So, I’m still stuck in Tennessee, but I’m making fair use of my time. I have a few projects in the works. Here’s the nuts and bolts:
Cult Boy: I did a complete rewrite of my book A Train Called Forgiveness. It’s been stripped back to a novella and renamed. I’m currently doing a final edit and will proofread once more after that.
Mercy, Mercy: This is in brainstorming mode. A potential novella about living through having a stillborn child. The book would have two first-person narrators, the father, and the unborn/spirit daughter.
1995/96 Songs: I’ve posted selections from my older song catalog up until 1994 on my YouTube channel. I thought my 1995/96 songs were already in Maine but I found them here. I’ll start posting some tracks in May. I might have to rewrite a few because I can’t find any recordings.
Glitsch: My new website for brutalist and glitchy poetry and photos and music. Check it out at glitcsh.com.
Anderhill: I’ve got a few tracks in the works on my iPad.
That’s it for now. I’m staying busy creatively. But I’ll also need to do some travel and other projects in the near future. – dse
What is G L I T C . S H? It’s a brutalist, minimalist, and glitchy poetry and photography site. It’s a place where I’ll focus on poetic creativity. Here’s a short quote from the manifesto:
I believe that ERROR is the only honest data left in a manicured system. My lyrics are not typos but rather the intentional ruptures of a soul that refuses to be domesticated by the algorithm.
G L I T C . S H_ may have a simple and classic presentation, but don’t let that fool you. My poetry intentionally makes use of symbols, numbers, errors, stutters, and more. My photography editing blatantly erases the world as we see it.
The site will have both long-form writing series’ and a Machine Feed (blogroll) of individual poems and photographs.
PENTAD is a five-cycle journey consisting of 86 short poems. The first and third cycles have several chapters while the others stand alone. Instead of endlessly scrolling on social media, I invite you to come along on this journey of thought and reflection.
I encourage you to check out the new site. I’ll be updating the Machine Feed a couple times a week, and adding new long-form writing every month or two. – dse
Life is unpredictable. My move back to Maine is postponed.
I’m not happy about that but it is what it is. The lease is running out where we’re currently living and we’ll have to move locally sometime in April. My daughter will rent a place in Nashville and now that I’m not working, if I must stay in Tennessee, that will be much better.
I’ll be closer to Vanderbilt for my blood cancer specialist. I’ll also be nearer to music venues for performing, (if I choose), and attending shows. Maybe, I’ll even look for part-time work.
That’s the gist on the “life” side of things but I also want to address some changes in my posting schedule here.
I am going to post less often.
Recently, I reduced how often I post on my YouTube Channel. I’ve discovered that I really like that freedom. I’m also developing a new poetry website that will be much more of a static site than a “blog.” And that’s the direction I want to move here as well.
I’ll primarily continue to post news, new releases, and occasional poetry. I’m going to move away from feeling the need to post something just because more than a few days have passed. This new schedule starts now, so don’t be surprised if it’s a couple weeks until the next post. – dse
A couple of days ago, I wrote a weird poem. It had some of the following elements:
Repetition
Coding Symbolism
Purposeful Misspelling
Dictionary Pronunciations
Words broken into Smaller Bits
Use of numbers
The poem was very short. That first poem led me to write an entire series of similar poems. I did some research to discover that I was writing “glitch poetry.” It also might fall into categories like anti-poetry and cyber punk.
Topics include technology, government, news, social media, sex, addiction; the individual struggle to not get lost in today’s overstimulated world.
Here’s short description of the 28-poem cycle I’ve completed:
I believe that error is the only honest data left in a manicured cis-stem. My lyrics are not typos; they are the intentional ruptures of a soul that refuses to be domestic-8ed by the algorithm. I invite the brave soles to stop scrolling, ignore the deaf socials, and enjoy the hum of a reality that is truly {RE}moved.
The project is still in the works. While I have completed the sequence, there is still editing and formatting that needs to be done.
The project started when I was studying how one might actually make a profit writing poetry. I hope you’re not laughing too loud. What I discovered is that the way one might make money as a poet is to create a brand and a specific identity behind that brand. That is what I did. Actually marketing and selling that brand is the trick. I’ve never cracked that code.
In the process, I’ve secured the website: glitcsh.com. The purposeful misspelling is part of the concept. My identity as the creator is not Dan Steven Erickson, but simply: POET. Because I could be anybody trying to survive in a world in which systems are stacked against us. The POET is the superhero, so to speak. The resolve is not to fight evil, but to simply walk away from it all, and in the end, to reduce the ego.
I have not decided when/if I will start the “Glitcsh” site and brand. Currently, my website hosting plan only allows for a single site. I either have to upgrade or return to a cheaper option.
I could start the series on this site, and I might. For now, simply stay tuned as I continue to work on the poems and make decisions on how to present them. – dse
I’m not going to go into any detail but my life has been a bit trying lately. Between some personal issues and some complications my daughter is facing, the last few weeks have been stressful and chaotic. I guess it’s a good thing I retired because it’s nearly a full-time job.
