t h e  n o t e b o o k s

Wanderings. Ponderings. & Poems.

(Still) Radically Authentic

(Still) Radically Authentic

[Trigger Warning: Suicide & Mental Health]  Howdy, folks.  So, for the last year, I’ve been pretty quiet—not just on social media but within my friend/professional circles; the silence wasn’t indicative of lack of care. I just had one of those years—a string of...

Going Home | Wild Silence Travel Column

Going Home | Wild Silence Travel Column

by L.M. Browning, appeared in The Wayfarer Magazine autumn 2019 edition as part of the Wild Silence Travel Column | The Full Issue>> “What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation...

At Home in the Mountains | A Journal Entry

At Home in the Mountains | A Journal Entry

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”  ― John Muir6,000+ Miles Travel. 2,000+ Miles Driven. 12 Days. 7 National Parks. 3 State Parks . . . I've roamed the mountains to 12,000ft, slept...

The Road Turns West | A Journal Entry

The Road Turns West | A Journal Entry

by L.M. Browning  "Sit with the silence. There is something there waiting for you." —Journal Entry, May 2019   Virginia Woolf believed that life was composed of one or two days that change everything―pivotal days that ripple out to effect all the days to follow ....

Go West, Young Woman | A Journal Entry

Go West, Young Woman | A Journal Entry

"There are things I know—certainties I can always return to— like the knowledge that beauty assuages grief and silence soothes a pressured mind." —Journal Entry, March 2019     A Return to the Lands of Grief Following my adventures over recent years, I've...

The Dirge | A Poem

The Dirge | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, from the forthcoming collection, Drive Through the Night     Dancing with the dust devils across the land of dazzling desolation I seize freedom by unearthing the beauty in the vanishing nature of all that is vital.   Knowing that I...

Constellation of Wounds | A Poem

Constellation of Wounds | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, an except from Drive Through the Night   The patterns of the trauma align  across the memories of our mind —inescapable—a blackhole of being. 8,947 miles later, I know now why  you refuse the say the names of those            ...

Playlist We Live By

Playlist We Live By

What seems like a million years ago now, I was a DJ. It was one of my first jobs when I was a teenager. Music is a passion I never left behind. I am routinely asked to make mixes for friends. Before I set out on the road To Lose the Madness, some readers as me what my...

Mustang | A Poem

Mustang | A Poem

by L.M. Browning, except from Drive Through the Night   Ride this life hard       —barebacked, bone-shaken. Wrap your legs tight       —thighs around her rib cage, pounding. Take hold in the rush        —fingers tangled in her mane, entwined.   Don’t look back,...

Drive Through the Night | A Poem

Drive Through the Night | A Poem

Drive Through the Night | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from Drive Through the Night     If we kept moving     —blind in the blur        of mileage mounting— we might outrun the sun and not see the sight awaiting in the bare daylight that we were the source of...

The Technicolor Burning Bush | A Poem

The Technicolor Burning Bush | A Poem

The Technicolor Burning Bush | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from Drive Through the Night   In the misty morning beyond murky mirages I hear the voice of god in the hum of the neon sign at the rest stop where the caravan of displaced desperadoes and expats post-up for...

Future Primitive | Radical Authenticity

Future Primitive | Radical Authenticity

    I recently sat down with Joanna Harcourt Smith of Future Primitive to discuss my short memoir To Lose the Madness as the TEDx Talk and practice of Radical Authenticity that came from my experiences.  **** Future Primitive: In this week’s episode Leslie M....

Lobo | A Poem

Lobo | A Poem

Lobo | A Poem by L.M. Browning, an except from Drive Through the Night    Drive through the night lost in the miles the lone wayfarer ever in motion.   Be gentle long night I don’t belong here. Thrown to the wolves I shifted nocturnal.   Arced up,...

The Recurring Dream | A Poem

The Recurring Dream | A Poem

The Recurring Dream | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   In a land beyond the pervading dark, in a state beyond the fever-pitch, in a dialog beyond the finding of blame, I'm hoping to find you and build a home where we can live the life we...

Unspoken | A Poem

Unspoken | A Poem

Unspoken | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a private collection   There are things that will go unsaid and unwritten—that will live in us alone until time shifts the landscape of memory and all that we remember is changed.   Out beyond the murkiness left by...

