Heartwood

Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

—Henry David Thoreau

Welcome to the latest installment of the Fog Chaser newsletter, and my sincerest thanks to everyone who has taken time to listen to my new album, the score for

Elle Griffin

’s novel Oblivion. More here.

🎵 This month’s piece is in F major.¹

My middle school art teacher, noticing me fiddling endlessly with something I was working on, said to me: “The problem with art is that it rarely feels finished.”² A nice, philosophical way of saying hey, time’s up. Time to turn that in and move on. Or, hey, that shitty landscape with those really cool Vs that are supposed to be birds probably isn’t worth much more of your time, or mine.

Anyway, point taken. This month’s piece is one of those I felt like I could have tweaked forever — change a chord here or there, mess with the melody forever, contrast the A and B parts more dramatically. But at some point, you just have to stop.

This newsletter has always functioned as an accountability tool for me — my self-imposed deadlines force me to let good enough be good enough. So, thank you for giving me the space to experiment in this way, to write constantly and share it with you. It means the world.

Theory notes: You’ll hear some modal interchange in this song (i.e., chords borrowed from a different key). I borrow a D-flat major chord (what is referred to as a “flat VI”) from the song key’s parallel minor (F minor), which provides a little color at a few points in the piece — you’ll first hear it around the 1:00 mark. I also borrow a B-flat minor chord (a minor IV) in the song’s B section just to keep things spicy for ya.

📷 This month’s photos were taken in Forest Park in Portland, Oregon.³

Heartwood / Wildwood Trail, 35mm

I invite you to sit with this month’s song, photos, and poem and make them a small part of your day, whether that’s your morning ritual, afternoon break, or your evening wind-down.

As always, if you feel like it, let me know what you think in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you again for being here.

---

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

by E.E. Cummings⁴

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                        i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

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Listening to

• Moonless by Julie Byrne (Listen)

  • 🎧 I put all the songs shared in the newsletter into this Spotify playlist

Reading

• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Bookshop)⁵

Sharing

• Listening to the sounds of whales in ‘Eavesdropping on orcas: love, grief, and family’ (via The Wild with Chris Morgan)

• From the archive:

  • May 2023:

    Meditation 021 | Soft Season

  • May 2022:

    Meditation | 009

1. Life lessons with the GOAT, Mr. Gabe.

2. Heartwood in F major / Written, performed, and produced by Fog Chaser

3. Heartwood / 35mm film (Fujifilm Superia / ISO 400) / Forest Park, Oregon, USA

4. Complete Poems: 1904-1962 (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1991). This one was read by a dear friend at our wedding ten (!) years ago.

5. The Fog Chaser Bookshop is hosted on Bookshop.org, where over 80% of gross profits are distributed to independent bookstores. As an affiliate, I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.