Keith Martin-Smith Blog

Zen and the 4th of July

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:00:00 +0100

This is an excerpt from the still-being-edited biography of Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi.

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Japanese monasteries are, as mentioned, benign dictatorships, with a rigid hierarchy in place. It had worked this way, and worked well, for a dozen centuries, and Eido Roshi saw no reason to change that. As such, he ran his monastery very tightly. He was always aware of exactly what was happening, from back alley politics, to personal [...]

Excerpt from "A Heart Broken Open"

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0100

Chapter 14

Kelly threw himself into the business of running his small Zen yoga studio. He worked from 6am till 9am, took the afternoons off, and then ran classes again from 6pm till 9pm. The pain of Brenda’s leaving was fresh in his mind, as was his confusion at his reaction to her.

The last time he had gone to India it [...]

Preface to A Heart Broken Open

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi sits across from me, on a rainy morning in Massachusetts, a black hood draped over his head. We are on the porch of an old lake home, overlooking a small stand of trees and then, through an opening i [...]

The Gamble of a Lifetime

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

I’m about to put all my chips on my own version of the Roulette wheel. For those of you familiar with the game of Roulette, it’s pretty simple. The wheel has 36 numbers, alternating red and black in color. The simplest way to play is to bet either “red” or “black”, meaning if the wheel is spun, the ball dropped, and it comes to rest on the color you’ve picked, you double your earnings. 50/50 shot. If it lands [...]

Spiritual Belief vs. Spiritual Practice

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Why does believing you are a spiritual person not really amount to much of anything at all?

There’s an interesting phenomena here in Boulder. A lot of people one meets profess [...]

Excerpt

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Sometimes I create parts of stories that simply don't fit. Here's something pulled recently when I was editing...

Until he had been dropped off at the school, Darnell had never in his life been out of Philadelphia except for occasional field trips and other day excursions to the shore. At fourteen years of age the night sky for him was one of little wonder; a washed out version of its daytime self where a half-dozen stars, easily overlooked, twinkled meekly thr [...]

From story in-progress...

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Too excited to sleep – it seemed impossible, especially as a middle-aged man whose existence had grown as regular and reliable as a Sunday sermon. Early in life, as one flies through their twenties and thirties, life is defined by a frantic change; friendships dissolve around marriages, whole new families are born and grow, and vocation is marked by an upward advance and ambition. As the forties give way to the fifties, though, one begins to dread change, for more often than no [...]

Poems in progress...

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:00:00 +0100

So from time to time I'll put poems I'm working on here. I'm honstly not much of a poet, but it provides a good emotinal outlet for me, and is less involved than an entire story. Feel free to comment or post suggestions....

"Seen"
It seems, love, I have disappointed you --
that you expected more of me, again,
to be strong, even if I must pretend
there was nothing to what you put me through.
N [...]

On getting published

keith@keithmartinsmith.com — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:00:00 +0100

An interesting year, to say the least. The hard work and sacrifice that go into creating art is an intense experience. To those of us on the outside of this process, it can look romantic, even a wonderful expression of something that so many of us attempt at some point in our lives. We say [...]