Welcome, please, and thank you.

I'm Dan Jewett the caretaker, night-watchman, what have you.

I once read a bit of SEO wisdom that said you shouldn't waste space on your homepage with a "welcome" message because it's not useful to search engines. What nonsense. Welcome!

If you gain something from being here, let me know.
It will fill me with gratitude and glee.

"Every day is a god, each day is a god, and holiness holds forth in time."
~ Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

What's here...

You can see below how I've grouped The categories on the site.
And then here's all of it together →

Poems 

Ventures in verse…

Moon

Last night I stood in my dark kitchen.… the rest

Soap bubbles float in the air in front of some trees. The sun shines through them.

Maker

One morning the God of our universe...… the rest

A black and white photo viewed as one standing between train rails watching them curve away into the distance.

Rivals

Heartbroken and weary from many battles...… the rest

Articles / Essays 

Notes coalesce…

A silhouetted person walking alone down a long, straight highway leading toward Monument Valley's distinctive rock formations at sunset/dusk.

Big D

This time Big D doesn’t stand for Dan, it stands for the other thing.… the rest

Notes 

Some become completed thoughts, others not so much.

Image shows a hand holding a book open in the middle. In the background are mist covered low mountains.

Long reads.

I’ve decided I’m going to take on a series of longer book reads in my routine and use them as a way to work on improving my concentration.… the rest

Album cover of Are You Experience by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. There is a fish-eye style photo of the three band members. The color theme is purple on yellow.

Psychedelic Freak Out

My seven year old self was of course oblivious to what was happening in the rock world’s Summer of Love.… the rest

A screenshot of a small port of the Yate music tag manager interface. It shows a list of music tracks ready for editing.

Appreciating the Utilitarian Aesthetic

I find it interesting that I will get so much satisfaction from executing a task at the command line where I experience only text and a certain amount of invisible magic, and then turn around and be disdainful of a graphical interface that doesn’t appear super-slick or modern.… the rest

A rear view of my Honda CR-V showing the Kansas license plate with the characters BEJOYFL.

BEJOYFL

Since my father has stopped driving (at 92)… the rest

Dastardly

wicked and cruel: pirates and their dastardly deeds… the rest

A crop of the cover of East of Eden. The illustration depicts a man standing below a tree. He appears to be looking at his open palms.

Life and Legacy

As I'm reading the final chapters of East of Eden by John Steinbeck the question of legacy… the rest

A dramatic Baroque painting depicting Daniel in the lions' den. A muscular male figure in minimal white cloth sits praying amid several large lions in a dark cave. The lions, painted in rich golden tones, surround him menacingly, with some showing their teeth. Human bones and skulls lie scattered on the ground. A patch of blue sky is visible through an opening in the cave ceiling.

Daniel

While some conservative scholars hold that Daniel existed and his book was written in the 6th century BCE… the rest

Glee

Great delight: his face lit up with impish glee.… the rest

Books 

Books I'm reading, have completed, or …didn't finish 😬.
First Paragraphs →

Cover of All Systems Red

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries 1

Martha Wells

April 15, 2025

Cover of The Penguin Jazz Guide

The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums

Brian Morton, Richard Cook

In Progress

Cover of The Long Ships

The Long Ships

Frans G. Bengtsson

In Progress

Cover of The Forty Day of Musa Dagh

The Forty Day of Musa Dagh

Franz Werfel

On Deck

Cover of Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller

February 7, 2025

Cover of Man’s Search for Meaning

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

June 19, 2017

Cover of All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy

Cover of All the Names

All the Names

José Saramago

Cover of Changing Planes

Changing Planes

Ursula K. Le Guin

February 13, 2025

Cover of In Ascension

In Ascension

Martin MacInnes

On Deck

Cover of Moby Dick

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

On Deck

Cover of Valis

Valis

Philip K. Dick

On Deck

Cover of The Dispossesd

The Dispossesd

Ursula K. Le Guin

In Progress

Cover of Gravity’s Rainbow

Gravity’s Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon

In Progress

Cover of Letters to a Young Poet

Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

January 19, 2025

Cover of Something in the Woods Loves You

Something in the Woods Loves You

Jarod K. Anderson

In Progress

Cover of Hell Yeah or No

Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing

Derek Sivers

In Progress

Cover of Anything You Want

Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur

Derek Sivers

October 20, 2024

Cover of Git For Humans

Git For Humans

David Demaree

September 23, 2024

Cover of East of Eden

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

In Progress

Cover of Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way

Lao Tzu, Ursula K. Le Guin, trans.

