Postcards from Gravelly Beach – Global literature pod dispatches

Video reading of this same dispatch (in moderately different edit) is at https://daveostory.com/film-vids-docs/postcards-video/cereal-and-hypnotists-four-poems-from-the-caboose/

Following recent reading at “Muriel’s Journey” poetry campaign from Vancouver, spontaneously share the honourable-mention poem “Small Box of Cereal” with some related artifacts, backstory, feelings about the poet’s task in creating, the impact the poems have on me and, while drinking coffee wearing dashing pajamas in the caboose — the affectionate name for the recent addition to our home in Okayama, Japan — read a previous piece included in Muriel’s Journey anthology book “Fire Within” in 2022 called “Alchemists confer with Hypnotists” with a bonus side bar included, plus “Osaka Afternoon” which kinda caught me off-guard, and finally a rather sprawling poem (which i relaly dig) called (somewhat cheesily) “Smiling on the Inside (hold on)” which concerns dentistry, pop Buddhism, and finding home.

Bring your own magic: Cereal and Hypnotists – Postcard #93 (44MB, 29:08, mp3, stereo)

Also, express my fondness for this particular inclusive & unique campaign for including lesser-heard poetic voices aside from the usual gamut of MFAs (no disrespect to you graduates, it’s just nice to have something a little bit different) plus the “entrance fee” of telling how you help your community

More Blurb: I meant to run down a list of other poets who read or otherwise participated but well I wasn’t entirely prepared however I did manage to call the spectacular editor/publisher Kyle Hawke by slightly incorrect surname (Hawkes) while I was trying to complement him by mentioning how he treats all the poetry transcripts as they were lost works of James Joyce

And while fumbling and rolling hit into “Osaka Afternoon” with a dedication to Emily & Reb who have chimed in with kind words recently – written at the beginning of what eventually became my “Japan 2.0s” era 20+ years after my first foray into Japan working as a mushroom farmer in Tottori yet here I was in a completely new environment in all possible ways and facets of life yikes – regardless it’s called “Osaka Afternoon” as hadn’t revisited this poem for some time which was written in a time of tumult & confusion while diligently seeking a home it hit me quite hard feeling like my heart was flayed (or filleted) open with all my most raw emotions and confessions

Sigh yet the poet’s task is to channel emotions which might strike as universal and float the kinetic words out into the world – right?

So couldn’t quite end on that note so jump into (another) long-form confessional coming back from Indonesia closing off a chapter of a life with a conundrum in my otherwise lovely teeth feeling completely overwhelmed by the strain of “life” and celebrating the purposefulness of having items that can be evolved and curated into collections it’s not “stuff” it’s materiel to create more because the future is unwritten and history is made by people who write it down

Meandering through forms, I poke back at pop Buddhist riffs and dance around the joy of creation sort-ganizing – was submitted to the same Muriel’s Journey campaign in 2024 yet did not receive an accolade no big deal :-) called “smiling on the inside (hold on)” I think it is anyway

Whew finish with a bit of ukulele a lot more thanks adding in Neal who helped me prepare for the live stream, KK ⁠and his convening community at the planetarium, my dear penpal Monique, other people like Tamara with her bookshop (Western Sky) whom I forgot to mention

So hey there’s all of me sliced and diced as such a request to me your poems perhaps

After all as mentioned in one of the poems I’m home forever now – My address won’t change no more secret hideouts, just one safe house

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Riffing about earthquake scars, zen temples, sea swims, scrapbooks, aliens, dinosaurs & 7″ records while rain falls in an engawa in Noto – a peninsula at the end of the world

Rain falls while i meander in real time memories the engawa—that in-between strip where house meets weather—inside a former fish-processing shed turned home at the ragged edge of the Noto Peninsula.

Since the New Year’s earthquake, the village is a collage of blue X’s, empty lots, demolition crews, and stubborn rebuilds. We slosh barefoot on warped floors, watch puddles ripple toward the fish auction, and listen for trucks and tide.

Sensei keeps his laboratory of samples and skeletons (yes, a whale skeleton in the rafters), Fukushima bark slides for spectral readings, and the old stories that refuse to leave.

Meanwhile, we practice indoor camping, brew tea, and make scrapbooks as Ichiro eyes the water and fireworks.

Stories from the road: the once-grand Maizuru, a chaotic tea shop and a spotless wagashi counter; a minshuku near Fukui’s Dinosaur Museum; a temple founded by Dōgen; a punk-sticker-covered shrine; and a roadside trove of antiques where a musician gifts an Edo-era samurai saké cup and a signed 1970 seven-inch record.

