the dark. There is real knowledge there, but I'm just walking, I'm not thinking "the light switch is ten paces from the desk, about the same height from the floor as my bicep" - I just... feel I'm in the right place.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

I use "feel" in the sense a musician might? I expect it's layered decades of experience. Like how a guitar player just knows where to put her fingers next. But I experience it as an instinct. Like how I just know that the coffee is about to percolate, or its time to pull the biscuits from the oven.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

I can often make a choice in writing that's, at the time, just feel, and then later, I can articulate a theory about why I made the choice that makes sense, but the theory *always* comes after the fact. Which might be true of all theory.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

Line breaks are all about *feel* for me. Actually, 99% of my poetry writing practice is about feel, now that I think about it.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

So Sauron/The Ring thinks it's found the perfect disposable ring-bearer in Gollum, and for *centuries* it seems that's the case, but it's all the qualities that make Gollum useful to Sauron that *also* make Gollum Sauron's undoing. This is interesting to me b/c it seems to be a kind of theodicy.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

Also, now I'm thinking more about strategy (Tolkein was ALL about strategy -so much of the LOTR is about how Gandalf & co. out-strategize the enemy) I'm thinking about how Eru's strategy for defeating Sauron uses Sauron's own strategies against him (Gandalf does this with the Palantir, for instance)

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

This is how I always understood it, and also, the Ring's coming to Gollum as *strategic* - it needed somewhere out of the way & reliably protected to spend the centuries while Sauron regained his power. Sort of like investing in IBM or Coke - a low-risk, highly-predictable venture.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 4d

#morningcoffeelisten Talk Talk’s 1988 album, Spirit of Eden. Six lush, loose, bluesy pastoral atmospheric songs born of improvisation exploring spirituality & humanism, dynamically moving between tranquility & intensity, the ebb & flow of passion. Listen: johnpauldavis.org/url/listen112 #nowplaying

Album cover art for Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 6d

Such a great show and I wish it had gotten more seasons.

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 6d

The Weight Of Morning Light https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/the-weight-of-morning-light/# photography

Pruple and pink clouds & sky at sunrise, with the sillhouette of a tree in the foreground

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 7d

#morningcoffeelisten Kelly Moran’s 2025 album Don’t Trust Mirrors. Layers of synthesizer & prepared piano merge, collide & reflect each other opening doorways into exuberance or peacefulness or, often, both simultaneously. Listen: johnpauldavis.org/url/listen111 #nowplaying

Album cover art for Kelly Moran's Don't Trust Mirrors

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 7d

A Preview https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/a-preview/# photography

Felln leaves scattered on the wet asphalt of the Pelham Greenway in Van Cortlandt Park

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 8d

#morningcoffeelisten The Police’s 1981 album Ghost In The Machine. The trio expand their sound to include synthesizers & saxophone, more dynamic rhythms & more probing lyrics that capture the frustration of love & life in the modern era. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen110# nowplaying

Album cover art for The Police's Ghost In The Machine

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 8d

History Lesson https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/history-lesson-2/# photography

Side view of the trunk of a fallen tree along the Pelham Greenway in Van Cortlandt Park

John Paul Davis @johnpauldavis.org · 8d

New episode of my podcast# theuncomputable : The Machinery https://johnpauldavis.org/podcast/the-machinery/# podcast# poetry

The Uncomputable: Poems by John Paul Davis