douglas brent smith

  Valuable Merchandise -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1978

  Unstoppable In Collageland -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1980

he was cute and younger than me but not illegally younger and wearing a tight orange and purple  shirt that had written across the chest "are you gay?" and he smiled and i thought "isn't everyone?"  -- douglas brent smith

  Two Guitars -- sketch by douglas brent smith

  Road Control - collage by douglas brent smith, 30 January 1984

Strength is not a zero-sum game. Your strength does not subtract strength from anyone else (or shouldn't). Someone else's strength does not subtract from yours. Sometimes we act like it does, but it need not be that way. As high performance leaders our job is to help others to develop their strength. In the process, we develop our own. Our strength does not depend on anyone's weakness. We never need for anyone else to ever be less in order for us to be more. We can all grow. We can all improve. We can, and should, all develop our leadership strength. -- doug smith

  Now Go! collage by douglas brent smith, 27 January 1984

  i saw it coming and started running but it never seemed to stop it flashed like a light in the middle of the night and exploded with a loud piercing pop the morning hit me and my shirt didn't fit me and beer cans were bent at my feet i walked to the kitchen someone started bitchin' and led me back to the street cars were passing and hustlers were hassling every new face that strolled by i jumped to the street dodging the heat while my feet did their best to fly like a circus clown in a strange dark town i reached for your number and phoned come save me from this with a smile and a kiss it's too much to face all alone you balked and you stalled and said why did you call? you need to find someplace to stay the high that sustained us was destined to fall and the feelings have all flown away. -- douglas brent smith

  Life Goes On - sketch by douglas brent smith, 1984

 I Can Take You Anywhere -- collage by douglas brent smith, 30 January 1984

  she shared some details of the road trip with the teen in a van not too many intense infraction type details it was fill in the blanks with too much thinking heart wrenching imagination like why would two people in a van driving together sharing inside secrets and cheap road food not be more than she said playing a players game of silence and selective facts believable whether deceivable  or not who could know she met a native american guide entering the great grand canyon already ahead of her hiking below the entertainer chevy chase working up his best sweat "losing weight for a part," he told her he seemed nice she told me she, so sun tanned deeply in pain followed the guide's instructions scaling the canyon, seeking and finding her peace on her own in shorts and a shirt a weight loss plan of her own for that burn in her heart immune from her lotions medicines and potions yet falling away as she scaled deeper to release the one-hundred-and-ninety pounds of disappointm

  when the motion slips into another space explanations defy attempts to reconcile part of the magic lives in everything      that's ever been      and ever is like a wave all of our days are part of something more complex than we can see so the part of you in me and me in you goes on some of the energy conserved in all      that's ever drawn      from breath lives on -- douglas brent smith

  Friendly Advice -- collage by douglas brent smith, 14 November 1983, from the journal "Theme and Variation"

 Back Cover, Theme and Variation -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1983 NOTES: Not so much a collage as a collection of images that builds up as I'm writing a journal, this one from 1983 - 1984. Based on the pictures on the wall, the picture at the bottom of Dorinda and me playing together is from Bridgeton, NJ -- no doubt Dad & Edna's house on Jay Avenue. We look happy. The woman on the slide of course is Nena and she looks happy, too. These were perhaps dramatic but oh so happy times.