June 13, 2024

Cover of In Pharaoh’s Army

In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War

Tobias Wolff

June 4, 2024

Cover of Empire of Silence

Empire of Silence: The Sun Eater: Book One

Christopher Ruocchio

June 1, 2024

Cover of Essentialism

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Greg McKeown

May 25, 2024

Cover of The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins, Sam V. H. Reese, Ed.

May 3, 2024

Cover of Flowers For Algernon

Flowers For Algernon

Daniel Keyes

May 1, 2024

Cover of Stoner

Stoner

John Williams

April 9, 2024

Cover of Roadside Picnic

Roadside Picnic

Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko

March 9, 2024

Cover of Children of Time

Children of Time

Adrian Tchaikovsky

March 2, 2024

Cover of Frankenstein

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mary Shelley

February 11, 2024

Cover of Solaris

Solaris

Stanislaw Lem

January 25, 2024

Cover of Shadow & Claw

Shadow & Claw: The Book of the New Sun 1-2

Gene Wolfe

January 18, 2024

Cover of Red Rising

Red Rising

Pierce Brown

January 6, 2024

Cover of Hyperion

Hyperion

Dan Simmons

November 25, 2023

Cover of We Who Are About To…

We Who Are About To…

Joanna Russ

October 29, 2023

Cover of Camera Man

Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century

Dana Stevens

February 28, 2022

Cover of Bear

Bear

Staffan Gnosspelius

February 28, 2022

Cover of Blue Horses

Blue Horses: Poems

Mary Oliver

September 25, 2021

Cover of Rowing Faster

Rowing Faster: Serious Training for Serious Rowers

Volker Nolte

September 20, 2021

Cover of Evidence

Evidence: Poems

Mary Oliver

September 20, 2021

Cover of The Metaphysical Club

The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America

Louis Menand

August 26, 2021

Cover of Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

James Clear

July 6, 2021

Cover of Harrow the Ninth

Harrow the Ninth: Locked Tomb 2

Tamsyn Muir

June 18, 2021

Cover of Postcolonial Love Poem

Postcolonial Love Poem

Natalie Diaz

June 17, 2021

Cover of Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth: Locked Tomb 1

Tamsyn Muir

June 5, 2021

Cover of How to Take Smart Notes

How to Take Smart Notes

Sönke Ahrens

May 20, 2021

Cover of Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro

May 19, 2021

Cover of The Overstory

The Overstory

Richard Powers

April 25, 2021

Cover of Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ray Bradbury

April 8, 2021

Cover of Dancing at the Rascal Fair

Dancing at the Rascal Fair

Ivan Doig

April 7, 2021

Cover of The Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things

Wendell Berry

April 4, 2021

Cover of The Cosmic Purr

The Cosmic Purr: Poems

Aaron Poochigian

April 3, 2021

Cover of Gasoline

Gasoline

Gregory Corso

April 3, 2021

Cover of Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose

Wallace Stegner

March 31, 2021

Cover of Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Joan Didion

March 19, 2021

Cover of The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth

Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer, illus.

March 16, 2021

Cover of The Best of Saki

The Best of Saki: Selected wtih an Introduction by Graham Greene

Saki

March 16, 2021

Cover of A Coney Island of the Mind

A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

March 15, 2021

Cover of House Made of Dawn

House Made of Dawn

N. Scott Momaday

March 15, 2021

Cover of On Writing

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King

January 15, 2021

Cover of The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind

Czeslaw Milosz

January 12, 2021

Cover of Farewell, My Lovely

Farewell, My Lovely

Raymond Chandler

November 10, 2020

Cover of The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

November 1, 2020

Cover of A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow

Amor Towles

August 12, 2020