The Road from Santa Fe to Cimarron | A Poem

The Road from Santa Fe to Cimarron | A Poem

The Road from Santa Fe to Cimarron | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   Red dust, sanguine from Sangre bleeding into the snowy roads that lead to the hidden mountain where the lone buffalo waits.Recent Poetry Posts

Benzos, Bardo, and Brokenness | A Poem

Benzos, Bardo, and Brokenness | A Poem

Benzos, Bardo, and Brokenness | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   i. There is an 8 min window in the eye of the hurricane —suspended in the bardo of belief and disbelief— while the benzo filters into the bloodstream and the fitful mind with...

The Lost Horizon | A Poem

The Lost Horizon | A Poem

The Lost Horizon | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   Souls age in thousand-fold nights, wandering across internal landscapes to desert's edge. At the corner of a crossroad, a blue tail flicks and slicks as the lizard slides through dust, around...

Nerve-Shaken | A Poem

Nerve-Shaken | A Poem

Nerve-Shaken | A Poem by L.M. Browning, featured in The Wayfarer Spring 2019 Issue   What are we to do, we who require silence in a world of deafening din?   The far-flung corners being as far as they are, where shall we carry ourselves?   Loud minds...

The Laws of Gravity | A Poem

The Laws of Gravity | A Poem

The Laws of Gravity | A Poem by L.M. Browning, featured in The Wayfarer Spring 2019 Issue   Expectations are sheer cliffs we cannot help but climb. The perfect, plumb ground too easy and expected bears no liking for those beings without wings but for whom...

Divine Dust | A Poem

Divine Dust | A Poem

Divine Dust | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection   Mountain shards prehistoric seas lands lost blown across the shifting horizons                all held in hand.   Gathering dust in the mantle spun particles of God in chain formed...

A Coward in the Night, Death, and Rebirth | A Poem

A Coward in the Night, Death, and Rebirth | A Poem

A Coward in the Night, Death, and Rebirth | A Poem by L.M. Browning, from a working collection     A dark-haired specter of ill fate  emerged while back turned, taking the children I was to have,  the life I was to lead, the person I was known to be. Shot...

A Bit of Homework for 2019

A Bit of Homework for 2019

My advice to you (and myself) in 2019: Knowing Yourself: Know your worth, know your limits, know your boundlessness, know your strengths, know your weaknesses, know your accomplishments, and know your dreams. Protecting Yourself: Be a mirror for all those...

Westward | A Poem

Westward | A Poem

Westward by L.M. Browning There will come a day when I succumb to the roaming, rambling, road. When you wake to find me gone do not seek me, do not come for me. Remember me with dust on my boots and know that I am happy.

In the Balance Interview | Podcast

In the Balance Interview | Podcast

This week on In the Balance, Susan Lambert and I sit down. I set out to understand my own trauma, not to write a book. But, as I discovered, intentions can have their own glorious and wild mind, and I ended up with my personal essay/ memoir, To Lose the...

Stay Grounded

Stay Grounded

It's been a week of conversations on mental illness and paths to healing. First with Susan Lambert at In the Balance and then with NAMI's podcast Conversations from Studio B. Both shows will air in the next few weeks. It's has been wonderful for me to...

Salt Water Therapy | Rhode Island Monthly

Salt Water Therapy | Rhode Island Monthly

On June 21, 2014, (4 years to the day of this post), I suffered a traumatic fall and wrecked my left leg. After undergoing surgery to piece everything back together it took me almost a year to learn how to walk again. During that time of relearning, I went...

Our Fractured Minds Podcast Interview

Our Fractured Minds Podcast Interview

Recently I had the privilege of appearing on the Our Fractured Minds podcast with Jeff Renoe to discuss my new book, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity as well as my diagnoses of C-PTSD, Depression and Mild...

L.M. Browning on the Give and Take Podcast

L.M. Browning on the Give and Take Podcast

I recently sat down with Scott Jones over at the Give and Take Podcast to talk about the stories behind my new book To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity. The tale in this book is a messy one, but it has taught me many...

To Lose the Madness | The Book Launch at Harvard Coop

To Lose the Madness | The Book Launch at Harvard Coop

Woke up and was groggily reading the news when I noticed the book launch for To Lose the Madness was mentioned in The Boston Globe! If you are in the Greater Boston area, come join me Monday evening at The Harvard Coop Bookstore at 7pm! (That night is also the eve of...

The Launch | Travel Journal | Texas Hill Country

The Launch | Travel Journal | Texas Hill Country

Today is the official release of To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity. It is hard to describe what the release of this book means. There have certainly been moments since sending the book to print where I flinched at sharing so...