A postcard from the edge—loss and rebuilds, small kindnesses, and the quiet work of carrying on for the Olson O-bon Onsen Ocean roadtrip, Aug. 2025

Sit in the engawa for: Noto Roadtrip Diary – Postcard #92
(46MB, 29:53, mp3, stereo)

Bonus: Noto Fish Market and Ankou fish butchering

Along the road, we pass through:
– Maizuru, a once-grand “Grand Hotel” town now shuttered and wistful
– a chaotic tea shop and a spotless wagashi counter
– a minshuku near Fukui’s Dinosaur Museum
– a temple founded by Dōgen, where I meet a calligrapher pilgrim
– a tiny shrine plastered in punk stickers (shout-out to Ramen, the one-man Ramones tribute)
– an antique trove where I find a working Sony Walkman, an Edo-era samurai saké cup, and a signed 1970 seven-inch from the shopkeeper’s own band

There are beach coffees, rotating bridges, and rain that turns August into a sauna.

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Poems on hotel letterhead, resplendent with stamps – crafted in mountains, on tracks and seas, while finding ways to be lost, avoiding pirates and ghosts, bouncing – from pastoral Lower Canada across radio waves to a provincial caboose in Japan, onward to find you, you alone

Poems on hotel letterhead resplendent with stamps crafted in mountains, on tracks and seas, finding ways to be lost, avoiding pirates and ghosts, bouncing from pastoral Lower Canada across radio waves to a provincial caboose in Japan, onward to find you. 

Read by punk rock guitarist, hockey dad, art theater projectionist, wordplay/visual poet, keeper of Inscriptorium & wrangler of The McLuhan Institute, Andrew McLuhan on his show “the spoken word” on county FM radio,, audio file harvested by Brad Rees

Slow rolling Postcards from Gravelly Beach poetry pods, handcrafted since 2005 all from the very depths of my wee heart

The collection read in pod is excerpts from “Items Forgotten” which  has 10 volumes (Disguise, Ramble’d, Time Traveler, Hubris, Circumnavigation, Espionage, Resistor, Reinvention) + some i forgot – crafted on letterhead, wrought in Himalayan Vedic solace, Arabian pirate seas, Malay traintracks & Mediterranean meanders

Available all the podcast places, I think so anyway, and of course at my creative life archive for your enjoyment and convenience

And I might as well tell you I’ve got a few more communications queued up 

Bounce off ionosphere: Items Forgotten on Spoken Word Radio – Postcard #91
(32MB, 21:52, mp3, stereo)

Along the way, I produced a series of visual freeverse poetry called “Items: Forgotten in Drawers“ – part pirate treasure map, part meanderings stashed in a non-secret hiding place, part punk rock handbills. Crafted at an Ayurvedic clinic the Himalayas, a ship in Arabia and ruins around Mediterranean, then attached to vintage hotel letterhead acquired from at a Greek Monastery store Montreal neighbourhood, assembled in off-strip Las Vegas, shared in Utah canyons… and now distributed to points unknown. Further batches were assembled on Nusa Ceningan, Indonesia with scraps printed here and there.

So much more to say about all of this but for now, you can investigate the originals “Items Forgotten in drawers” on 6 or so collections (Disguise, Ramble’d, Time Traveler, Hubris, Circumnavigation, Espionage, Resistor):, here’s a blurb:

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Analog loops, guitars, feedback and poetry about impossible alleys, 8 seat bars, villages with book shops, woolen scarves, Fado, Kathmandu mud, and umbrellas thwarting tactility.

“Rainy Mystery Alley” – made by “Thorvald and Thurston” in a Provo basement, 2018

Read along: Rainy Mystery Alley poem

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along via Twitter @uncleweed @gravellybeach & UncleWeed Storytime (FB)

A Hungarian habit of recollection from creative endeavors to life admin, communiques and campsites, flowing in freeform from Kura barn with “Olson Family Band” riffing on drums, ukulele & vibes with moments left in a topsy-turvy 2024 – with special hat-tip to Paprika-san

Reel in the year: 100 Items, for 2024 – Postcard #89 (with Olson Family Band)
(52MB, 26:48, mp3, stereo)

Bonus photo

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Riffs about the glory of journals, diaries, notebooks full of musings and importance of turning off inner-critic and not overthinking while savoring the process of transcription, curation and further creative wonderment from Kura barn in provincial Japan. With evidence with my own process.

