The Room Where Keats Is Dying

The Room Where Keats Is Dying

by | Jul 4, 2026 | Journal

Rome, February 3, 1821He arrived last September from England already pale, already carrying the news of himself in the color of his face. The rooms on the Spanish Steps are small. The English physician Joseph Severn has been with him through the worst of it. I am not...
What the Grief Actually Is

What the Grief Actually Is

by | Jun 23, 2026 | Journal

Present Day, June 23, 2026I Am Crying requires some explanation because grief is a word that gets used loosely and what I mean by it is specific.Ordinary grief has a trajectory. It is sharpest at the moment of loss and then, for most people, it softens over time into...
Two Songs, One Day: July 1

Two Songs, One Day: July 1

by | Jun 20, 2026 | Journal

Present Day, June 20, 2026I Am Crying and Holy War arrive together on July 1. I want to explain why these two, and why together.They are the two poles of what witness costs. Holy War is the external: what I have watched across five centuries of religiously sanctioned...
The City Mourned an Artist

The City Mourned an Artist

by | Jun 13, 2026 | Journal

Rome, April 7, 1520Raphael Sanzio died yesterday. Thirty-seven years old, on his birthday, of a fever. Rome has gone into a mourning I have not seen extended to an artist before and do not expect to see again in my lifetime, which is a more complicated statement than...
Ashes of Tomorrow: The Reckoning

Ashes of Tomorrow: The Reckoning

by | May 25, 2026 | Journal

Present Day, May 2026Ashes of Tomorrow is the penultimate movement in the arc, and it is the one that allowed me to do something that the rest of the album does not allow: grieve.The other tracks are built from restraint. The architecture of the album requires the...