I'm Wes (W. C. Smith) and this is my personal blog. Right now it really serves two purposes. The first being an outlet for some of my poetry, and the second being a place to plot out my progress with the novel that I'm working on.
The poetry posted on this blog is exclusively from my personal poetry project "Train Names and Another On Track Progression". The project started after I bought an old railroad map of the US from the 1870's. I decided that from that point on every personal poem afterward would take the name of a city on the railway, and the number of poem it was in the sequence. I've cheated somewhat, and added a few locations on the map, but hey, it's my project to do with what I will. The project right now is a casual one, but will likely be released someday as a compilation.
The writing log you'll see frequently is tracking my progress on my novel which I've been working on for the last three years "Herod and the Bird King."
If you'd like to check out some of the work my writing collective "The Unproductive" puts out, you can check out our "Short Poems or Your Money Back" blog. You can also check out "Hermit Food" for a weekly illustration by yours truly, and a poem by another member of The Unproductive.
Why "The Kunstkammer"?
Since I very first heard the word, I like it. The idea that something could be treated as a "memory theater" fell in line perfectly with how I go about poetry. 95% of the time my poems are documenting something that has happened in my life, whether that's only just a feeling, or an actual event. I supposed the other 5% of my poems are complete nonsense and come from somewhere like Mars or Atlantis.
The URL, why "Skinning the Elephant"?