Plus sorta re-cap how far I got about Circumnavigation poetry book project, tips and tactics for enjoying and “doing something with” your diaries, scrapbooks and so on, having multiple books on the go (and mixing up with all manner of stuff all at once, notes about semantics of freeverse, lyrics, short stories and prose poems, and probably a riff about remembering to forget, questioning “who are you making this for” and where I place the ghosts.

Finally, I read straight from some barely legible poetry scribbles with meanderings about sensory depravation chambers, menthol smokes with Leonard Cohen, Pan Am flights with Zeus, Buddha, Glen Canyon, and solving algorithms with nuclear fusion.

With special thanks to all who bravely step out with creative endeavors and extra for following along with my projects and what have you.

Namechecks for:
Rogério De Freitas
José Naranja
Jason Emde
Austin Kleon
Gord Downie
Henry David Thoreau
James Joyce

+ Julian, Derek, Diego, JoBot
& others, maybe you

Note: “Personal Archeology – Postcard #88” is available in audio-only via all normal podcast channels.

Washing dishes and busted spectacles lead to rowing a lake in Nepal figuring out deity, enlightenment, peace and power with choruses fresh from diaries – plus Royal hospitals, poetic devices and question mark eyebrows. Your turn Buddha, your turn.

Don’t climb the mountain: Nepal Stupa Choruses – Postcard #87
(39MB, 21:02, 256kbps mp3, stereo)

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Let’s not lose each other amidst the table cloth being pulled out from under glasses and dishes. Meaning: some technical jibber-jabber about claiming feeds sparks a history of these sporadic, occasional (yet somehow charming, right?) literary dispatches from hand-written XML to various blogs and feeds and meanderings. Plus, about me! My name is Dave Olson (hi, more below). So, let’s continue to spend time together shall we?

A brief history and future at: Indulge Me, Logistically – Postcard #86
(64MB, 33:29, 256k mp3, stereo)

Special music from The Matinée who have new album coming out called “Road to Hell”. Consider supporting these lovely gents in their most enjoyable endeavours.

{more The Matinée in this archive}

More about me, really: my name is Dave Olson, sometimes Davey, often Daveo or dvo for short, never David, sometimes Dave Thorvald because there’s a lot of other Dave Olsons out there, some are actors or preachers and I don’t want to be mixed up with that. I live at Tsuchida cottage in an under-known provincial corner of Japan and was born in 1970 in Saskatoon Saskatchewan and left after 10 days (but passed by via VIA train in 2012). I’ve lived and worked in many places around the world from picking grapes in Germany, juggling fire in Guam, mushroom farming in Japan, and various dot-com exploits.

Recently, spent extended periods in Ayurveda hospitals in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, have a secret hideout in Indonesia, a fave quirky guest house in Thailand, a villa conundrum in Jamaica, a lot of friends in Utah / four corners area, used to be a fixture in Vancouver until it broke my heart, ditto on Victoria but in a different (let’s just say there was a bad experience that Royal Jubilee Hospital) and importantly, I love to produce creative projects across many medium: ever since I was a little gaffer with my glasses and my pencil set, wanted to learn about things, go places, collect stories, make friends and share all of the above.

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along:
via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory 
via FB UncleWeed Storytime
via Instagram @uncleweed & @daveostory

“Hand-crafted since 2005 | Field notes & poetry from splendid locales.”

Thinking about “going home in October” or even more, going far away from home via freeverse poetry, read directly from scribbled travel scrapbooks and backed by trains from Moncton to Sri Lanka and tuk tuks from Kerala and Thailand, by a weary fella in an olden barn in provincial Japan. Fondly home. 

Be Lost at Home: Lost the Plot (Finding Home) #85
(17MB, 10:26, 192 kbps, mp3, stereo)

Includes (excerpts etc) of freeverse by dvo

• Flood’d
• Arc the Spark
• Occasionally Free

other scribbles direct from notebooks, diaries, scrapbooks, journals, what have you from rambles

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

• PfGB RSS feed 
• PfGB iTunes
• PfGB Google Play
• PfGB Tunein
• PfGB at Daveostory
• + possibly more at Pod Sub Desk

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstory & UncleWeed Storytime (FB)

A heart-wrenching poem about an abducted boy called Simon – who lived nearby, was my age and sorta looked like me – in Surrey, BC 1982 – by the “Beast of BC” Clifford Robert Olson (NO relation). Recorded and contributed to Dark Poutine Canadian True Crime podcast – shared here for posterity etc.

RIP Simon and the others.

https://daveostory.com/wp-content/uploads/postcards-84-simon-stolen-shame.mp3

Be wary for: Simon, Stolen, Shame – Postcard #84

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstories & UncleWeed Storytime (FB)