ONE THOUSAND FEATHERS SUPPORT PACKAGE

Haha, oh man I hate those SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ALTERNATIVE RADIO STATION/NPR things, but I guess I’m about to do exactly that, although I don’t feel good about it, at least not on the internet. I’ve built an online presence more than once over the years, and have learned that it’s something you have to constantly attend to, constantly respond, constantly provide free content, click refresh, click refresh… it’s a pretty demanding beast, to be honest. I don’t get as much out of that as physical interactions in the real life. I used to, perhaps because I had less of a sense of self, less confidence in my own identity, so the online attention meant more to me. Now, the effort feels like yelling into a void, and the returns of actual quality interaction are so few and far between, it makes the effort feel not worth it.

Mostly, I’ve been enjoying the One Thousand Feathers pamphlets, which are physical not digital, because I can leave them places, send them to people who I’d like to build connections with, which then gets physical not digital things back to me, and hopefully infuses my life with the little bit of soul I fucking need, because goddamn it feels like it’s not there a lot of times. Problem is these little pamphlets cost me a lot more than I have to print, especially when I – like many of you – am in the slow-draining process of bailing out half of what floods in on me each time I get paid. It’s a process I hope to escape one day, but that’s gonna have to happen through cultural change, not my own financial exploitation. I am not a marketable commodity, and don’t get along with the program well enough to ever be able to be turned into an actual professional writer. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this in following my writing or knowing me, but I’m pretty fucked up, but honest, and good-hearted, and doing what feels right.

So I’m putting this offer up, asking for support of One Thousand Feathers/Rojonekku, to build my physical presence, to print up these pamphlets and leave and send them to all corners of the world. The offer is this: for $100, you get a 12-issue prescription to the One Thousand Feathers (or an extension of a current prescription, if you are already on board). You also get a 12-issue prescription for a friend (or enemy, or anybody really, just another human). You also get to go to MY WORKINGMAN SHOP and select a railroad haiku spike. Being I’ll mail that to you in a flat rate priority box, I’m sure I’ll stuff some additional trinkets and treasure in there as well, but that’s hard to predict or promise. Unfortunately, at this time, I can only offer this $100 support offer to people in America. Overseas shipping of packages is too expensive since they moved to flat rates. If you are non-American and want to subscribe, you can still do so, RIGHT HERE. Normal American prescriptions can be established there as well.

For every one of these support packages I can get, I’ll be able to print one pamphlet. It doesn’t cover mailing them, as I scrape that together however I can. I’m moving the circulation and display of the haiku spikes and photography offline as well, because there’s no real interest in those things digitally. It’s hard to see the power of the railroad spikes unless you actually see them. But I’m hoping putting all these physical things together can entice some digital action in my direction. If you are fluent in Paypal enough, I’d prefer you login to their site, and send the $100 marked as a gift to ravenmack at gmail.com, which will avoid them taking their skim. But if that’s too hard within the digital realm, there’s a button right below you can click too. This post will only be up if I’m back up on printing and need the support to make those things happen in a timely fashion.

We all struggle for validation in what we are doing with ourselves, and unfortunately the online world just flips that struggle into hyperspeed. I can’t promise to give you anything online other than my silly gambleraku poems and pictures, and even that will ebb and flow. But I know if you get this One Thousand Feathers in your hands, and you hold a railroad haiku spike, you’ll be good with what I’m doing. And I’ll be thankful to you for enabling me to spread it, just a little bit more, instead of accumulating it in piles inside my dilapidated house, to be burned or curated – depending on merit – after my death. It’s easy to think we are sharing online, but that sharing doesn’t manifest into physical presences that can hold power and occupy positive psychic space in our lives as easily. Let me occupy a positive psychic space in your life.

And thank you.