counter/field is an ongoing poetry project built as a place rather than a single book.
The work is meant to be read slowly and out of order — more like moving through a landscape than following a plot. Some pieces are quiet and observational; others move inward or downward into pressure, recursion, and darker registers. You don’t need to understand everything at once. Meaning accumulates through return.
New work appears regularly, and the project shifts direction over time. At the moment, it is moving through a descent arc.
How to read this site
You can enter anywhere. Most readers arrive through a single poem and then move outward.
If something feels opaque or unresolved, that’s expected. Many pieces are designed to sit beside one another rather than explain each other directly. Reading in clusters — following locations, moods, or recurring images — tends to make the underlying movement clearer.
There is no required order.
The three modes
Across the project, three modes recur. They overlap constantly, and many pieces hold more than one at once.
Field — observational, place-based pieces grounded in light, weather, attention.
Counterfield — darker or inward turns: pressure, recursion, system voice, unease.
Fieldwork — real-world observation: rivers, streets, commuting, night weather.
Where to begin
If you’re new, start with one of the following:
- The Ferry and the Tree — quiet fieldwork: weather, light, stillness.
- After the Storm — an ordinary public space taking on mythic pressure.
- The Beforetimes — a descent piece shaped by voice fracture and distorted memory.
Any one is enough to begin.
If you want to read further
These pieces extend the field in different directions:
- Chasing Clouds — evening stillness with a strange edge.
- Compliance is Efficiency — the system voice at full pressure.
- A Tiny Deity — quiet observation at the riverbank.
- Under the Bridge — mythic weather under sodium light.
Moving through the field
You can navigate using the tags at the bottom of each piece, follow links between related poems, or return through the entry paths above. Most readers enter through one current and find themselves pulled into another.
Updates and reflections appear on the Updates page. These posts sit lightly in the archive — they guide without interrupting the field.
A fuller description of the project’s structure and arcs appears on the Project Overview page.