Hopefully, this chaotic season will pass. Our move to Maine is currently uncertain after months of planning. It might be delayed. So, how do I deal with all the stress? I write. I write about things that are happening in real time. Later, I will choose a portion of those lyrics to edit, fine tune, and put to music.
In the past month, I have written 40-50 new potential lyrics. I’ve also written several personal and professional letters. (That’s a different story.) I want to focus on the lyrics for this short essay.
Writing songs is great catharsis. It can help you to vent immediate anger, despair, and sorrow. It can also help you to understand there is always hope, joy, and possibility. I’ve come to realize that even when the shit is heavy, writing releases some of the weight and provides me with a map moving forward.
I’m not going to post lyrics here but I’ll include a list of recent titles.
A Word is a Word
Spun Up
I Just Want a Little Peace
Seeking the Teeth that Bit
Who Slighted Whom
Blow the Whistle
Stuck in Tennessee
Three-Day Drunk
Waking the Tiger
Many of the lyrics I’ve written in the last month are done in a free-flowing, almost rap-like form. But there are some pure country lyrics and thoughtful folk/pop pieces in the mix.
I don’t know if or when some of these will be put to music. I currently have 235 lyrics in my 2025/26 folder. Some have been put to music, but the majority are waiting. I do know that there will be a day when musical ideas and arrangements will flow as quickly as the lyrics came these last few weeks. That’s how I work.
So, no promises, but stay tuned for something new. – dse
I’ve had my YouTube Channel for one year. I started it on January 18, 2025. I have mixed feelings about the channel. Sometimes, it feels so insignificant to be creating art and music in today’s America.
I’ve always struggled with feelings of vanity.
I blogged about minimalism for about five years. I quit when I got close to making money from my work. Why? Because it felt wrong to sell people something that anyone can do for free. Want to live simple? Here, buy my gadget. It seemed hypocritical. It felt vain.
That’s about as close as I’ve gotten to monetizing anything on the Internet. Sure, I’ve sold a few books and some music on Bandcamp, but that might add up to a couple thousand dollars in sales over 15 years. The truth is, ever since giving up the minimalist topic, I’ve struggled in general with both topic and audience.
I lost 95% of my audience when I gave up minimalism as a niche. Then I floundered for a few years on what to do next. I finally decided to simply focus on my own music, poetry, and songwriting. And as you might expect, being an unknown artist in your 60s in today’s world is not profitable. And even if it was, that feels like selling out.
YouTube is no different than anything else.
Starting a YouTube Channel has been interesting, even fun at times. I didn’t put a lot into the equipment or production, but purposefully kept things simple and raw. Unfortunately, that’s another strike against me. People want flashy and produced.
After a year, it’s plain to see, that just like starting a blog, a podcast, or any kind of potential online business, I’m highly unlikely to ever gain an audience or turn a profit on the Internet. I don’t know the stats, but my guess would be that less than 1% of the people who try to create some kind of online business ever make any money. So, like my other online endeavors, it feels vain to even try.
Of course, from the outset, I said my YouTube was simply a place to document and preserve a lifetime of songwriting and that I had no delusions of making it a profitable channel. That remains true. But if I’m being 100% honest, there was still a small part of me that thought the experiment might get more than 100 subscribers in a year.
Maybe there’s more important work.
I’m not going to quit, but I am dialing things back. It takes time and effort, even with raw and unedited video, to keep a YouTube channel going. But I also can’t help but look around at the state of this world, and more specifically America, and wonder if there’s something more important I could be doing.
People tell me that art is important, that songs and poetry can lead revolutions and save lives. Meh. I’m not seeing it. When 20 million people are struggling just to be heard and no one seems to have the attention span to listen, what’s the point? And to do this stuff just for myself can become both isolating and lonely.
When I look around at what’s happening in our country; when I see the hate, the poverty, and the hopelessness, I have to wonder if there is something else one could do to promote positive change.
Now I’m retired, the options have increased.
I stopped working full time on December 1, 2025. I’ll likely go back to work part time later this year when I move back to Maine. I need to subsidize my income to pay for health insurance for a couple more years. But I will have more freedom to do other things.
Part of me just wants to go travel and explore a few places I’ve long been interested in. But another part of me wants to do something more significant, maybe get involved with some kind of activism at the grassroots level.
I’ve threatened for years to walk away from the Internet when I’m retired. That’s probably unpractical. And even though very few seem to notice what I’m doing, what I do is still serving a purpose, if only some kind of self-therapy.
I know I must sound like a broken record. I tend to continually question my own place in this world as a creator. I constantly see the insignificance of our struggle as artists and human beings. We all simply die and will likely be forgotten in the end.
Still, I’ll keep plugging along. I won’t stop writing or give up on YouTube yet. But I will keep my eyes and mind open for new directions and ways to serve others. – dse