[Conversation Regarding Nature Vignettes]

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These two are two vignettes that are, in form and content, a fair representation of what I write daily, or, to use a cliché, these are my bread and butter. They seem like they could be prose poems, or poetic prose, creative non-fiction flash, hybrid, or other things, but don’t really fit into any category in my mind. They are more just like, - Be how you wanna be, meaning as time goes on a bit, instead of following a proper writing route that some people naturally progress along, whatever that entails,- I just do what I want and if someone resonates, that is great, but if not,- I just do it for myself. They are 99 to 99.5 % based on actual observations I have while trail exploring, forest hiking, dog walking, going around in nature generally. There is a great freedom in walking alone in the forest, and afterwards, be it that day or a few days later, a similar freedom in simply writing these pieces. The first freedom is obvious and the second freedom happens because I have total faith in the process and content. I know what I saw, and for me anyhow, I know what I like to do and what makes sense to me. So, there is not the moment or moments I suppose other people have to spend worrying or at least considering if something in their content is plausible. I don’t have that. I say what happened and what I thought and felt about such. Having created a few thousand of these, I feel at home in them and pursuing them.

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During the past five years in particular, photography has played a large role in this kind of work. On the average day I walk through a privately owned forest that I have permission to be on, and take several pictures. The pictures are of insects and bugs, trees and clouds and the sky, berries, dragonflies, birds, rocks, stumps, little creeks, and this kind of thing. Sometime later, between the memory in my mind and the pictures, the words and sentences come out as if from my fingertips, as if they were living in the fingertips as strange as that may sound. So, though a different process specifically from the creation of Jacob Abraham, there is a commonality in the larger process. It is that much happens before, and then the actual process of writing happens quite quickly. Revisions include nothing that big structurally or so on, but are more so just the correction of typos or little grammatical bits.

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Providence of Flora is mainly the celebration of the idea of finding that one pristine flower growing in the muck or near dark, but also has many thoughts going all around the piece. Sun Fox World describes the forest and also thoughts about what else might be there. If you look, both are about the forest and flowers and trees and animals, yes. But both also consider all kinds of things such as possible spirits living in the trees, the idea of dead relatives, of documentaries about writers, storms, old tractors, and how big the world is inside and especially outside of the forest. Though these are short writings, they at least touch on a wide range of topics.