Posts From Old Journals

  • August 23, 2021 – Meditations on the Buck that Visited Us Each Night

    Written as a part of an email home while working on a tugboat in the Arctic Circle of Northern Alaska. We had an adolescent buck that would visit our backyard each night, and we’d taken… Read more

  • Flash: Tattoo For Conrad

    “Flash: Tattoo For Conrad” is a single block printed on navigational training charts. The image is a variation on a design I’ve drawn and toyed with over the years. Here it’s conceived as a piece… Read more

  • Homage

    “Homage” is made with two blocks on Cosmos Blotting Paper. I used blotting paper because I was still hand printing, and needed an absorbent and untextured paper to account for the pressure I could generate… Read more

  • As Witnessed, Broad Off The Starboard Beam

    “As Witnessed, Broad Off The Starboard Beam” is five blocks printed on Blick Printmaster Paper. They’re printed by hand, and without use of a mechanical press. If interested, contact me via instagram DM @joshbarlas or… Read more

  • The Gifts I Received

    By Ben Leib I was surrounded by relatives. There were seven of us staying in my folks’ place alone, not including Dad and Janice. Thanksgiving wasn’t for another several days, but people had started rolling… Read more

  • My Portrait In The Memorial

    By Ben Leib P—- was taken from her mother’s home one evening. It was the last time that she would ever see her home, the last time she’d feel the textures of the carpeting on… Read more

  • The Writing Group

    By Ben Leib John approached me at the Oscar party, an event held for friends and employees of the local indie movie theater.  The fact that I was still attending these parties more than seven… Read more

  • The Last Dignified Transaction

    By Ben Leib When I approached the table of young people, I didn’t recognize any of them.  “Hey guys,” I said, “how are you doing this morning?” “Good,” they all answered. “Hung over,” one of… Read more

  • The Drive Home

    By Ben Leib I believed in God, so it was in earnest when I prayed for my life to end.  I knelt at the foot of my bed and went through my nightly routine.  I… Read more

  • Vengeance is a Speechless Clown

    By Ben Leib Soso the Clown was born Soren Sodegren, and his rise to clownsmanship was one fraught with complex and troubling emotions having nothing at all to do with laughter.  Motivated by disdain, by… Read more

  • My Legacy as Written in the Lives of Kin

    By Ben Leib Because I liked to drink, because I, in fact, drank to unhealthy excess, various folks, family members in particular, enjoyed disclosing their own experiences with the bottle.  Sometimes these narratives took the… Read more