Startled by Existence

Kirk Jordan (b 1960)  is a musician' musician* who lives with his wife and three daughters in Central Arkansas. 

* People who know Kirk, do not think of him as a musician.  That is because Kirk does not play any known instruments.  (He does, however, hear the most incredible music inside his head ---   Something like Arabian-Celtic Rock, or the older hymns as sung by the trees.)

As a musician who can not play any instruments, Kirk is forced to work out the music in his head through other means.  He is a photographer by trade, and a poet by disposition.   As a photographer, Kirk knows the ropes.  He knows what his pictures will look like before he views them on the back of his digital camera.  As a poet, he's lost.  Kirk likes writing poems for the simple reason he has no earthy idea what he is doing --- so it still feels dangerous and fun.

This site holds what would be one very big book, or - a series of books born of a common source.  Sometime before the last millenium I gathered together most of poems, along with a number of transcribed cassette-journal entries (those given to "odd thoughts" )- then threw them together in a big three-ring binder.  I called my book "Bones in My Soul."

As a photographer I am intrigued by the stuff and light and sight and consciousness.  When contrasted with the material world, we tend to think of light as "lite" - that is, airy -- kinetic, and without dimensions.  But given a contrast to a non-material soul, light and thought and dream, take on the weight of syrup.  Then there are those ideas that live in us with such force that they become like bone.  Beyond that, I am given to idea that that the realms of sense and spirit are deeply twined. 

It  appears that I write in waves: The following is a quick chronological guide to my life and the stuff you may enounter.

With a few exceptions, the works in this volume belong to one of four periods.

1980-1989. age 20-29. Esoteric mumbo-jumbo from a weird guy on a bike with a tape-recorder.  Epoch closes with marriage and the need to get real.

1990-1991. age 30-31. Took a college class in poetry. ­­First attempts to distill mumbo-jumbo into coherent forms. Epoch ends in diapers and strong body of poems.

1997-2002. age 37–42. Kids now feed themselves. Started with an effort to reclaim old journal entries. Followed by a explosion of new poems and an effort to remember the intermittent years of chaos and glory.

2003 and beyond.  The poems have slowed to the point of rare.  New enerigies given to the Mighty Works Project, a photo-based email highlighting the ongoing artistry of Jesus - the Word.  (If you would like to be on my photo-art email list, please contact me at   mightyworks@conwaycorp.net  .

To all those who take the time to walk with me for a step or two along the way:  Thank you.  I appreciate your company.