Poeticartifacts

Just a wandering mass of carbon-based energy. looking for some elements to bond with. Check out my blog for a few minutes and you will realize the things that inspire me most: Women, Cigarettes, Tattoos, spiritual development, and an unabashed cynicism towards hypocrisy. Enjoy. Oh, I'm a member of the Intangible Collective. The illest people, let alone poets you ever heard. I'll be your guide through this portion of the strange and twisting maze that is the interwebs.

[poeticartifacts]

Introduction to the LAB

[nevver]

Soul stealing, Antoine Geiger

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19 years ago today I learned more lessons than anyone should have to in a single day. Grief, loss, guilt, fear, anger..... I never really felt those before that day. At least, I sure as hell don’t remember.

My friend wrote his suicide notes, in my room, right next to me, with my pen and pad. He hung himself across the street from my house. 19 years I have carried his weight with me.

I can look back now, and be amazed about how far I have gone, what I have done.... made art, made love, learned, taught, struggled, broke, built, and kept my head up. This is the first time I realize that how far I have come doesn’t matter right now. It’s inspiring, and I am grateful for all of it.... but what is important is how far I need to go. To make sure I take those lessons I learned way back then, and carry them still every day. I am here. I want to always be here. If any of you ever need me, I am working everyday to be my best here. You know how to find me, and I will be here for you.

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Selfishness and trust

Selfishness is rarely a conscious decision. Real selfishness. The kind that leaves you separated from the people who need you in a moment because you forget to look outside of yourself, and take a good breath.

The fallout from that selfishness (especially if it happens more than once) can shatter trust. Once you do that…..  you can’t just ‘earn’ it back. You don’t save up ‘I did good’ chips in a pile, and just use them to cash in on a mistake as a way of keeping trust. That’s not how it works. Trust is a gift someone can give you. It’s a delicate and vulnerable gift, it breaks easy. If you never have a moment of selfishness again in your entire existence, they still may not think of you as trustworthy. They don’t have to.

All you can do, is hope they allow you time to show that you are working, and trying your damn hardest to be grateful and present in each moment…. and succeeding.

I won’t stop working. I hope you allow me time to show it.

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My new book!!!!!

The Ghost at the Wheel is a series of poems and stories focused on the people, events, and moments that have had a long lasting impact on T.J.'s life. How these moments are interpreted and remembered shape the course that led to this moment here. Many times, one can find that the worst situations, the hardest struggles can afterward give a source of beauty to honor in the present. We are all haunted by our past. But each of us is able to decide which of these specters is allowed to drive our daily actions.

Buy it on my website only $10!!!!......... tjnatole.com

[jasmined]

Everyone lies about writing. They lie about how easy it is or how hard it was. They perpetuate a romantic idea that writing is some beautiful experience that takes place in an architectural room filled with leather novels and chai tea. They talk about their ‘morning ritual’ and how they ‘dress for writing’ and the cabin in Big Sur where they go to ‘be alone’ - blah blah blah. No one tells the truth about writing a book. Authors pretend their stories were always shiny and perfect and just waiting to be written. The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not. Even I have lied about writing. I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver.

Amy Poehler , Yes, Please (via jasmined)

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She can keep me on track without walking the track with me. That is a pretty amazing feat.

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Agreements

Tindal Muzic featuring TJ Natole

This was a fun song to work on, check it out!

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YUP.

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It frustrates and fascinates me that we'll never know for sure, that despite the best efforts of historians and scientists and poets, there are some things we'll just never know. What the first song sounded like. How it felt to see the first photograph. Who kissed the first kiss, and if it was any good."

Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

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Whiskey, Whims, and Gratefulness

Sometimes late at night after a few whiskeys, I find myself spending too long scrolling through photos of the women I’ve been fortunate enough to love. Of those I’ve been lucky enough to have love me, even if only for a brief period of time.

These are usually my loneliest moments. The times i need to remind myself that not only is there real beauty in the world, but that I have had more contact with it than i should ever deserve.

To these women, thank you. 

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You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you — no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.

Rainer Maria Rilke- Letters to a young poet

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Just bought the dopest shirt!

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Thoughts on Love

Don’t love anyone you can’t break. Treat relationships like a captain would his ship Navigate rocky reefs Risk running aground Exhilarated, but aware Of how delicate Each moment is

Don’t love anyone that can’t break you Your love is an antique vase In a rambunctious house Flowers and growth filling you Or a baseball With their name Written along its seams

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBfp4Z8sLM)

Performing one of my favorite pieces at Infuse.

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I’ve got a new poem up on Button Poetry! You can also preorder my new chapbook that includes this poem on their website: www.buttonpoetry.com

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Sierra doing the damn thing. I’m still awestruck at what my dear friend has become............... 

Take a few minutes to listen. Trust me. Then go buy her new book!

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To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

Oscar Wilde, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'