The Surreal Experience That Is a TEDx Talk

The Surreal Experience That Is a TEDx Talk

Giving a TEDx Talk will stand as one of the most surreal, terrifying, and wonderful experiences of my life. (Terrifying because the topic I chose to speak on was so very intimate and I wanted to do it justice...not go into robot-mode or worse just have an emotional...

Messy Roads to Motherhood | Podcast Interview

Messy Roads to Motherhood | Podcast Interview

I recently had a chance to sit down with Sarah Aschkenas from Messy Roads to Motherhood podcast to talk about the difficult road I had after my miscarriage and the chronicle of it I put forth in To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical...

Grief Out Loud | Podcast Interview

Grief Out Loud | Podcast Interview

I recently had the chance to sit down with Jana DeCristofaro from the Grief Out Loud podcast to discuss the nature of grief and loss of a child as reflected in my forthcoming personal essay/book, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical...

TEDx Bound

TEDx Bound

As some of you have heard, I will be presenting a TEDx Talk at the TEDxYale Conference March 3, 2018 at Yale University. The talk is based on the events that take place in my forthcoming memoir, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical...

To Lose the Madness Over the Mountains | A Book’s Namesake

To Lose the Madness Over the Mountains | A Book’s Namesake

To Lose the Madness gleans its name from a quote by Jim Harrison. In the film adaptation of Harrison’s novella, Legends of the Fall, we follow the story of the war-wearied character Colonel Ludlow who, after watching the butchering of the Native Americans, gives up...

To Lose the Madness | Diving off the Cliff of My Comfort Zone

To Lose the Madness | Diving off the Cliff of My Comfort Zone

As we come to the end of 2017, I look ahead to 2018 knowing that this year is going to push me well out of my comfort zone with the the release of my next book: To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity. Unlike other books in my...

For the Dream Protectors

For the Dream Protectors

For the Dream Protectors... As I wrap up the 2017 year and head out of the Homebound Publications office to celebrate the holiday with my friends and family, I cannot help but reflect back on the year. 2017 was a good year for me. It feels counter-intuitive to say...

On Poetry and Being: An Interview with Krista Tippett by L.M. Browning

On Poetry and Being: An Interview with Krista Tippett by L.M. Browning

The Wayfarer Magazine is celebrating its 5th Anniversary! In this issue, I sit down with Krista Tippett, host of On Being, and discuss poetry’s role in the current world climate and its place in the husbandry of the soul. Read the full interview here» In 2012, I...

To Lose the Madness | A New Offering

To Lose the Madness | A New Offering

Spring has come and gone and we're well into summer. This season has yielded a great deal of personal insight. After a long internal gathering process, my next offering has finally come together. I am pleased to announce that in April of 2018, I will release a little...

Standing Rock | The Wayfarer Magazine

Standing Rock | The Wayfarer Magazine

The Water Protectors of Standing Rock A Mosaic of Voices from the Movement by L.M. Browning  •  Photography by Elizabeth Hoover Featured in the Spring 2017 Issue | Print Edition » | Visit The Wayfarer Store...

Interview on WEMF Boston | Homebound Publications’ Next Chapter

Interview on WEMF Boston | Homebound Publications’ Next Chapter

I recently sat down with Max Bowen and the crew of Citywide Blackout on WEMF Radio in Boston to discuss the exciting expansion of Homebound Publications.  In 2011, with under $600.00 to my name, I opened Homebound Publications. I left a teaching position where I had a...

Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity | A Poem

Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity | A Poem

FLEETING MOMENTS OF FIERCE CLARITY: Moving Mandala of the Soul by L.M. Browning Years spent defining this self —carving out the edges of this mind— the channels of this spirit. Now to take that sculpture of identity, which over time becomes the mask, and shatter it....

Choices Scarcely Recalled | A Poem

Choices Scarcely Recalled | A Poem

Choices Scarcely Recalled by L.M. Browning Photo by Warren Wong The dark molasses passing of time during those days when I cannot recall what I have achieved and can think of nothing else I am tempted to pursue. In my youth, I spoke with God during the confluence of...

The Lament of the Wayfarer | Poem

The Lament of the Wayfarer | Poem

The Lament of the Wayfarer by L.M. Browning for J. and M. When the day comes and I at last clear this dense wood, I shall meet you on the other side. When the day comes and my path circles back to the place it began, we shall go on to that next place together. When...

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