The Post in Which I Explain Once and For All What Makes American Fractal a Fractal

Yesterday I gave a new (for me) example of what fractals are — objects for which scale is irrelevant, because the same patterns repeat over and over again regardless of scale. Viewed from above, a photograph of a barren desert could be a mile wide or a meter, and there’s no way to tell the …

Fractilic Landscapes

Yesterday afternoon I recorded an interview for KPFK’s Poet’s Cafe with Lois P. Jones, which will air in a couple months (obviously I’ll let you know when it’s scheduled). As I was sitting in the studio, babbling into the big padded mike about fractals for what seems like the hundredth time this month, I had …

Hiking Alone

HIKING ALONE I shimmy out on sandstone and slate rock, past the soft ledges where the last shrubs grow. I’ve got my camera, unshuttered and silent, ready to take back with me whatever I’ve come here for—sore arms and a sunburn, blue sky like something new. At the floor of the canyon far below a …